Can you get Minecraft for free? PSN glitch allegedly lets gamers download Minecraft full version for Free on their PS Vita, PS4, and PS3
Many people have surfaced to me a glitch on the PSN Store that let them get the full version of Minecraft for free on all 3 Sony consoles (Vita, PS3, PS4).
At the time of this writing, 12 hours after the “trick” first surfaced, it seems to not be working anymore (update: Some people are reporting that this is actually still working), but here are the steps that people have used:
- The glitch is on the EU PSN Store. Create a European PSN account if you don’t have one yet (then you’ll need to switch your PS Vita account)
- Search for minecraft on the PC store of the PSN (for example for the French store: https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/fr-fr/home/main )
- Get the PS3 Demo for free on the PC store
- Get the Vita Demo version for free on the PC store
- Go back to the PS3 version of minecraft on the PC Store. The Full version is now supposed to be free, according to the people who reported the glitch. “Purchase” it for free.
- Thanks to the Cross buy feature, the full Vita version is then also available for free
- Finally, this then gets you the PS4 version as well, for either free or EUR 3.99 (the price here depends on the reports I have received)
So many trusted people have reported the glitch that I have no reason to believe this information is a fake. However, when I tried myself about an hour ago, I could not find a way to actually leverage that glitch, and instead am being asked to pay the expected price of EUR 18.99 for any of the versions. If I try to get the PS3 version for “free” as was explained to me, I am asked to buy the Vita version first, for EUR18.99, to then get the PS3 version as part of a cross buy package (as expected).
“You can’t buy this product for the following reasons: you already own Minecraft Playstation Vita Edition” (note that the message is fishy on its own: I only own the Vita demo of the game, so it is strange that I am not allowed to purchase the PS3 version without going through the Vita version)
This was most likely an unintentional error on Sony’s end, and they wil probably fix it in a few hours. Again, some people are reporting to me that this is still working. Feel free to report if you’re one of the lucky people who used that glitch successfully. It goes without saying that I do not condone piracy, but when it’s Sony giving it away for free, even when that’s not intentional I must admit I’m on the fence 🙂
@baudron72 @Algo_Taps @The_Zett Je viens de le faire, ça marche impec, merci 🙂
— Major_Tom (@frtomtomdu80) October 15, 2014
Thanks to everyone who has sent this information to me. Unfortunately too many sources at the same time for me to point who was the original finder for this glitch 🙁
I got this done on my UK account. It didn’t work on my US one though. Everything appeared to function properly in getting the free versions across all platforms, but when I loaded up the PS4 version it still had the option on the main menu to unlock the full game. I clicked on it and it took me to the store page where it showed as purchased. I didn’t really care enough to play the game to see if it was really the full game or try it on my PS3 or Vita so who knows what the real story is
how?
this is what I get when I go to purchase free for vita “Added to Basket
Minecraft: Playstation®Vita Edition
£12.99”
not works I think.
done it and when I try to buy again PS3 version it says below msg but vita is downloading demo version
You are not able to purchase this product for the following reason(s):
You already own
Minecraft: Playstation®Vita Edition
Can confirm working on UK account. Had to download ps4 demo to get ps4 version
PS4 version isn’t full version (at least it wasn’t for me). It will most like say “Upgrade to Full Version” when you are playing the game in the main menu. If so, you have to go to your PS4 settings and restore licenses and when you check the PS4 PSN Store there will be an option to upgrade to the full version for £3.69.
🙂
It WORKS AWESOME!!!!
Hi From Spain
first
still can’t make it work
do you have to download first the ps3 version? I only have a vita
“Purchase not possible:
You can not buy this product for the following reasons:
You have the following already: Minecraft: PlayStation®Vita Edition”
I think, I “bought” it in the wrong order. :/ …what else, I’m at work and cannot start my PSVita to download and test it.
At work right now hope it still works later on.
Jsuis au boulot maintenant, jessaie ca plus tard 😉
Damn right! :/
All I had to do was tap the Minecraft banner on the PlayStation Store Vita Live Screen and download the full game for free, no trials. Then I went and downloaded it on my PS3. The same steps worked for my brother. Its quicker. This was before I read anyone else’s steps too. Mind you, this is only on the consoles and not on the PC Store.
As of 09:36 in the Netherlands, it still works. Thanks Wololo 😀
P.S. You can download it using the download queue glitch if you dont want to lose your eCFW 🙂
I’vr managed to get the glitch but apparently the size for the full minecraft ( vita version) is only 190++ MB, IIRC the full Vita version should be somewhere around 260++MB…
Yes, I noticed the same thing. According to the PSN Store the size of the game should be 267MB, but on the Vita it’s only 197MB. But yeah, it seems to be the full version, so it doesn’t matter I guess. 🙂
I just found out that the full game is actually 198MB (EU Vita version), apparently the size is a bit smaller for US version. So heck yeah, thx to Sony for the freebies =), but I pity Mojang tho
Just did it still work I guess can’t try it my psvita is on 3.18 yet but thank you very much 🙂
Did not work :/ showed a trial version -_-
DE, UK, ES Store not working for me. Same msg
Still working in Switzerland!
You need to look at the bought games and there will be the minecraft psvita edition. just add it to download queue. I will download it this afternoon because i dont have my vita with me but i think it will work
where do i see my bought games, in the psn store on my pc or on my vita`?
because on the pc psn store i can see minecraft as a bought game but there is no downloadqueue option
Working in russia store
thx
Didn’t work for me.
I did managed to download “full game” from the download list on my ps3, but it seems to be just the demo.(as mentioned beforebefore, its only 190MB)
PS3 game not available to buy in PC Portuguese store
still working for me in german psn!
No, it’s not working for me 🙁
“Purchase not possible:
You can not buy this product for the following reasons:
You have the following already: Minecraft: PlayStation®Vita Edition"
Once I got this message, I was able to go into the PS3 store and download the full vita version from the download list. Confirmed to still be working as of 11:30 in the netherlands.
IT is out of luck. “Not available”. “You already own …” and so on.
i also got it damn!!! guys iste u have to loging to psn store from pc search for mincraft click on ps3 version trail then accept it and then loging to ps vita psn store in download link u see ps3 version and ps vita full version minecraft go get it is avaible in indian and uk servers
I love how people on this site get ouraged the moment someone mentions piracy, but now you put up instructions on how to straight up steal stuff. lmao
I don’t think you can steal something that is free.
Still working 1:30 AM in Europe. Im dl now using Method 2 (Download Queue Trick)! Get while u still can
Sry its actually 1:30 PM get it now
Guys they stopped my dl o.O i could not dl it. I stays on 53% and not moving. And now i get an error…
I think is not really working, for your info, I really bought the game yesterday.
My friend says its fixed, but i went to other forums to check this info, and apparently you get the versions for free (full game unlock), but even with that game + unlock (about 100kb), when you download them to any version (ps3,psv,ps4..) it tells you to unlock it, so it might be a web/download glitch but you really don’t get the game for free, you still need to pay for it
I tried with German, UK, French and US accounts and it did not worked. I think it’s too late.
Yeah that’s what I think rizaruky
so does this involve crossbuy … crossplay …
and how its called when u see a gamescreen on ur vita that helps u advance
on the ps3 or ps4 like how the wii is a second screen for ur gameplay
or was that crossplay or second screen or remoteplay
LBP crossplay is the only one i know utilizing this
plz help me confuse :p
So now you’re showing people how to STEAL software? How is this any different than piracy? We finally get minecraft and d-bags find a way to steal it and shaft the devs as a reward for their hard work.
*shakes head*
Your fears are misplaced, we are talking of the Minecraft franchise, a product that cost at most thousands of dollars to create and already made its creators billions. Additionally, I am just reporting what has been floating on reddit, twitter, facebook, and other mainstream websites for more than 12 hours already.
Finally, not to be nitpicking but software piracy is not stealing, as you know. The people who download it for free are not removing the product from any shelf, preventing other customers from buying it, which is what “stealing” is.
I’m well aware of the logical hurdles required to justify how taking something that someone else developed for free instead of paying for it isn’t stealing. It’s an arbitrary line in the sand to make pirates feel better.
At the end of the day, you’re using an exploit to get something for free that you should be paying for. That isn’t all that different from overwriting a DLL to not check for activation, etc.
The current owners of minecraft just shelled out billions to get it, and now people are taking it via an exploit without paying for it. That doesn’t really incentivize the current owners to put any more work into the product and definitely affects their bottom line – remember, they need to make billions just to get back into the black.
Even if it has been posted elsewhere, you’re aiding the pirating of this title by mirroring the steps necessary to exploit the system here. If you’re fine with that then so be it, but don’t say that you’re not.
“That isn’t all that different from overwriting a DLL to not check for activation, etc.”
I totally disagree on that point, and there is a legal difference here too. If the anti-piracy protection is not at a level where it requires some technical expertise to bypass, then it cannot be called an anti piracy protection, and therefore bypassing it is not to be considered at the same level as rewiring a DLL, etc… Just like picking up money that’s in plain sight in the middle of the street is not the same as robbing a bank with a carefully crafted plan. Laws about anti-piracy are very clear about the fact that the protections need to be technically adequate.
For the rest, fair enough. But it should also be recognized that the issue being on Sony’s side, the owners of minecraft will probably not be impacted, it will have to be settled between Sony and them, but at the end of the day Sony will have to pay for the downloads, independently of them giving it away for free or not.
Also just to be clear, from a purely personal point of view I *would* buy the game if I was actually going to play it. As a matter of fact, I purchased it on Android a while ago (and played it for one hour. The Minecraft Franchise has received more than a fair amount of money from me given the price/game time ratio). So, when you say “you” in your messages above, I assume you mean a general “you” as “the people using this glitch”, and not “me” personally. I do not pirate, but I do not personally judge those who do, neither would I prevent myself from reporting that type of glitch in the future: it is newsworthy, and I am not a mainstream site that would have to not describe the exact glitch to please my advertisers. Thankfully, I can still blog about what the heck I want.
Edit: one last comment: no logical hurdles or “arbitrary lines” on my side, you are just incorrectly using the word “stealing”, when what you mean is “copyright infringement”. Those re two different things on every aspect you look at them: legally, technically, etc…
Yo, I’m tired of *** like you who go crazy over piracy. You act like it’s against your religion! LEAVE WOLOLO ALONE! He already has his own issues to deal with. He does not support piracy and even if he did, how would it affect you? Were you the one who developed Minecraft? Were you the one who put their blood, sweat, and tears into this business? Who cares if you paid $20 or Euros for your copy. No one gives a damn. Get the heck out of here with your piracy rants. If you have nothing better to say, I suggest you leave and visit other websites
@Modasucka, I appreciate the support but for the record I am also happy that people from both sides raise their opinion on the subject. Piracy and copyright infringement are a very interesting topic 🙂
@wololo_crook, only anecdotal at this point but:
– I write software for a living, and I’ll have no shame in saying that Minecraft is a cash cow and I don’t care if the involved people get paid more at this point. What I can tell you is that where this game is today, most of the devs who worked on these ports are probably not paid depending on the actual success of the game, but based on their regular day-to-day paycheck, like 99% of not-self-employed software devs in the world. The commercial success of the game does not impact their paycheck, except maybe at the end of the year to see if their salary raise will be 1.1% instead of 1%. Bottom line: you’re defending the wrong guys, and definitely the wrong product.
– people come to me complaining about copyright infringement regularly, because of some of the software we talk about on this blog, or things like the glitch described today. Interestingly enough, people rarely take my side when my own intellectual property is entirely “stolen” (I prefer the word “infringed”) by mainstream sites! I invite you to read this old post of mine, entitled “it’s not copyright infringement as long as it’s not a videogame” or, how gamers’ perception is biased into blaming piracy on everything as long as it impacts videogames, but fail to see they themselves infringe on other copyrights all the time : http://wololo.net/2012/03/28/its-not-copyright-infringement-as-long-as-its-not-a-videogame/
I’m not OP, but I just want to add to this conversation. Here’s a quick legal lesson.
Property is not things. Property is rights in relation to things. The main thing you are purchasing when you buy a game is the right to use and enjoy the game. This can be the physical product or a digital product. Along with the physical or digital copy, you are purchasing the right to use and enjoy it.
When someone obtains a copy of the game without obtaining the right to use and enjoy it, it has become stolen property. You have stolen the right to use and enjoy the game.
Here’s an analogy:
Let’s compare the digital situation of piracy and theft to a physical store.
Piracy happens when someone walks into a physical store, gets a game, copies it, and begins distributing it to others. He has given others the right to use and enjoy the game without authority to do so. This is piracy.
What you are doing in this situation is not piracy, but it is encouraging theft. This is like the store owner leaving the door unlocked and leaving. You are telling everyone that the door is unlocked and that they could go inside and take things, if they want.
You are encouraging theft. You are telling others they can obtain the right to use and enjoy the code of minecraft without paying for that right. You are telling others how to steal property.
Again, this is not theft, it is copyright infringement. I am not pretending this is a “good” thing, they both impact the creator, I am just saying that you guys are using incorrect English words to describe the crime. Stealing is not the same legal issue as copyright infringement
So we can agree that what you are encouraging is illegal. I’m not trying to troll or anger you. I just think that a website that seems so anti-piracy would also want to avoid encouraging other illegal activities.
With that said, you’re arguing the law against a lawyer. You have a misunderstanding of property which has led to your misconstruing what constitutes theft.
Copyright infringement would be if I took the game, told everyone that it was mine, and started selling it under my name.
You are encouraging theft, plain and simple.
@Unbiased: not we are not in agreement that I am encouraging anything illegal here. It honestly never stroke me as it being illegal to report something that is being freely discussed and explained on sites such as twitter, facebook, or reddit for more than 24h now; and that does not involve anything else but using Sony’s website in accordance to their Terms and conditions.
(edit: to take your store analogy, it’s more as if I told people “hey guys, Walmart is giving away samples of product A and B, and if you give them to the cashier in the right order, they will also give you the full product for free, but that part of the deal is mentioned nowhere on their commercial! Go for it as you don’t know how long it will last!”. “Keys left on the door” thing would be closer to the entire catalog of games available for free)
Would I however say that it feels “right” to proceed with this glitch? No, but I don’t think talking about it makes me a “crook” or a “thief”, and I would say I don’t qualify for “encouraging illegal activities” here. It’s an interesting discussion point though as I know some security researchers have been sued in the past for pointing out security flaws, password files, etc… that could be found easily with a simple google search.
I am also surprised at your definition of theft. I am pretty sure that legally, the term “theft” involves the “abstraction” of the property from the original owner, which cannot easily happen for digital products. Wikipedia points to some court decisions that are in agreement with what I state: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#.22Theft.22 (“no control, physical or otherwise, is taken over the copyright, nor is the copyright holder wholly deprived of using the copyrighted work or exercising the exclusive rights held”)
But hey, I’m not the lawyer here and apparently you are, so I’m probably misinterpreting things.
@Wololo
The important part of that wikipedia article is the beginning: “In copyright law…” I’m not talking about intellectual property (copyright) law. I’m talking about tortuous or criminal conduct (Civil or criminal wrongs). In civil cases, conversion requires that I deprive (which is a more accurate word than “abstraction.” I think you meant “extraction.” Abstraction means to make something more abstract) the owner of the right to use the property. This is what the wikipedia article calls theft. So you’re not wrong, you’re just not entirely correct in assuming that it cannot also be theft in another sense of the word.
When I refer to theft, I mean obtain property (the right to use an object) without legal justification. By obtaining this copy of minecraft, you obtain the right to use to game without paying for it. While not conversion (deprivation), it could be considered theft since I am illegally gaining property.
As far as encouraging to commit illegal activities go, I am not your lawyer and will not represent you in court, but someone could have a pretty good case of conspiracy against you. Courts have found conspiracy for less. You have provided a large group of people with step by step instructions on how to commit an illegal action, which could satisfy most of the elements of conspiracy (the most basic explanation I could find: http://conspiracy.uslegal.com/elements-of-the-crime/).
With that said, you probably won’t get sued. It would not be worth their time. I think the main point that we can agree on is that this is more of a philosophical discussion on whether it’s morally right to steal (be it through copyright infringement or otherwise) from a company that has a lot of money. We would probably both answer “no” since neither of us support piracy.
Either way, thanks for keeping people like myself up to date on hacking of the Vita. I wouldn’t like it very much if you got sued.
@unbiased: thanks a lot for the clarification. Hope I did not appear to be questioning your expertise and it is clear that I am not fully understanding all the legal ins and outs here. Will read that link.
”When I refer to theft, I mean obtain property (the right to use an object) without legal justification. By obtaining this copy of minecraft, you obtain the right to use to game without paying for it. While not conversion (deprivation), it could be considered theft since I am illegally gaining property.”
Hm, at least in Germany that’s not the juristic definiton of the word ”theft”. In Germany someone has to steal a movable physical object, oherwise it’s not a theft.
So for the German law wololo is absolutely right when he says theft≠ copyright infringement.
No, copying is not identical to theft. Go pick a better moral cause, please. It certainly can be argued that you are depriving the creator of some money in certain situations, but it does not apply here. Sony will likely end up paying for these copies of Minecraft regardless, as it was their mistake, so even the copyright infringement here is unlikely to harm the people who were responsible for the creation of the product. And, ignoring the moral implications, I doubt very many people would give a damn about a slight dent in the profits of a multinational corporation that is already surely exploiting various tax loopholes. You would let them “steal” from everyone while decrying the idea that people might similarly exploit loopholes to “steal” from them. It’s a joke.
i was too late i cant download the item at this moment dammmmm
Yeah! Some games on PS3 I never paid for are in my list as full and a certain amount of dates are the same which weren’t before and I noticed it must be demos I tried set as full but I don’t use PS3 anymore so if anybody does have a check in your list… I’ll try this but have Minecraft on PS4 and was gonna get for Vita.
It happened after using Vita too not long bought and checked exploits before.
Got this yesterday on my 3.18 Vita, thanks Wololo for the instructions for the lower FW PSN access.
The Vita port is decent, the world is pretty small though, at 864×864 it’s about fourth of a square mile. Not really feeling a crisis of conscience as I’ve already bought the PC version twice, once during beta and once during alpha.
Is the glitch still working?
Yes, but it seems to depend on many factors. Some people get it, others don’t.
I and a few friends did it this way:
1. “Buy” all 3 Demos. (PS4/PS3/PSV)
-> PS3 full version is now free after a few refreshs.
2. “Buy” PS3 version.
3. Enjoy your full PS3 and Vita versions of Minecraft 😀
Worked yesterday in the fr psn …
Just the ps4 version 3,99€
Nice game…
A little pixelated 😉
Just tryed it. Seems like it worked. Downloading 182MB right now. Have no idea if it´s the Demo version or not. The download just says ” Minecraft PS Vita Edition”
Also downloading a Minecraft PS Vita Edition” with 14MB.
I got the PS3 demo ages ago then when it came out on PS4 I brought it. Now its in Vita I got the demo and it wont work. I’m thinking because I brought the PS4 version first it wont work for me. 🙁
I’m not going to pay again for the same game. I’ll just play it via Remote Play from either my CFW PS3 or the PS4.
IT’S OVER!
Everybody who wanna tell us, that it’s still possible is a liar and loads the full demo with 182mb! 😉
Hallo in the menu it want to be bought but if i install the update and look at the mincaft game it looks full with 211 mb so yea it still works 18,26 NL
nee Huub… hij doet het niet meer.. dat is een standaard update die verder niks doet… je hebt nog steeds de demo
(No Huub… it doesnt work anymore.. its a standard update that does nothing… you still have the demo)
Hey Guys,
I need your help:
I did the glitch and it worked , i can do everything like in the full Version, BUT i cant save because im on 1.18 .
Does anyone know how tu bypass the Update for saving? This would be great. Thank you
-RaymanForever
Are you sure you’re not just using a different skinpack?
The basic skin will let you save, but the extra packs are restricted to “play only”, until you log onto PSN and pay for them.
I have a UK account and can confirm that I downloaded the PS4 trial version and ended up with the full game. I didn’t do all these steps above as mentioned…
Are you sure? I think it looks like you have the full PS4 version but it’s only the trial.
Well put it this way. I have been playing it for hours now and have been exploring constantly…
Can you please give it to me? Not public but somehow? I want it thaaaaaat much ._.
doesnt work for South africa 🙁
Same here, am also frm RSA