Recent changes to the PlayStation Store have made its simpler to purchase games across different regions, possibly due to a bug.
A recent discovery by ResetEra member Primal Sage has revealed that Apple Pay can now be used across different PlayStation Store regions, regardless of the country linked to your Apple Pay account. It’s unclear whether this unpublicized change is a quietly introduced feature or a back-end oversight.
For years, PlayStation users hoping to access lower prices or region-exclusive sales on foreign PSN stores had to go through an arduous workaround. This involved purchasing digital gift cards from third-party sites like Amazon or CDKeys, waiting for the code via email, then redeeming it through a region-specific PSN account. PayPal is strictly region-locked, making it impossible to use, for example, a European PayPal account to buy games from the US PlayStation Store.
Apple Pay appears to bypass regional restrictions entirely. By selecting it as the payment method via a US PSN account and scanning the provided QR code with a phone, the Reset Era member was able to complete the transaction using a Danish credit card linked to his Apple Pay wallet. No region checks occurred, and the purchase went through without a hitch.
This essentially removes the need for purchasing gift cards and simplifies the process for users maintaining multiple regional PSN accounts, a common practice for PlayStation users seeking better deals or releases not available in their store region.
While Sony has not issued any formal announcement regarding this apparent policy shift, it’s unclear whether the functionality is intentional or the result of a bug. If it is the latter, the loophole could be patched without warning. Until then, iPhone users now have a friction-free and legal way to access PlayStation content from other regions with significantly fewer steps than before.
