What happens to a PlayStation account when someone dies

“UPON TERMINATION OF YOUR ACCOUNT (OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHILD ACCOUNT) FOR ANY REASON, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A REFUND FOR ITEMS (INCLUDING SUBSCRIPTIONS, VIRTUAL ITEMS, AND PRE-PAID PRODUCTS OR SERVICES), VALUE ACCUMULATED ON IN-GAME ITEMS OR ANY UNUSED BALANCE IN YOUR WALLET, EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY LAW OR AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED IN THIS AGREEMENT.”¹

Section 10.2 licenses content on a "non-exclusive and revocable" basis for "personal, private, non-transferable, non-commercial, limited use," a license to the individual account holder rather than property.¹

Section 8.13 provides that Virtual Items "may not be sold, transferred, or redeemed for real money or items of value."¹

Under Section 3.4 of the PlayStation Stars Terms, Stars Points "are not your personal property".²

Section 8.1 states: "If you delete or close your Account, you may lose access to and use of any purchased Content."¹

While the account stays open and the console keeps its Console Sharing designation, other local users on that console can keep playing the downloaded library.³

PlayStation Store discontinued new movie and TV purchases and rentals on August 31, 2021. Previously purchased video content stays available to the original account on PS4, PS5 and mobile while the account is open, but it is licensed, non-transferable and lost at account closure.⁴

Section 7.3 makes funds added to the PlayStation Store Wallet non-refundable and non-transferable except where the law requires, and states that Wallet funds "deemed abandoned or unused by law will not be returned or restored".¹

Under Section 12.4, where Sony permits a Child Account to remain open after a Family Manager Account is terminated, the Child Accounts may use the remaining Wallet funds subject to limits set before the termination, and parental control settings stay in place.¹

PlayStation Stars stopped accepting new applications on May 21, 2025, stopped accruing Points and Collectibles on July 23, 2025 at 7:59 am PT, and fully discontinues on November 2, 2026.^{5, 2}

Until then, current and cancelled Members can access the Display Case and Digital Collectibles and redeem unexpired Points from the personal reward catalogue; cancelling the membership forfeits the remaining Points immediately.²

Under Section 12.3, after termination any game ranking, scores, trophies, Virtual Items including virtual currency balances, subscriptions or other information saved on or requiring connection to the Services is not retained or accessible.¹

Section 12.3 states that account termination is irreversible.¹

Closing the account permanently deletes all data and content associated with it. Closure runs from the PlayStation App, the PlayStation Family App or a Sony account, under Settings, Close Your Account.⁶

A closure request puts the account into a 30-day freeze period that begins when Sony receives the request; at any time during it, the closure can be cancelled by contacting PlayStation Support.⁶

Section 13 (Maintenance and Upgrades) reserves Sony's right to "delete player account data that we determine to have been dormant," without specifying a timeframe.¹

PlayStation Plus is cancelled through Account Management on the web, on PS5 under Settings, Users and Accounts, Account, Payment and Subscriptions, Subscriptions, or on PS4 under PlayStation Plus, Manage Membership, Subscription.⁷

Benefits continue until the end of the paid period, after which cloud saves, online multiplayer and monthly games downloaded at no cost become unavailable; redeemed packs and avatars and PS Plus-discounted purchases remain on the account.⁷

Sony offers no fiduciary access mechanism, and its web support routes account questions to a PlayStation Assistant chat that a person without the account's sign-in cannot usefully complete.^{1, 8}