I finally figured this out today. I got tired of the kids not having controllers charged, which is why I got the new pair to begin with a few months back. I found a blog with a solution I hadn't heard of before and followed their steps. I held down the PS4 power button for ten seconds to power it off. After the lights stopped, I unplugged it for three minutes. Then, I replugged it in, plugged in the USB cable, plugged in the controller, turned on the PS4, and was able to sync both of the new controllers, plus the one that got unpaired and the lost controlled showed up so I paired that, too. Now we have 6 all paired and ready to go.

RIP to the PS4 games in 2025?

Full Article

https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-ex...xduV-h_nMNt4kQ

That's just for first-party titles though, right? Third party studios may opt to release a PS4 version for longer.

Also, that's still almost 2 1/2 years away, and will be a little over 4 years after the release of the PS5, and 11 years after the PS4 launched. That'd be like Nintendo still making games for the NES in 1996.

Since we're talking about financial years where Sony is concerned, "2025" starts on April 1st, 2024. Not that it makes a huge difference, but still...!

This isn’t much of a surprise. I’d be shocked if there’s much beyond the end of this year.

Yeah, no different than any other gen. Most companies move on but you'll still see your Maddens, FIFAs, CoDs (normally anyway).

Hell I want to say they were still releasing Just Dance games for the Wii almost up until the Switch came out.

Longer than that, even! The last Just Dance game on the Wii came out in November 2019 — 13 years after the console launched.

​​​​​Two years AFTER the Switch launched. That's pretty wild. Made it through the entire WiiU lifespan and into the Switch generation.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to have me and both of my kids be able to login on the same PS4 at the same time and be able to play an online game.

For example, we want to play Gauntlet Slayer Edition with a friend who is online. The three of us are in the same house on the same PS4. But if more than one of us tries to login, then it says one of us isn't logged into the network so it has to be offline play, and then we can't play with our online friend.

We had high hopes to try the Borderlands games together, but same issue, no way for us all to be logged in so we can all continue our progress.

I've tried looking for the magical article on this one and am coming up short. Any ideas?

Do you have more than one PS4? I think it'll work if your console is set as the primary console for your PS plus account, because that should extend your online sub to every profile on that PS4. If it's not your primary, only your account can play. Unfortunately I have no firsthand experience with doing coop on one machine this way, though this reddit post seems to indicate it would work?

https://www.reddit.com/r/PlayStation...screen_online/
https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo3/com..._same_console/

We have one PS4.

My account is the primary account for it.

My kids each have their own PS4 account.

When we play couch co-op on games like Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time, Sonic Racing, Gauntlet Slayer Edition, etc., the kids login to their accounts. It works fine for that.

But the trick we can't figure out is how to handle online games where independent progression matters. If we were going to do Borderlands, for example, not sure how we'd all keep our progress, play on our own if we weren't all there, etc. without focusing on my account.

I'm sure there's a way, but I'm missing something.

From what I can find online, the games you mention should support everyone local being logged into their account, and being able to add an online player to the game:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/69...s4-couch-co-op
https://www.co-optimus.com/game/3983.../gauntlet.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/Borderlands...screen_online/

One possible issue may be the number of PS+ accounts, and what each user has set as their primary PS4
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/...screen-on-ps4/
I think that's a bit confusing, but I believe they're saying your kids' accounts need to set your PS4 as their primary console to share the PS4+ subscription on your account.

Thank you, I was able to get one child's account all set to go. And the other...

The other child's account received a permanent suspension WS-37368-7 and I have no idea why.

They don't even use that account except for local play. They always use my account to play Minecraft with friends, they don't message people with their account, they don't use a headset to say mean things, and they don't have a credit card authorized to make purchases. I can't think of a single reason why their account has a permanent suspension.

I'm going to try this solution from reddit next week and see how it goes.

One thing that came from setting this up is the thought of picking up a second PS4 cheap on the local secondary market. We have two TVs and that could give us more potential games to play together, which is always a lot of fun. After going through this, though, I'll make any seller tell me if their console has been permabanned before purchase!