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• Where is a recommended place to buy PSN prepaid cards online. Why is said place recommended?

I use http://maximuscards.com/ to buy US PSN cards, instant delivery by e-mail.

• Are there any considerations regarding multiplayer/region/whatever when buying PSN games in this "illegitimate" manner?

All the multiplayer games works on all regions (at least all that I played so far), but...

Be carefull about DLCs.

The only consideration (and the only problem I had so far) is with DLCs from different regions.

I have games from various regions (US, EU, Asia) and in some of them, like for example, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, Rock Band, etc the DLCs for one region doesn't work on the other.

I bought a EU LBP and then bought the Metal Gear Solid pack in the US store. It didn't work, the game couldn't find the DLCs

So be carefull about buying DLCs from other regions, most will work, but some will not and you will lose your money, that's the only problem about this kind of deal.

• Will the games I buy with my fake account behave nicely on my actual account?

Yes, the game will work just fine on other accounts on the same PS3, but if you delete the account the owns the game all the games will become unacessible, so you MUST keep you "fake" account in order to play the games.

• What if at some point in the future the Playstation store becomes available over here? Will it affect me in some adverse manner?

That I can't answer because PSN isn't available here yet (Brazil), common sense tells that it will not affect you (if you already have an account in your country), but anyway I doubt that IF the Playstation Store is available here in some far far away future it will have the same content as the US or EU Store, so basically everybody will have 2 accounts or just stick with the old account.

IMO The main reasons are

• High profile AAA titles (like GT5) are very large and even with fast internet speeds would take a long time to download and put huge strain on the PSN infrastructure, as potentially millions of people would want to download it at once. Smaller indie and older titles are not so big and dont have the same huge release day pressure on the network.

• Sony controls the PSN Store, has various rules in place and take a cut, publishers want to control their own releases and already have contracts in place with game stores to sell the physical media.

• It is surprising how few people are tech savvy enough to use something like PSN properly as opposed to picking up a game from the shops, especially if it is a present or the purchaser is under legal age to perform online transactions. So there is still a higher demand for physical media (with the exception of small titles where the price and quantities doesnt justify this).

It is possible (and probable in the coming years) for them to go more the steam route (with pre downloads etc) but the console market is not structured around that sort of thing at present.