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$10 PSN Code Giveaway! Ends September 30th


Xel

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Just wanted to answer to that: this is "absolutely" impossible :P.

There are 36 different characters (a-z and 0-9), and every code is 12 character long.

 

Wich means the probability of finding your code is 1 over 36^12, which is equal to.... One chance over 4.738.381.300.000.000.000. 

 

If I may be a know-it-all, this isn't quite right. It's close, but certain strings won't be found in any code (e.g. the letters s-h-i-t will not be found together in a code). I would also hazard a guess that no code will be a single 12-letter word in English, and very few will contain whole words at all (unless they are words like "at" or "no", etc. - you won't see a code like "infidelity01" or anything).

 

However, even accounting for this, you might remove a few million codes, which is nothing compared to 36^12 (which is bigger than 10^16), so your conclusion is correct. 

Edited by starcrunch061
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Just wanted to answer to that: this is "absolutely" impossible :P.

There are 36 different characters (a-z and 0-9), and every code is 12 character long.

 

Wich means the probability of finding your code is 1 over 36^12, which is equal to.... One chance over 4.738.381.300.000.000.000. You are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more likely to be mugged, beaten with a dildo and covered in yogurt by playboy's playmate than people are to find your code by randomly typing in the PS store :).

 

Even IF sony already used 1 billion codes (and i'm pretty sure they didn't, one billion code is a very high number...), this would mean that you only have one chance over almost 5 billions to find a valid code (the code could also be already used, but forget about that). This is 25 times less likely than winning the powerball lotery in the USA.

 

People pretending they "once typed random codes and found one that gave them that or that game, or a year of PS+ subscription" are just a bunch of liars ;)

 

 

If I may be a know-it-all, this isn't quite right. It's close, but certain strings won't be found in any code (e.g. the letters s-h-i-t will not be found together in a code). I would also hazard a guess that no code will be a single 12-letter word in English, and very few will contain whole words at all (unless they are words like "at" or "no", etc. - you won't see a code like "infidelity01" or anything).

 

However, even accounting for this, you might remove a few million codes, which is nothing compared to 36^12 (which is bigger than 10^16), so your conclusion is correct. 

 

On top of all that, a code is not able to redeemed until it's sold. So even if someone managed to string together a random series that was a match, until it's been registered as sold in Sony's network, it's not redeemable.

 

Impossible (as practically near it as needs to be) indeed!

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On top of all that, a code is not able to redeemed until it's sold. So even if someone managed to string together a random series that was a match, until it's been registered as sold in Sony's network, it's not redeemable.

 

Impossible (as practically near it as needs to be) indeed!

Well in belgium they sell cards you have to "scratch" (?) like a lottery ticket. They are found in plastic box and they are, as far as i know, already activated (since they don't scan anything special when you purchase those)

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Well in belgium they sell cards you have to "scratch" (?) like a lottery ticket. They are found in plastic box and they are, as far as i know, already activated (since they don't scan anything special when you purchase those)

 

Yes, those are activated right before being shipped to that retailer. While they are being warehoused before being shipped out, they are not activated. So those have an only slightly larger window of potential guessing. Also, the number of cards allowed in retailers like that are fairly tightly controlled.

 

At the end of the day, the amount of time it would take to guess a successful string of numbers would not be worth the payout. 

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Well in belgium they sell cards you have to "scratch" (?) like a lottery ticket. They are found in plastic box and they are, as far as i know, already activated (since they don't scan anything special when you purchase those)

We have those in Canada as well (Not anymore) but I had one store who didn't realize and put them all on the floor. When I was doing my rounds I noticed and sure enough every single one of them had been scratched and someone just made themselves a couple of hundred dollars in PSN money :(

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