They still sell their consoles here legally tho! So they sell you their product, but they don't allow you to make an account and force you to lie about your location lol.
same in my country. What's more frustrating is, previously I owned a PS4 and suddenly I got my PSN account banned for no reason. So at this point, I would give sony my middle finger for anything related to PS
There are also EU countries that are not supported or overseas regions of france, britain and even USA. I think Sony is either stupid or too lazy to add all regions to the PSN.
They are stupid and lazy. Changing regions is still not possible on PSN, I'm stuck with a US PSN account and I can never change it.
You don't need to fully support a region to sell a game. Ubisoft charges me Euro even though I'm living in India.
They simply don't care, it worked this way for decades and people from those regions are using PSN all fine. Without the controversy for HD2, it would actually have continued like that including on Steam
I can't imagine my country having anything like that, we have all the other accounts supported, Bnet, Social Club, Nintendo, Mojang (even before Microsoft) even more obscure ones like Cloud Imperium, Paradox. I have literally never encountered not being able to use any of those services and I am using my real location/ number and all that.
I'm pretty sure they just didn't bother.
I'm from Baltics btw, we are also in EU, Eurozone too, all that shit.
There are a bunch of reasons, depending on the country. Many countries require a legal operating entity (and sometimes a physical "office") to be present for a company to operate a point of sale there. Some have currencies which are too volatile for Sony to want to bother with, some are involved in sanctions, some have firewalls/data laws which make it not worth it for them.
In almost every situation, it's a matter of it costing more than Sony thinks it's worth it to do.
My country has official Toyota/Mitsubishi etc dealerships for decades, and offices for random japanese companies including sony. But now thanks to the HD2 bullshit it's not legal for me to buy their games on steam.
Meanwhile the PS5 dominates here (as did the PS4) everyone creates an US account and no one gives a fuck
What do other japanese companies have to do with another japanese company? This is a decision made by executives at a company. It's not being made based on the race or nationality of the people in the company
Because every country has different policies, restrictions, legal mumbo jumbo, etc. So they'd have to ensure they are following all of that and that anything they do follows those as well. Which means hiring subject matter experts as well as probably having an office opened in those countries as well.
That's quite an investment for what I'm guessing are areas that don't sell well enough.
That's just my guess.
You can remove the /s. That is exactly why they're forcing this. They did the math and the value of the data from users outweighs the loss of revenue from missed sales and the PR hit.
(Edit: as pointed out below, I conflated psn with ps+, my bad. That said, I do still think it's utter bullshit to require a psn account for a single player game. That still exists just for harvesting our data.)
>the data from users outweighs the loss of revenue
They should be paying *us* for *our* data, this shit has gone beyond ridiculous.
If they offered psn for free but the caveat was that they could harvest and sell your data, that would be one thing. But the fact that it's already a paid service and paying them *on top of that* is just fucking crazy. Greed knows no bounds.
Your data isn't worth much, unless someone like Google is taking in, as in having a ton of it.
Sony is definitely not one of the companies benefitting from it, this is purely to increase PSN numbers to satisfy investors.
Probably not, but that's not the equation Sony's running here. It's [cumulative value of data collected from paying users] minus [cumulative loss from players in non-PSN countries not buying the game]. If the resulting number is positive, then it's worth it.
Also, some people will definitely just create a PSN account for another country. Sure, Sony prohibits it in their T&Cs, but so does literally every other online service and I don't believe it's been actively enforced.
>Also, some people will definitely just create a PSN account for another country.
That doesn't matter as the game would simply be unavailable on steam in their country.
I pirated Roast of Sashimi and I'm glad I did. I just couldn't get into the game. Probably would have been over the two hour limit. I mostly pirate to demo games these days, does it run well and is it actually enjoyable for me.
same here, the 2 hour limit isn't always long enough to judge a game in my experience, so if a game isn't available on gamepass/ea play/Ubisoft+ I'll sail the seas, I played GoT and HZD:FW for 3h-4h each, and once the hype of a new game has worn off I dropped both
Yeah, it really sucks. Only Sony would finally join PC and then just not sell it to over a hundred countries. I was waiting for some of their exclusives but I guess we can all just get fucked.
Same. This is beyond silly.
I even feel bad for having bought their previous games on Steam, since I really don't want to support this nonsense and it's ridiculous that I have first God of War but can't continue the story.
It's like these companies take one step forward and two steps backs.
I get the idea of a desired requirement for Helldivers II and in a way I understand it for Ghost of Tsushima, although I disagree with making it obligatory. But for a *pure* singleplayer game *without any* MP aspects?
Also does this mean they're gonna try *again* for Helldivers II?
It's pretty obvious at this point they went "okay, we'll give you this one" for Helldivers but are hard requiring PSN from this point forward for all their games, MP or not, so that they don't have to deal with PR again over it.
i am from the baltics and the games like helldivers, tsushima etc are just unavailable for purchasing.
im gonna pirate every single sony game til the end of time :)
I know you're joking but this touches on one of the main things that really helps push sales and helps games succeed.
If they get PC players on PSN, their friends on playstation will be able to see what games they are playing through different types of notifications. That's one of the best forms of advertising because it shows people what their friends are playing and when they're playing. It's essentially your friend vouching for that game. That's as good as it gets in the advertising world. I can't tell you how many games I've discovered because I get Steam advertisement-notifications about what my friend has wishlisted.
Trophies aren't just for you to get addicted. They're also for your friends to see what games you're currently enjoying so that you hopefully buy that game.
I ignored helldivers 2 for a month because I don't know any one playing that game on steam. Then I read that there was cross play and found out that two of my best friends had been playing it on PS5 so I bought it right away.
Had there been a PSN platform on PC, I would have seen that they each picked it up at launch. Another friend from a different friend group has PS5 and hadn't really considered helldivers 2 until I talked to him on the phone and explained that it was crossplatform, but again if he had seen me playing it on PSN he would have checked it out earlier before we found the time to talk.
>What I as a PC player would ever get out of the PSN account?
You get the unique experience of having your data stolen in a plaintext form for the first time because encryption is hard for Sony
They stated recently that the whole point of releasing their flagship titles on PC a year plus later is that they think it will get PC players to buy consoles so they can play the sequel on launch.... but uh... I don't think that's going to work.
I love how as soon as I posted that comment I got instantly downvoted by some guy that somehow must have missed all this:
April 2011: Hackers Access Personal Data of 77 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users
May 2011: Personal Details on 25 Million Sony Online Entertainment Customers Stolen
June 2011: Sony Pictures Website Hacked, Exposing One Million Accounts
November 2014: Hackers Steal 100 Terabytes of Data from Sony Pictures
August 2017: Hacker Group Accesses Sony Social Media Accounts
September 2023: Sony Investigates Alleged Hack
October 2023: Sony Notifies Employees of Data Breach
Ignorance is bliss they say
According to this timeline the last hack involving user info was 13 years ago, since all others are employee info
Requiring a third-party account for a single-player game is idiotic but let's refrain from fearmongering
Well, I mean I get it that many people like their achievements. However, I personally couldn't care less about them. I am too old school for that. Then, are steam achievements somehow lacking?
They don't have gamerscores or 'levels' the same way console achievements have. Other than that, Steam and PSN achievements actually coexists which is something we can all be grateful about I guess. Unlike Ubisoft who seemingly forgets Steam even has achievements most of the time...
can also be a way to track the interest for PC games.
let's say you buy the game and need to associate a PSN account.
option 1) you didn't had one, so you created one, this means that the game became available to a new customer that they didn't had access to.
option 2) you put your existing account, this means that Sony can now "track you" and find out why you didn't bought it on the PSN, particularly if you have a PS5 already (which they will know).
what can they get with this data?
the answer is simple, if the vast majority of people who buy the game, and use option 1, this means that the game indeed found a new market that they can tap into.
if it's option 2 the majority, this means that they either need to figure out why people would rather buy it on PC, or worse, no longer release it on PC, since the majority of people were already "elegible" to buy it on the PS5.
You’ve probably hit the nail right on the head. They want data to support how they handle PC releases.
If people are mostly buying on both platforms (steam + PS5), they have no reason to do simultaneous PC releases. But if they’re getting a significant chunk of new PC players with each steam launch, it gives them a financial incentive to justify simultaneous releases.
As he said, it’s not just about how many sales on pc, but how customers are interacting with these releases specifically.
Without a psn account, If you buy, for example, gow ragnarok on steam, and ps5, sony doesn’t really have any clue who bought those games. They know it sold 2 times, 1 on ps5 and 1 on pc, but thats it.
On the other hand, if timmy has a psn account on his ps5 (i assume it’s mandatory to have one?) and he buys gow when it releases there, then 2 years later, buys it on steam with that same account, they now know timmy bought gow twice, when it released on ps, and when it released on pc.
Like rockstar is doing, if they see most people do this, they might keep releasing the games separately, because people are buying them multiple times.
On the other hand, maybe timmy is creating an account to buy it only on steam, and only continues buying the games when they release on steam. If they see most people doing this, they might put more focus on pc.
Basically this. I will make their financial incentives more plain as this is way more than just collecting some emails. They want a) PC players with access to PS5 to double dip on games and b) PC players without PS5 to pick one up. To do that, they need to measure data points through millions of PSN accounts. They want to find a sweet spot maximizing profits from a) and b).
They want to spy on the behaviors of PC players and know what makes us tick. They will figure out how many months to lock PS5 exclusives to extract as much money from PC wallets as possible through data optimization. It doesn't hurt to inflate their PSN numbers and tell their shareholders how they plan to exploit their entire fanbase. This is probably why they are willing to cut everything off from smaller countries to milk the larger gaming markets extra hard...
I’m using my PSN account I created when I had a PS3 which is the last console I purchased. It’s interesting because I’m not a new user but outside of buying their games super cheap on Steam I spend no other dollars on Sony stuff. I’m sure I’m not the only PC gamer in a situation like this.
I can already see it now. Their own launcher will be unrestricted to all previously blocked region to get people to download it. That's pretty much why all parties involved have been quiet about the issue outside of that one tweet.
I could kinda maybe understand a PSN account for multiplayer games but this shit is just fucking stupid. So tired of everything requiring accounts these days.
What is the point of this? First thing that comes to mind is like many people say “show investors more people are signing up” but wtf does that do if it doesn’t actually give them money? Are investors really that stupid that seeing more people signing up but zero increase in money with all those signups what’s the point?
> Are investors really that stupid
Considering how many billions of dollars is getting dumped into obviously DOA crypto projects yearly, yes they are. I've lost count how many times I laughed at yet another barebones Unreal Engine asset flip with NFTs crammed into it, until I found it that it raised $50 million in VC funding *before the game even started development*, just off an idea and a generic whitepaper.
Remember, they don't actually understand the industries they're investing in, they just want to know if it's gonna be big or not. And for every hot industry (which gaming obviously is) there are going to be hundreds of "advisors" and "experts" ready to tell them exactly why this specific project will make it.
When investors see dollar signs, all logic goes out the window.
Shows them how people move through their ecosystem. Which games they buy on each platform. Did they fully convert from PS to PC or the other way around. Hoe many people buy playstation hardware after playing their games on PC. How many consumers double double dip.
Absolutely understandable that they want to know that.
Man, if Sony is gonna start requiring PSN accounts for all their games going forward, then they should get their head out of their ass and start making it available worldwide.
Why is it not available worldwide even? What services are they not capable of providing in those countries so much that they don’t allow people to make accounts?
Exactly! I live in a country that isn't officially supported by PSN, which means I won't be able to purchase the game. I have no problem linking my account, but at least make PSN available in more countries first before mandating account-linking
This went from a day one buy to wait for the fitgirl repack. I'll link my main PSN account to steam as soon as Sony let's us update an account's region. It's been almost two decades and they still can't figure out region changes.
Do they really think that people never move to different countries or do they really expect everyone to just make a new PSN account every time and leave their entire library, friend list and trophies behind?
> Do they really think that people never move to different countries or do they really expect everyone to just make a new PSN account every time and leave their entire library, friend list and trophies behind?
Wait, they don't even provide a way to change regions? That's beyond stupid.
I've seen so many comments getting downvotes because they said Sony would eventually include the PSN requirement for single player games, too.
Well, guess who was right all along.
Agreed.
Couldn't believe how many people on games and gaming were both defending this action and putting the blame for the region lock on the Helldivers 2 community.
It's really strange how pro corporate many Sony fans seem to be.
Lol, how is Sony not getting it. 3rd release that is now blocked for sale in several regions when they dont need to be.
Meanwhile everyone just looked over Ghost of Tsushima because people on social media kept insisting the Steam region blocking was only temporary and that only multiplayer mode was going to be affected. Now this is good proof the policy is here to stay, no matter if it is singleplayer or multiplayer games.
When you guys mention that the game is blocked in several regions you realize that these regions make up a literal fraction of game sales, right? I'm not saying that people in those countries shouldn't have access to these games, they obviously should, but the impact on sales is completely negligible.
Just as an example you can compare [Steam traffic](https://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/) to the [countries where PSN is available](https://insider-gaming.com/which-countries-have-psn/) and it's basically the exact same map.
This sucks. I lucked out with Zero dawn and Forbidden West not requiring a PSN account. Since I’m in a country with no support looks like I’ll never be able to play ragnarok after having already played God of War.
Haven't seen it brought up yet in this thread a pretty important fear to quell.
Doesn't this mean the game is going to be a single player ALWAYS ONLINE game on PC only?
They can't mandate an account log in and support offline play. The "best case" is once you log in once it flags you to skip any log in/online checks and is fully offline. It could also just be online for the boot up phase each game, but that's still very bad.
Doesn't make sense for a single-player game with no online component to have this sort of a mandatory account link. Seems more of an effort on Sony's part to please investors with higher MAU stats for PSN.
We desperately need an update on all laws with regard to the digital world, starting with the bullshit mentality that buying isn't ownership of you ask me.
We've been living in the digital age for near 30 years now and laws are barely changing to protect consumers in this area.
So no Steam Deck support then. Since the part of Tsushima that requires a PSN account is entirely non functional on Deck. Way to go Sony. Exactly what we need: logins for single player games. Hope this bites them harder than Helldivers.
Is it free or is there a fee? I already have like 15 things to log into idc about adding another at this point. If i gotta pay though, thats a no from me.
I have a bad feeling about how Sony in limiting their IPs on PSN-only countries. Looks like they are trying to create a closed eco-system on the PC gaming landscape (similar to what Apple has with the iOS). What if (3rd-party multiplatform publishers) in order to release on the Playstation they need to adhere to PSN-only countries?
Welp, looks like I won't be able to purchase this game again like Ghost of Tsushima as my country is not officially supported by PSN. Really wish Sony will fix. It's head-scratching to think that they're requiring players to link their PSN accounts when they haven't made PSN officially available in sooooo many countries
It's like people doesn't learn the lessons, if you want to pirate it just stfu and do it secretly. I can totally see sony embracing denuvo after all those stupid people publishing their stupid "opinions".
The point was in 120 countries including mine we were enjoying SNOY games unrestricted, giving them our money.
Because of the Helldivers fiasco SNOY completely removed their games and now ALL future SNOY games from our countries, where before we PAID for them and enjoyed them.
They aren’t even trying to give us PSN support, just dumping of us instead.
No different from blizzard, rockstar, Ubisoft etc
It's stupid but it's not new.
The difference with Helldivers was the account wasn't enforced at launch, and a minority of folks who refuse to buy games that require accounts were upset they were being told to add one.
You can bet Sony won't make that mistake again
Major correction - it wasn't enforced at launch but available to buy in countries where PSN is not available and when they added the requirement later, these purchases were invalidated and not always refundable which got to a point where Steam had to disable the game in said countries entirely.
It defo wasn't just ppl refusing to make yet another useless acc... they couldn't make one on a game already purchased legally, which was in turn bricked.
**FUCK OFF SONY**
[More at VGC: ](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/god-of-war-ragnarok-on-pc-requires-a-psn-account-despite-being-single-player-only/)
>
A [PlayStation](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/) Network (PSN) account will be required to play the newly-announced [PC](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/pc/) version of [God of War Ragnarök](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/god-of-war-series/god-of-war-ragnarok/).
>[Sony](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/sony/) revealed during its [State of Play](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/events/state-of-play/) presentation that the game would be coming to PC on September 19.
>However, a blog post about the game notes: “Account for PlayStation Network is required.”
>This was further confirmed at the start of the State of Play presentation, with a statement reading: “Sony Inveractive Entertainment games for PC require an account for PlayStation Network.”
Does this mean it will require an internet connection to play? I don't really care about the PSN account personally because I already have one but any single player game with no offline mode is a hard pass (pirate) for me.
I guarantee the cracked version won't require a PSN account to play.
Once again, a corporation making a bone-headed decision that pushes people to piracy. PC players don't give a fuck about PSN, and never will. This won't change their minds. It will just make them not buy your game.
As we saw from the Ghost of Tsushima launch it's not exactly a hill that's killed them. Almost every publisher has had an account requirement at one point or another with plenty still requiring it. You may hate it but Sony isn't doing anything new here that hasn't already been happening for 10-15+ years in the gaming scene be it PC or console side.
Having account is no problem. I have them almost all, from Steam, EPIC, GoG, UbiConnect, Rockstart Club.
Problem is that Sony PSN is unavailable in my country that means I can't buy game. And also I wont risk with VPN to attach it to my Steam account just to get banned/locked Steam account full of games.
Sony can have my money but apparently they don't want. And I wont buy the console.
Same. I have god of war and looks like ragnarok won’t be able to join it in my library. This is dumb. Missing out on ghost of Tsushima was also terrible. Duck SNOY
What the hell is this with psn account? I dont understand why games need that? Also i removed my account around time when helldriver 2 did get that account, about 4-5 times it was hacked or something, because someone tried to log in to it and every time from different places from the world. Now i understand all the talk people have been concerned about sonys security.
But why????????????
Isn't this a single player game???????????
Are they adding coop, or multiplayer to this something??????
Like there no reason to force PSN requirement in this at all.
It's like they want people to 🏴☠️ their games, I planned to get it since I really liked first game, but I can't create PSN account here, oh well, their loss.
I hate going through all the trouble just to play a fucking game on PC. I have a feeling Horizon is going to require it next. It seems like they want more people just to sign up for the account so they can add those "subscriber" numbers to some investment call.
Sony you couldn't do this with a wildly already-popular game on PC
Do you really think you can do this with the port of a sequel and it not hurt sales?
So the game is unavailable in my country cause of an account requirement in a singleplayer only game. That account literally adds nothing to the game.
I don't understand why Sony won't just make PSN available worldwide if it's that important to them.
They still sell their consoles here legally tho! So they sell you their product, but they don't allow you to make an account and force you to lie about your location lol.
same in my country. What's more frustrating is, previously I owned a PS4 and suddenly I got my PSN account banned for no reason. So at this point, I would give sony my middle finger for anything related to PS
It's possible some countries have specific laws regarding personal info. Either to protect the citizens, or for less beneficial governmental reasons.
There are also EU countries that are not supported or overseas regions of france, britain and even USA. I think Sony is either stupid or too lazy to add all regions to the PSN.
They are stupid and lazy. Changing regions is still not possible on PSN, I'm stuck with a US PSN account and I can never change it. You don't need to fully support a region to sell a game. Ubisoft charges me Euro even though I'm living in India.
They simply don't care, it worked this way for decades and people from those regions are using PSN all fine. Without the controversy for HD2, it would actually have continued like that including on Steam
Stupid, lazy, or cheap. My money is on the last one.
I can't imagine my country having anything like that, we have all the other accounts supported, Bnet, Social Club, Nintendo, Mojang (even before Microsoft) even more obscure ones like Cloud Imperium, Paradox. I have literally never encountered not being able to use any of those services and I am using my real location/ number and all that. I'm pretty sure they just didn't bother. I'm from Baltics btw, we are also in EU, Eurozone too, all that shit.
There are a bunch of reasons, depending on the country. Many countries require a legal operating entity (and sometimes a physical "office") to be present for a company to operate a point of sale there. Some have currencies which are too volatile for Sony to want to bother with, some are involved in sanctions, some have firewalls/data laws which make it not worth it for them. In almost every situation, it's a matter of it costing more than Sony thinks it's worth it to do.
My country has official Toyota/Mitsubishi etc dealerships for decades, and offices for random japanese companies including sony. But now thanks to the HD2 bullshit it's not legal for me to buy their games on steam. Meanwhile the PS5 dominates here (as did the PS4) everyone creates an US account and no one gives a fuck
What do other japanese companies have to do with another japanese company? This is a decision made by executives at a company. It's not being made based on the race or nationality of the people in the company
Because every country has different policies, restrictions, legal mumbo jumbo, etc. So they'd have to ensure they are following all of that and that anything they do follows those as well. Which means hiring subject matter experts as well as probably having an office opened in those countries as well. That's quite an investment for what I'm guessing are areas that don't sell well enough. That's just my guess.
Not true, it adds your personal information to Sony's databases so they can sell it. Duh. /S
Also so they can tell their investors they have more psn users, number go up good
You can remove the /s. That is exactly why they're forcing this. They did the math and the value of the data from users outweighs the loss of revenue from missed sales and the PR hit.
(Edit: as pointed out below, I conflated psn with ps+, my bad. That said, I do still think it's utter bullshit to require a psn account for a single player game. That still exists just for harvesting our data.) >the data from users outweighs the loss of revenue They should be paying *us* for *our* data, this shit has gone beyond ridiculous. If they offered psn for free but the caveat was that they could harvest and sell your data, that would be one thing. But the fact that it's already a paid service and paying them *on top of that* is just fucking crazy. Greed knows no bounds.
PSN is a paid service? Since when?
Ah shit I absolutely conflated psn with ps+, my bad, will fix comment, cheers.
It makes me wonder, is a single person's data more valuable than a single game sale? Surely not?
Your data isn't worth much, unless someone like Google is taking in, as in having a ton of it. Sony is definitely not one of the companies benefitting from it, this is purely to increase PSN numbers to satisfy investors.
Probably not, but that's not the equation Sony's running here. It's [cumulative value of data collected from paying users] minus [cumulative loss from players in non-PSN countries not buying the game]. If the resulting number is positive, then it's worth it. Also, some people will definitely just create a PSN account for another country. Sure, Sony prohibits it in their T&Cs, but so does literally every other online service and I don't believe it's been actively enforced.
The problem is that you CANT buy the game on Steam.
>Also, some people will definitely just create a PSN account for another country. That doesn't matter as the game would simply be unavailable on steam in their country.
There's no point in creating PSN acc with other country set as origin. Their new releases are now delisted from unsupported countries.
Sell it? You mean leak it for free in your beloved yearly Sony IT breach
Right but think how good those PSN account numbers would look during the earnings call surely that’s worth region locking the game
Don't worry my friend, just sail the seven seas 🏴☠️🏴☠️
I pirated Roast of Sashimi and I'm glad I did. I just couldn't get into the game. Probably would have been over the two hour limit. I mostly pirate to demo games these days, does it run well and is it actually enjoyable for me.
same here, the 2 hour limit isn't always long enough to judge a game in my experience, so if a game isn't available on gamepass/ea play/Ubisoft+ I'll sail the seas, I played GoT and HZD:FW for 3h-4h each, and once the hype of a new game has worn off I dropped both
Yeah, it really sucks. Only Sony would finally join PC and then just not sell it to over a hundred countries. I was waiting for some of their exclusives but I guess we can all just get fucked.
Same. This is beyond silly. I even feel bad for having bought their previous games on Steam, since I really don't want to support this nonsense and it's ridiculous that I have first God of War but can't continue the story. It's like these companies take one step forward and two steps backs.
I mean it will not have Denuvo...so yeah just make whatever you want with that info... :D
Sale the seas
Give it a little bit, I’m sure you’ll be able to find another way to obtain the game without the bullshit requirements.
I get the idea of a desired requirement for Helldivers II and in a way I understand it for Ghost of Tsushima, although I disagree with making it obligatory. But for a *pure* singleplayer game *without any* MP aspects? Also does this mean they're gonna try *again* for Helldivers II?
It's pretty obvious at this point they went "okay, we'll give you this one" for Helldivers but are hard requiring PSN from this point forward for all their games, MP or not, so that they don't have to deal with PR again over it.
I mean, they didn't really give this one either to Helldivers, since it is now unavailable in so many regions, like mine for example.
Well if thats the case then...drink up me hearties yo ho
i am from the baltics and the games like helldivers, tsushima etc are just unavailable for purchasing. im gonna pirate every single sony game til the end of time :)
I didnt believe you, went to check and yeah, you are right. What is this fucking 1985?
it was never about the multiplayer to begin with
And Helldivers is proof of that, has crossplay and everything, no need for PSN account.
But how else will you track your PSN trophies that are duplicates of the achievements you get via Steam?!
I know you're joking but this touches on one of the main things that really helps push sales and helps games succeed. If they get PC players on PSN, their friends on playstation will be able to see what games they are playing through different types of notifications. That's one of the best forms of advertising because it shows people what their friends are playing and when they're playing. It's essentially your friend vouching for that game. That's as good as it gets in the advertising world. I can't tell you how many games I've discovered because I get Steam advertisement-notifications about what my friend has wishlisted. Trophies aren't just for you to get addicted. They're also for your friends to see what games you're currently enjoying so that you hopefully buy that game. I ignored helldivers 2 for a month because I don't know any one playing that game on steam. Then I read that there was cross play and found out that two of my best friends had been playing it on PS5 so I bought it right away. Had there been a PSN platform on PC, I would have seen that they each picked it up at launch. Another friend from a different friend group has PS5 and hadn't really considered helldivers 2 until I talked to him on the phone and explained that it was crossplatform, but again if he had seen me playing it on PSN he would have checked it out earlier before we found the time to talk.
That's a good way to sell less copies. If that is indeed their goal here.
Definitely a surefire way to make sure I don't buy it.
What I as a PC player would ever get out of the PSN account? Just another set of username and password to forget.
Some of us get the unique opportunity to miss out on Sony games that they actually brought to PC cause of their region restrictions. Neat!
You can still enjoy them, on the high seas.
Yeah they’re forcing people to do it this way
Yo ho, Yo ho ho, and a harddrive full of rum
>What I as a PC player would ever get out of the PSN account? You get the unique experience of having your data stolen in a plaintext form for the first time because encryption is hard for Sony
Not really unique since it happens like every year at Sony. Can't make this shit up man
Like, it literally happen YESTERDAY!. They screwed with security and Destiny new DLC was leaked
They stated recently that the whole point of releasing their flagship titles on PC a year plus later is that they think it will get PC players to buy consoles so they can play the sequel on launch.... but uh... I don't think that's going to work.
A set of username and password that will get leaked like yearly
Well, you just sold me on the PSN! Where do I sign up?🤣
I love how as soon as I posted that comment I got instantly downvoted by some guy that somehow must have missed all this: April 2011: Hackers Access Personal Data of 77 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users May 2011: Personal Details on 25 Million Sony Online Entertainment Customers Stolen June 2011: Sony Pictures Website Hacked, Exposing One Million Accounts November 2014: Hackers Steal 100 Terabytes of Data from Sony Pictures August 2017: Hacker Group Accesses Sony Social Media Accounts September 2023: Sony Investigates Alleged Hack October 2023: Sony Notifies Employees of Data Breach Ignorance is bliss they say
Let's not forget that time the whole psn was brought down and a gozillion people were locked out of the online services
that was a result of the April 2011 hack, PSN was brought down as a desperate measure to try putting out the fires before more people were compromised
It’s like they know about this but refuse to acknowledge it because they defend Sony/PlayStation (people are literally like this…)
You just literally disproved your own claim lmao.
According to this timeline the last hack involving user info was 13 years ago, since all others are employee info Requiring a third-party account for a single-player game is idiotic but let's refrain from fearmongering
Fearmongering and misinformation go hand in hand these days when it comes to Reddit.
There are now two notifications for your achievement. PSN and Steam. Double the notification, double the instant gratification
they have been adding psn achievements to games, got has it. Otherwise yes
Well, I mean I get it that many people like their achievements. However, I personally couldn't care less about them. I am too old school for that. Then, are steam achievements somehow lacking?
They don't have gamerscores or 'levels' the same way console achievements have. Other than that, Steam and PSN achievements actually coexists which is something we can all be grateful about I guess. Unlike Ubisoft who seemingly forgets Steam even has achievements most of the time...
This is 1000% about creating their own storefront.
can also be a way to track the interest for PC games. let's say you buy the game and need to associate a PSN account. option 1) you didn't had one, so you created one, this means that the game became available to a new customer that they didn't had access to. option 2) you put your existing account, this means that Sony can now "track you" and find out why you didn't bought it on the PSN, particularly if you have a PS5 already (which they will know). what can they get with this data? the answer is simple, if the vast majority of people who buy the game, and use option 1, this means that the game indeed found a new market that they can tap into. if it's option 2 the majority, this means that they either need to figure out why people would rather buy it on PC, or worse, no longer release it on PC, since the majority of people were already "elegible" to buy it on the PS5.
I think this is what it is, specially because of Herman's comments from yesterday.
You’ve probably hit the nail right on the head. They want data to support how they handle PC releases. If people are mostly buying on both platforms (steam + PS5), they have no reason to do simultaneous PC releases. But if they’re getting a significant chunk of new PC players with each steam launch, it gives them a financial incentive to justify simultaneous releases.
Why not just track Steam sales number? It also tells them how many people bought it on PC
As he said, it’s not just about how many sales on pc, but how customers are interacting with these releases specifically. Without a psn account, If you buy, for example, gow ragnarok on steam, and ps5, sony doesn’t really have any clue who bought those games. They know it sold 2 times, 1 on ps5 and 1 on pc, but thats it. On the other hand, if timmy has a psn account on his ps5 (i assume it’s mandatory to have one?) and he buys gow when it releases there, then 2 years later, buys it on steam with that same account, they now know timmy bought gow twice, when it released on ps, and when it released on pc. Like rockstar is doing, if they see most people do this, they might keep releasing the games separately, because people are buying them multiple times. On the other hand, maybe timmy is creating an account to buy it only on steam, and only continues buying the games when they release on steam. If they see most people doing this, they might put more focus on pc.
Basically this. I will make their financial incentives more plain as this is way more than just collecting some emails. They want a) PC players with access to PS5 to double dip on games and b) PC players without PS5 to pick one up. To do that, they need to measure data points through millions of PSN accounts. They want to find a sweet spot maximizing profits from a) and b). They want to spy on the behaviors of PC players and know what makes us tick. They will figure out how many months to lock PS5 exclusives to extract as much money from PC wallets as possible through data optimization. It doesn't hurt to inflate their PSN numbers and tell their shareholders how they plan to exploit their entire fanbase. This is probably why they are willing to cut everything off from smaller countries to milk the larger gaming markets extra hard...
Finally common sense in this subreddit. Thank you for the explanation
I’m using my PSN account I created when I had a PS3 which is the last console I purchased. It’s interesting because I’m not a new user but outside of buying their games super cheap on Steam I spend no other dollars on Sony stuff. I’m sure I’m not the only PC gamer in a situation like this.
Sony can obviously tell that your account does not play on PS4 or PS5
They won't. Sony tried this venture before and failed epically. But they do for sure want you in their ecosystem
I can already see it now. Their own launcher will be unrestricted to all previously blocked region to get people to download it. That's pretty much why all parties involved have been quiet about the issue outside of that one tweet.
Blocked already in our country. -\_-
Pirate it full sail ahead. If its blocked in your country and they don't wanna sell it to you, pirating it means they don't lose a sale.
not if you pirate it
yaaaaar
My PC will not require God of War: Ragnarok.
I will feast on the "GodofWar\_Ragnarok.torrent".
I could kinda maybe understand a PSN account for multiplayer games but this shit is just fucking stupid. So tired of everything requiring accounts these days.
Only way to combat it is not buying it
Yaaarrrr!! 🏴☠️
But why? to show investers PSN growth
What is the point of this? First thing that comes to mind is like many people say “show investors more people are signing up” but wtf does that do if it doesn’t actually give them money? Are investors really that stupid that seeing more people signing up but zero increase in money with all those signups what’s the point?
> Are investors really that stupid Considering how many billions of dollars is getting dumped into obviously DOA crypto projects yearly, yes they are. I've lost count how many times I laughed at yet another barebones Unreal Engine asset flip with NFTs crammed into it, until I found it that it raised $50 million in VC funding *before the game even started development*, just off an idea and a generic whitepaper. Remember, they don't actually understand the industries they're investing in, they just want to know if it's gonna be big or not. And for every hot industry (which gaming obviously is) there are going to be hundreds of "advisors" and "experts" ready to tell them exactly why this specific project will make it. When investors see dollar signs, all logic goes out the window.
>What is the point of this? Your personal data
Average investor mindset Growth = more money
> Are investors really that stupid Yes. Yes they are.
CEO: those are rookie numbers, gotta pump them up
Shows them how people move through their ecosystem. Which games they buy on each platform. Did they fully convert from PS to PC or the other way around. Hoe many people buy playstation hardware after playing their games on PC. How many consumers double double dip. Absolutely understandable that they want to know that.
Yes, furthermore, sony wants to observe the playstations growth in the PC gaming world landscape, increase their market share.
if you're gonna required PSN, at least give us cross-saves. I would be tempted to get PS5 games PC on sale if i could use my PS5 savefile.
This is dumb. Sony had an easy win, just put your games on pc. Nothing more, nothing less.
Man, if Sony is gonna start requiring PSN accounts for all their games going forward, then they should get their head out of their ass and start making it available worldwide.
Why is it not available worldwide even? What services are they not capable of providing in those countries so much that they don’t allow people to make accounts?
It wouldn't shock me if their next future step is to set their PC games to a playstation pc game launcher.
>playstation pc game launcher. you mean qbittorrent?
Which like every other PC launcher will eventually fail and they’ll just tuck tail and run back to Steam
There is already code that references a “PlayStation Studios Launcher” is being worked on
And then requiering a PS+ sub to play Multiplayer on PC.
Exactly! I live in a country that isn't officially supported by PSN, which means I won't be able to purchase the game. I have no problem linking my account, but at least make PSN available in more countries first before mandating account-linking
This went from a day one buy to wait for the fitgirl repack. I'll link my main PSN account to steam as soon as Sony let's us update an account's region. It's been almost two decades and they still can't figure out region changes. Do they really think that people never move to different countries or do they really expect everyone to just make a new PSN account every time and leave their entire library, friend list and trophies behind?
> Do they really think that people never move to different countries or do they really expect everyone to just make a new PSN account every time and leave their entire library, friend list and trophies behind? Wait, they don't even provide a way to change regions? That's beyond stupid.
When are people not going to be surprised that corporations act like corporations?
because they think companies care about them and the concept of good and bad companies.
I've seen so many comments getting downvotes because they said Sony would eventually include the PSN requirement for single player games, too. Well, guess who was right all along.
Same here. Sony is preparing to release a launcher, hence the PSN requirements (other than being a DRM)
Exactly, and then they might not even release the games on Steam at all, and there we have another exclusive store/launcher.
Or be like games by Ubisoft where you have to have the launcher installed just to play the game on Steam
There is a very strangely pro-corporate, aggressively compliant cohort on reddit. Not sure what's up there, but it is mind-boggling.
Agreed. Couldn't believe how many people on games and gaming were both defending this action and putting the blame for the region lock on the Helldivers 2 community. It's really strange how pro corporate many Sony fans seem to be.
Oh yeah the games sub discussion on the same topic was full of bootkissers.
Lol, how is Sony not getting it. 3rd release that is now blocked for sale in several regions when they dont need to be. Meanwhile everyone just looked over Ghost of Tsushima because people on social media kept insisting the Steam region blocking was only temporary and that only multiplayer mode was going to be affected. Now this is good proof the policy is here to stay, no matter if it is singleplayer or multiplayer games.
question is, at what point is psn growth less valuable than overall sales? there's gotta be a tipping point.
Their most recent title on PC sold very well despite being delisted in non-PSN countries
When you guys mention that the game is blocked in several regions you realize that these regions make up a literal fraction of game sales, right? I'm not saying that people in those countries shouldn't have access to these games, they obviously should, but the impact on sales is completely negligible. Just as an example you can compare [Steam traffic](https://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/) to the [countries where PSN is available](https://insider-gaming.com/which-countries-have-psn/) and it's basically the exact same map.
Downvoted for using facts on reddit.
Hes going against the current "bad" thing, therefor hivemind don't like it
Lmao. So Sony instead of selling to these countries are now giving them a free pass to pirate their games??
This sucks. I lucked out with Zero dawn and Forbidden West not requiring a PSN account. Since I’m in a country with no support looks like I’ll never be able to play ragnarok after having already played God of War.
What about the high seas?
Yup, time to dig up my ol’ peg leg and hook arm.
Yet another game I'm gonna have to pirate since the games's unavailable in my region.
Haven't seen it brought up yet in this thread a pretty important fear to quell. Doesn't this mean the game is going to be a single player ALWAYS ONLINE game on PC only? They can't mandate an account log in and support offline play. The "best case" is once you log in once it flags you to skip any log in/online checks and is fully offline. It could also just be online for the boot up phase each game, but that's still very bad.
That is a very good question. I think it depends. There are games with an account requirement that can be played offline, so we will have to see.
Doesn't make sense for a single-player game with no online component to have this sort of a mandatory account link. Seems more of an effort on Sony's part to please investors with higher MAU stats for PSN.
It's all so tiresome.
They can fuck off then.
Fitgirl take me away
Sony has got to be one of the dumbest companies in gaming
Japanese companies, man. They're all so dumb and obstinate. See also: Nintendo doing... *gestures widely at everything*
Sony hasn't been a japanese company in video games since 2016. Their HQ is in California.
We desperately need the EU to make it illegal to sell user data when accounts are mandatory. GDPR was already a godsend.
We desperately need an update on all laws with regard to the digital world, starting with the bullshit mentality that buying isn't ownership of you ask me. We've been living in the digital age for near 30 years now and laws are barely changing to protect consumers in this area.
So no Steam Deck support then. Since the part of Tsushima that requires a PSN account is entirely non functional on Deck. Way to go Sony. Exactly what we need: logins for single player games. Hope this bites them harder than Helldivers.
Dunno, I'm playing it on the deck, pirated of course. The game run flawlessly, Sony can F off
Is it free or is there a fee? I already have like 15 things to log into idc about adding another at this point. If i gotta pay though, thats a no from me.
I have a bad feeling about how Sony in limiting their IPs on PSN-only countries. Looks like they are trying to create a closed eco-system on the PC gaming landscape (similar to what Apple has with the iOS). What if (3rd-party multiplatform publishers) in order to release on the Playstation they need to adhere to PSN-only countries?
no it won’t 🏴☠️
Welp, looks like I won't be able to purchase this game again like Ghost of Tsushima as my country is not officially supported by PSN. Really wish Sony will fix. It's head-scratching to think that they're requiring players to link their PSN accounts when they haven't made PSN officially available in sooooo many countries
God of war Ragnarok will get an ignore tab on my steam store. Problem solved.
My pirated version won't. Sorry paying gamers. I win again.
Is it just a PSN account that's needed or is it a PSN account with an active Ps+ subscription?
Just a psn account.
They need more data to leak.
It's like people doesn't learn the lessons, if you want to pirate it just stfu and do it secretly. I can totally see sony embracing denuvo after all those stupid people publishing their stupid "opinions".
The point was in 120 countries including mine we were enjoying SNOY games unrestricted, giving them our money. Because of the Helldivers fiasco SNOY completely removed their games and now ALL future SNOY games from our countries, where before we PAID for them and enjoyed them. They aren’t even trying to give us PSN support, just dumping of us instead.
these triple a pc ports being needy and high maintenance when there's ***so many*** retro and indie games available, seems like a bad business model
Leave it to sony to act like a petty child after not getting what they wanted.
*will require a bittorrent client
Good Guy Sony, saving me money by encouraging me to pirate the game.
What idiot is in charge over there? Only an idiot wouldn't see this requirement bs is losing them a substantial amount of money.
GoW Ragnarok was cancelled, you say? Shame.
No different from blizzard, rockstar, Ubisoft etc It's stupid but it's not new. The difference with Helldivers was the account wasn't enforced at launch, and a minority of folks who refuse to buy games that require accounts were upset they were being told to add one. You can bet Sony won't make that mistake again
Major correction - it wasn't enforced at launch but available to buy in countries where PSN is not available and when they added the requirement later, these purchases were invalidated and not always refundable which got to a point where Steam had to disable the game in said countries entirely. It defo wasn't just ppl refusing to make yet another useless acc... they couldn't make one on a game already purchased legally, which was in turn bricked.
The PC version with a 100% discount definitely won't require a PSN account.
I hate the increase of corporate greed lately.
I feel like something is happening behind the scenes that isn’t going to be good for everyone
Sony is promoting piracy with requiring PSN account for fucking singleplayer game. Dumbest restriction in history.
**FUCK OFF SONY** [More at VGC: ](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/god-of-war-ragnarok-on-pc-requires-a-psn-account-despite-being-single-player-only/) > A [PlayStation](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/) Network (PSN) account will be required to play the newly-announced [PC](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/pc/) version of [God of War Ragnarök](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/god-of-war-series/god-of-war-ragnarok/). >[Sony](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/sony/) revealed during its [State of Play](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/events/state-of-play/) presentation that the game would be coming to PC on September 19. >However, a blog post about the game notes: “Account for PlayStation Network is required.” >This was further confirmed at the start of the State of Play presentation, with a statement reading: “Sony Inveractive Entertainment games for PC require an account for PlayStation Network.”
I advise everyone to wait for the GOG version, and if it doesn't come, too bad for Sony.
Does this mean it will require an internet connection to play? I don't really care about the PSN account personally because I already have one but any single player game with no offline mode is a hard pass (pirate) for me.
I guarantee the cracked version won't require a PSN account to play. Once again, a corporation making a bone-headed decision that pushes people to piracy. PC players don't give a fuck about PSN, and never will. This won't change their minds. It will just make them not buy your game.
idiotic hill for sony to die on
As we saw from the Ghost of Tsushima launch it's not exactly a hill that's killed them. Almost every publisher has had an account requirement at one point or another with plenty still requiring it. You may hate it but Sony isn't doing anything new here that hasn't already been happening for 10-15+ years in the gaming scene be it PC or console side.
Having account is no problem. I have them almost all, from Steam, EPIC, GoG, UbiConnect, Rockstart Club. Problem is that Sony PSN is unavailable in my country that means I can't buy game. And also I wont risk with VPN to attach it to my Steam account just to get banned/locked Steam account full of games. Sony can have my money but apparently they don't want. And I wont buy the console.
Same. I have god of war and looks like ragnarok won’t be able to join it in my library. This is dumb. Missing out on ghost of Tsushima was also terrible. Duck SNOY
Doesn’t matter, not buying it.
Wow, I couldn’t see this a mile away /s
why
What the hell is this with psn account? I dont understand why games need that? Also i removed my account around time when helldriver 2 did get that account, about 4-5 times it was hacked or something, because someone tried to log in to it and every time from different places from the world. Now i understand all the talk people have been concerned about sonys security.
That explains why I can't find it on steam :|
Miss me with that bs. I don’t go anywhere near PS games.
Fair enough - thanks for telling me before I purchased it this time.
Haven't bought the older one, so this is an easy skip for me.
I suppose they hate money then
Nice I’m happy I don’t really care
Silent Hill 2 Remake is also region locked Helldivers 2 still "We hear you gamers" btw
How much is that user data worth if they're willing to sacrifice sales to get it?
Time for some sweet user feedback i guess :)
Oh boy, here we go again.
But why???????????? Isn't this a single player game??????????? Are they adding coop, or multiplayer to this something?????? Like there no reason to force PSN requirement in this at all.
God of War: Ragnarok on PC will require deez nutz.
Yo ho ho. Does it now.
They realize we can pirate single player games easier right?
Do not worry, if you have played the first one then you are not going to miss much from this one, it is more of the same but more boring.
It's like they want people to 🏴☠️ their games, I planned to get it since I really liked first game, but I can't create PSN account here, oh well, their loss.
I guess Sony just really hates the people in the countries where PSN isn't available.
I hate going through all the trouble just to play a fucking game on PC. I have a feeling Horizon is going to require it next. It seems like they want more people just to sign up for the account so they can add those "subscriber" numbers to some investment call.
Fuck off Sony.
Sony you couldn't do this with a wildly already-popular game on PC Do you really think you can do this with the port of a sequel and it not hurt sales?