Didn’t think this was real at first read. But holy fudge it it is… Game is now being review bombed on steam. Here’s an additional article from Gaming on Linux:
thanks for sharing the chart! I doubt they Sony takes a hint from this too, but it certainly shows other developers and publishers something about signing contracts with Sony…
Sony should take the hint. Many of these reviews are from people who can’t even get a PSN account in their country. So Steam is about to be flooded with requests for refunds due to the game not being available to some users. I already asked for a refund because of this.
It’s unlikely steam will be able to tell people to just pound sand, so Valve will likely step in at some point and then Sony will be in trouble with the platform itself.
Although the Steam page for HELLDIVERS 2 has clearly stated since release that a PlayStation Network account is required, you actually haven’t had to link them. That will change really soon.
So if it were clearly written on the Steam page, I don’t really get the complains.
Who the fuck reads the entire steam page? My friend says buy the game, the reviews say it’s great with friends, you go and buy the game not scan the steam page for predatory data hoarding policies.
On top of the fact it was (more or less) turnkey. It worked. For months. Why would you look at the page when it works? If it was like that from the start, it would be different.
Not surprisingly that PSN page was edited earlier today, but there’s a million screenshots floating around already, plus you can check the previous version in the Wayback Machine.
And even if it was clearly written on all places, it’s still a “too bad you didn’t read the fine print, now you’re past the limit time for a refund, so either let Sony track you or lose access to the game” situation which is very shitty. There’s also the fact that they sold the game to people in countries where is PSN is not available, which should not have happened if that requirement was going to be enforced in the future.
Not hard to see why people would get pissed and lose trust in the developer. I also think that players have been annoyed for a while with this type of requirement (not specifically in this game), and they are now getting a good outlet with a lot of publicity around to vent about it.
That makes much more sense now. I was also wondering why people didn‘t pick up on it earlier given the incredible popularity of this game. So of course people noticed it, but it just didn‘t make much sense. I can see why someone would shrug it off a messy bit of text that probably wasn‘t supposed to be there and will be removed or edited or something. Well edited it was… just not as expected I guess.
There’s also the problem that they’re clearly rushing this without much thought, they don’t even have an answer to the obvious question of “what happens to people in regions not supported by PSN”.
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I already made an uplay account, a social club account, an origin account, an epic account, I’m tired, I’m not making a CONSOLE account, I don’t have a playstation and I won’t have one since I’m against everything sony is doing to asian games.
I would love to see Valve allow refunds. This was not an agreed upon stipulation at the time of purchase. If they pull the game from you now so soon after purchase, is it not grounds for a refund? Give Sony the choice to backtrack or lose money.
Afraid you’re gonna have to dig deep into their privacy policies for that, including all third party vendors they partner with, which I’m assuming is more than just a few. The world of policies is intricate by design…
Read the comments here and you’ll quickly see why it’s a problem. There are multiple reasons.
Sony will use this for tracking and advertising.
Having a Sony account has proven to be not safe, many times…
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 3. They only included that this was needed in some places, and even there in small print. Which we all now is on purpose and is disgusting corporate behaviour. 4. People who have bought the game and can’t make a PSN account have now lost access to the game they probably paid full price for. 5. I addition to those, imagine this new trend where each publisher is requires you to make an account withim their systems and having to link them whenever you want to play their game… That could mean you would now need an account for:
And that’s only a small portion of the number of publishers… It’s a trend that benefits the publishers only as they get to track users on a new level. Honestly boils my blood the amount of corporate greed were seeing in the gaming industry.
While true, I’m always afraid of it not being a troll and a genuine new user… would be a pretty bad experience for a new person to be called a troll, even though them having a controversial opinion.
It’s really not whining tho? You’ve been able to play without one since the beginning even having an option to skip such a step, I don’t own a PlayStation and don’t intend to I shouldn’t have to make an account for it, it’s that simple, a game shouldn’t be able to lock you out of something you paid for just because they now want to force you to make an account, even more stupid is allowing the game to be sold on countries where you can’t make an PSN account knowing it would be mandatory in the future.
Yeah I’m not making a 49th account to play a game I bought with my steam account. That’s just another attack vector for me to deal with. Especially when I’ve been playing on my steam account just fine. Not to mention, my PSN credentials have already been hacked from PlayStation once before after the account was banned. Someone was trying to login to it. So why the fuck would I trust them a second time? Its just more data to leak that’s mine.
FWIW, no need for it to be an attack vector if you just use one of those throwaway email services to sign up for a PSN account you’ll never use anywhere else.
And sony could mandate that the email be a real email, and if you get caught the account gets banned. Congrats, now you invented a game of whack a mole!
Could just make a throwaway account with Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, what have you, then. No real/personally identifiable information attached.
Not saying I agree at all with what Sony is doing, but anyone who is concerned about their email/personal information getting leaked by something they didn’t want to sign up for, there are options to protect yourself.
@Stovetop@bitfucker why should people accept it though? They could play just fine without, why should they accept having to create an additional account and having to log into it every time they play the game? Of theres no shitstorm, this wont stop and might be done by other studios/publishers too
I am just saying, if the concern is about putting your email on another service, then don’t put your email. You can use a throwaway one if you just want to get through it and play, or if it’s a matter of principle and you don’t want to, that’s cool too.
Just offering my 2 cents on keeping personal information safe on the web. It’s often unsafe to put all your eggs in one basket and email is no exception, so having some “burner accounts” on hand can help.
Because Xbox and Windows are fully integrated. Most people gaming don’t have to have a separate account, just an Xbox username that you create once and it is attached to your Microsoft account. You’re right about EA making you download the worst launcher in existence, but this statement about security is bs. Its more about them controlling the psn accounts and not the steam ones.
Steam is available in 237 countries, while PSN is only available in 69 countries. Some people are going to be locked out from the game they bought. E.g African players are going to be fucked.
Account creation fatigue. I’m personally not fond of creating a one-off account for every fucking game I play on steam. It’s enough already. EA account, ubisoft account, rockstar account, PSN account, xyz account, ugh. Every new account I create is just an additional attack vector for when all of these companies eventually get hacked. I get occasional emails about security breaches or unauthorized attempts for random ass accounts I created years ago, and it’s so frustrating. I don’t even have a playstation. It’s just so annoying. I’m sick of it. I don’t believe for a fucking second that Sony is requiring this for “security and safety.” Those fucks just want to inflate their user numbers for the shareholders and collect our data to sell to 3rd parties. I am so fucking sick of this shit already. I bought the game on steam. Just let me use my steam account only god dammit.
I don’t have Xbox or PlayStation and I still signed up. Just use a stupid throw away password. Ya know how many times people have tried to log into my twitch account and I ignored it because even if they did get the password it means absolute jack shit. If ya do use the acct to buy stuff, use a virtual credit card to make payments so its as easy as shutting down that CCD and opening a new one.
Be more pissed about the rootkit of a anti cheat that they use
Same— my understanding is that there’s now no option to play without making one, which for some countries and territories is not even an option, making the game unplayable for them.
Looks like Nintendo and Sony are competing who can get away with being a bigger asshole. Boundary testing sociopaths. Game becomes popular, dev and publisher foist unpopular requirement to continue playing in order to see what the response is and if it doesnt tank numbers too much, they now have a green light to weasel this into other games. Hell even if it does tank numbers, they already have their money and you probably wont be able to get a refund at this point.
Yeah but it seems like they were not expecting this change just based on their responses on social media, and it looks like Sony didn’t even “require it” until just recently. So I just wanted to know.
The developer is involved to the extent that they have to do what Sony says. The CEO of Arrowhead even tweeted that people should email Sony, referring to a Playstations own website where it stated that PSN is optional. Sony then quickly changed their web page to say it’s sometimes required.
That’s true. Personally though, it not being optional for any amount of time just shows that there’s no good argument to have it be mandatory in the first place.
A change like this may warrant special exceptions to the refund rules. Steam has made exceptions for similar changes to games made after launch in the past.
People have been remarking that numerous countries are unable to join PSN and this will lock them out of the game. But can someone explain to me how that could be true? Are they literally not on the drop-down menu for selecting your country?
One of the Arrowhead community managers said they’re trying to get more information regarding regions, so it kinda seems like they weren’t fully prepared for this/got blindsided by Sony a bit. There should be an FAQ/QA with additional info coming soon.
gameinformer.com
Aktywne