Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)

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ELI5 what is going on with Hell Divers and PS Network? (lemm.ee)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I’ve properly missed out with this one and haven’t got a clue what is going on, beyond Sony aren’t letting some countries residents create accounts.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Imagine you purchased a multiplayer game on Steam and spent the last several months playing with friends, racked up a couple hundred hours maybe you spent money on a micro transaction because you don't want to grind. Now for some reason not specified if you want to continue playing said game you MUST create an account on the PlayStation Network.

But the problem is PSN is not in every country Steam is available in so Sony has effectively bricked a game you paid for.
In addition Sony has a horrific track record of protecting Customer, Employee, and Intellectual Property information. So some people are refusing to create an account because Sony is bad at security.

[–] Bronzie 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If I got it right: Sony are forcing players to log into a PSN account to play the game. Only 66 countries globally can have accounts without «lying» about their location, which could potenially lead to being banned.

Creator claims it’s Sony forcing it.

Gamers are review bombing the game on Steam to express their displeasure.

Someone correct me if I missed something please.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Up till yesterday Sony had the policy that account linking was optional for PC games. They changes the policy to mandatory account linking enforcing it retroactively for games. Leading to:

locking people out who cannot make a psn account (due to psn country reatrictions)
locking people out who don't want a psn account.

They (Helldivers devs) say this was always the plan. But that's nonsense if you don't communicate that properly and VERY explicitly. And the fact they sold the game in countries that do not have PSN just emphasizes this is just nonsense.

Last night the game got delisted in over 100 countries on steam.. that's pretty damning if you had planned to do this all along.

So.. refund for the games and ingame purchases for these people? I guess so.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

My understand is that's incorrect.

Helldivers2 was supposed to used Sony account linking at launch but due to all of the login issues faced, it was agreed it would be temporarily disabled to try to alleviate some of the issues. Which I remember that being announced at the time by Arrowhead.

Sony then mandated that it be reenabled.

Fully agreed on the issues faced by people where Sonny is not offered/supported which is why it's so important that people include that in any negative reviews they leave so that Arrowhead can use those reviews in discussions with Sony.

Make no mistake, this was not a new policy and my understanding is that any Sony studios game has this requirement.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If that was the plan from the beginning , then why was the game sold in countries where psn is not available?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

This! The fact they sold it in non psn countries proves the "it was always the plan" narrative is nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Well.. when I bought it.. it was not required (I just skipped it) and I was never clearly notified I would be locked out of the game without a psn account... Strike 1

Add to this Sony changed the rules to mandate PSN accounts only at the beginning of this month.. and the devs point to Sony with "they force us"... strike 2.

Then they sold the game in over 100 countries that cannot even create a PSN account because Sony does not think these countries are of value.. this contradicts the talking point that it was always the plan....... Strike 3.

This is a clear cut "we have altered the deal, pray we don't alter it any further" and the devs can play victim all they want because.. big evil overlord Sony.. their community managers communication shows very clearly what their stance will be going forward. They are peeing on us and trying to tell us it is raining.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

That's essentially it. You cannot play the game now unless you link your PSN (PlayStation's online profile system) account.