store.steampowered.com/news/app/553850/view/4196868529806518741?l=english
Helldivers 2 requiring PSN account linking on steam starting may 30th
Guess that democracy was a facade
The democracy is... managed
THIS IS DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
Or a succulent chinese meal?
We need someone who knows his judo well.
Steam users: [to Sony] "Are you waiting to receive my limp penis?!"
Edit formatting
I see that you know your judo well.
Get your hand off my penis!
or don't
Are you ready to receive my limp penis?!
Directed democracy.
Everyone gets a vote then they do what they want regardless.
Moderator removed comment
30d
Please report to your nearest corrections office as soon as possible to discuss your non-negotiable deployment on hellmire.
It is managed democracy
Look if you don't like this, you don't like Managed Democracy
As someone who lives in Estonia, I cannot even make PSN account. so game technically is blocked for me.
Same with Lithuanian here... one reason I never invested into PS, even microsoft gives at least PC gamepass and Nintendo... the company that doesn't know what internet is supporting us fully...
This is beyond fucked. Then when the player numbers drop Sony will blame "entitled gamers".
They won't care, they already sold you the game.
And you bought it, cuz good soldiers follow orders.
I honestly think you maybe able to get a refund through steam because of this. This was never a mentioned requirement to play the game. Now the product is pretty much unusable because of a previously unknown requirement. They may honor it. But I don't know.
Multiple people have posted screenshots here showing that the steam page months ago said that it was required
When I bought the game close to launch, it said I required a PSN account. Which I have...locked behind 2FA that requires my dead PS4. I refunded pretty much immediately even though the game let me play at that point.
Pretty sure you can get your 2FA manually overridden w/ support, just as a future FYI. You'll probably have to bend over backwards to prove your identity, but who knows. Alternatively, making a new PSN account is easy and anyone can do it, even without owning a PlayStation. I think I have at least 3, back when I was abusing the PS cloud streaming trial periods a few years back.
Yep. The main issue is that the game was even sold in Countries without PSN in the first place and they removed the restriction.
There is a large player base that effectively was told it was optional once they launched the game, but now it's not.
I'm in lithuania too, why can't you make a psn account? My coworkers us ps5
Ask steam for a refund.
To be fair, there are players in countries where PSN is banned...meaning they will be literally unable to play the game they paid for (without a vpn, at least). In that instance, if the game becomes unplayable Steam would probably refund those customers.
Honestly, couldn't people in countries where PSN is available hit them up with false advertisement? I was never told that this was an inevitability, and it's pretty bad faith engagement with consumers to bait and switch them like this, as it seems most others aren't aware of this either. They picked up the game because it was INCREDIBLY hyped up a month or so ago, and now they're being slapped with this shit? I feel like Steam owes every user a refund after this.
Ok that is fucked and something I hadn't considered. They need to, at the bare minimum, waive this requirement for people outside of countries where PSN exists.
Or just don't make such a brain dead requirement.
I was on the fence about buying it with its crazy DRM.
Now im definitely not if I have to make another stupid account with another service.
Ok but why?
BeCauSe SeCuRiTy
or a better word is "Sony wants to make more money selling more user data" !
Lmao, the game already makes you install the hot garbage that is nProtect that is known for stealing and leaking data, now they are doubling down with adding extra ways to steal your data?
nProtect Gameguard is as effective of an Anticheat as a sign that says "Please don't". Doesn't stop it from running on kernel though
I think it's more likely some middle manager can point to a metric saying "Look how many new sign ups/active users PSN has" in order to justify a raise or to shareholders.
Sell? More like have it leaked when they get annually breached again and again lol.
*breaching user data FTFY
Anytime Sony says it's for security I laugh. They have the worse security. If anything this will make you more vulnerable
Remember when they got caught with unpatched apache servers with the default admin credentials? Pepperidge Farms remembers....
same Sony that was hacked and down for 24 days they gonna talk to ME about SECURITY?
Yep, and the same one that installed a DRM root kit on your PC if you inserted one of their music CDs into your PC back in the early 00's.
We do not forget, Sony.
Monetization.
The sale of data and the additional opportunity to increase direct sales.
The average consumer doesn’t know how lucrative data sales are (or what is being sold). They are lucrative because they are absurdly valuable and its use is very affective.
Knowing what to try to sell to people, who to sell it to, what price to sell it, when to sell it, and then have an additional interface to sell it through is crazy valuable and makes a massive impact in marketing effectiveness.
The average consumer doesn’t know how lucrative data sales are (or what is being sold). They are lucrative because they are absurdly valuable and its use is very affective.
Which really puts a damper on when the bootlickers try to tell you your data isn't worth shit.
I can't even make the damn account because my country isn't even on the damn list wtf is baltic countries sony
even philippines. I had to copy some fake singaporean address so I could play Monster Hunter on PS4.
:’(
The problem with that is, you are now in breach of their ToS and they can ban you whenever they want.
So while it is higly unlikely, you could just wake up and be banned from playing helldivers.
I've been using a fake country PSN account for 11 years.
ToS my ass they could've done it years ago, from since the time it was bought in Guam.
PlayStation is “for the players”, so seems like you aren’t players.
This is crazy. They're literally alienating users around the world! Why would they do this?
Wait…
I thought I already linked my PSN?
It’s been so long now I can’t remember but I thought I had to log into PSN the first time I played.
Some probably did. i've heard in the first couple of days it was required, but because of some problems they made it optional, and only required if you wanted crossplay.
Now the rollback the optional part, maybe because they figured out the problem, and still want your data
They made me make one. I'm on Steam. And I got the game probably 2-3 weeks after release
I was able to skip that part. It was not clear that I could but I've never entered my psn details
Edit: I wonder if that's why my steam friends don't show up on my in game friends list?
It still says it's required, but you can fully skip it. I linked mine but a friend of mine didn't, sounds like he'll have to now
U could crossplay even without a PSN account linked to
No you could skip it I did there was no warning it was required eventually
I distinctly remember reading that it would be "required for online play" and thought it was weird, but went ahead and filled in my account information. The game is published by Sony afterall...
The Steam page said this before it came out
"Requires 3rd-Party Account: PlayStation Network (Supports Linking to Steam Account)"
And they disabled it because of technical issues at launch
it was literally in the game on launch , screenshot from 8/2.
Thank you for the screenshot. this is the first time I have seen someone post it with all the discussion going on. May want to blurr the QR code.
Now that I see it, I do remember this.
There was. It warned you in game and on the Steam page, and has been on the steam page since before the game launched.
Ah, so now since I need to link my Playstation Account it means that I can play both on ps5 and pc with one copy? Right? RIGHT????
No, fuck you.
-Playstation Support
"We care about your feedback. Please rate the quality of support you received today and the speed in which your issue was resolved."
If they close the ticket within a few minutes but don’t resolve the issue the speed is still 10/10, right?
Lol as if PS support would respond that quickly.
"Support"
FTFY
Still haven't forgiven this assholes after they breached my credit cards years ago. FUCK THEM
If only they offered that people would be less upset.
This won’t sit well with users on PC.
I'm part of a very active Steam Helldivers group used for matchmaking...like 90% of the players in there are saying they are going to uninstall and demand refunds. They know they won't get them, they are doing it just because. It's becoming an organized thing at this point.
EDIT: I can tell this made a lot of people angry. That wasn't my intention. But you're wasting your time if you think you're going to shame anyone into changing their mind, or convince them they are wrong. Don't project your insecurities about the game onto us. We didn't do this, Sony did.
We're not making PSN accounts just to play Helldivers. Sorry that upsets you so much.
EDIT EDIT: They already accepted my refund, and a number of people in the Steam group are claiming the same.
I will too tbh. I have zero interest in making a PSN account. Tired of having to have a third party account for games on Steam.
Some dude claimed that it was announced that you'd need a PSN account "before people bought it" but that's not readily accessible information in the slightest.
Players in Australia and the EU will
Just have them all review bomb the game on Steam, solved.
You should take a look at the steam review chart graph of the game. Close to 18,000 negative as of this comment in the past days.
I was on the verge of buying this game, a few buddies have been talking it up over the last month. This third party bullshit login/registration is always a pass for me. Why would you willingly give your data to yet another company with a history of shit security, just so they can monetize your existence without giving you a piece? Fuck them and fuck modern advertising in general.
ps - eat shit ubisoft, long time top worst offender of the category
I've been waiting on a sale. But I've also been waiting mostly for PS5, not for PC, so this doesn't affect me unless it really kills how many people are playing.
This is Democracy Manifest??
GET YOUR HAND OFF MY STEAM!
I see you know your judo well.
CAN A DIVER NOT ENJOY A MEAL, A SUCCULENT DEMOCRATIC MEAL?
WHAT IS THE CHARGE? EATING A STEAM MEAL?
AND YOU, SIR... ARE YOU WAITING TO RECIEVE MY LIMP PSN?!
have a look at the headlock here
TA TA and Farewell
Just such a dumb requirement.
Forcing PC gamers to create PSN accounts literally has no upside and can only serve to reduce the player count out of laziness and/or spite.
So fucking arbitrary.
Gives PS some data to sell..
and leak
Even the guy who couldn't hold all the limes did a better job of holding onto them than sony does keeping hold of user data.
Yeah, not sure why all the mental gymnastics from other people as to why. Sony wants user data and accounts on their server. That's it.
Yeah i'm sure the added amount of accounts by forcing this will look pretty on sony's quarterly projections reports to shareholders even though a lot of the added accounts of people who play on steam won't actually contribute all that much to the playstation ecosystem.
Based on how Xbox games are basically xbox/pc games at this point and Sony has started to port some Playstation games to PC I think this could also be the first step in their move into the PC games market.
Exactly that. Said something similar below - up to this point their ports have been the big single player titles. This plus the acquisition of Bungie is all leading towards a push for the GaaS PC gaming market.
also Filipinos can’t play anymore without breaching ToS
There are even some European countries that can't play without breaching ToS. There's only something like 70 countries that can create a PSN account and select their country, leaving another 110-120 that simply can't as picking a country you don't live in breaches ToS and can lead to account deletion.
I wonder if you can refund because the game is relative new.
Years ago when Ubisoft started requiring their launcher I got a refund for an Assassin's Creed game I'd already beaten. Valve has gotten more generous since then.
I couldn’t even link it for some reason, the sony page was not loading
So... I live in Lithuania, we can't even make a PSN account... we aren't a supported country, this is fun...
This literally has no effect on me personally. I had an account and linked it while it was required. I still think this is bullshit. It's not even just the fact that you guys could lose access to the game, its bullshit that you guys should even be required to jump through extra hoops assuming the work arounds, work.
Why would you need to even link a PSN account as a mandatory thing for a Steam game in the first place? I don’t get it. Also genuinely wondering in a way, don’t play the game and saw this while doom scrolling lol.
I don't know, but it's definitely a nuisance for me with Ubisoft Connect. I was trying to just play one of my South Park games that I bought on Steam, and what should have been a simple "play game" thing turned into having to install a new app (Ubisoft Connect), for some reason having to give it permissions over and over again, login, but I didn't remember my username or password, so I had to do the forgot passw-
It was just a nightmare. Took me like 20 minutes just to start playing. And even though I clicked the box that says "Remember me on this computer" (as I do for all my websites and apps on the computer), it still asks me to log in almost every time I load it up. And I don't think it has an autofill for my information.
It's so annoying. I hate it a lot. First-world problems, etc. etc. but still really stupid.
Ubisoft Connect asks for administrator privileges like 5 times when I launch it. It's the worst launcher. Even EA's Origin was better in my opinion.
My favourite is the "Requiring Administrator Access" loop:
Yes - Doesn't Load Yes - Doesn't Load Yes - Doesn't Load Yes - Doesn't Load Yes - Doesn't Load No - Loads Perfectly
Ubisoft app team is "I have no idea what I'm doing dog" meme.
I actively avoid playing Ubi games on PC - even if I get them for free via GamePass - because dealing with UbiConnect is such a massive headache.
On topic, I alreadyh have my Steam and PSN accounts linked, but this is a really stupid move and it's clearly Sony trying to capitalise on the success of HD2 to boost their PSN sign up rate outside the console ecosystem. Even if it's just so they can spam your email with offers it reeks, let alone as it being some shitty precursor to them launching their own Playstation Launcher app on PC that's needed for other Playstation published games (Spiderman etc)
I recently got back into pc gaming and yeah.. people really downplay how inconvenient it is compared to consoles.
When games make changes like this they have to remember option J
Option J being the 500+ hours of JRPGs most gamers have sitting in their steam library waiting to be played at a moments notice with no hassle.
Sony definitely wants to harvest more user data via PC PSN.
Interesting that it seems to have been posted by Sony rather then the developers based off the send off.
Arrowhead community manager was putting this entirely on Sony. AH isn't owned by Sony, but the Helldivers IP is. He said AH requested information about what will happen with the regions literally not allowed to make a PSN account and Sony has said squat about it.
Yeah I don't see Arrowhead wanting this in any form. Why make things harder for their players? This is Sony all the way. Why they want it is baffling.
This just sounds like Sony is trying to make players make accounts to fake growth on their platform
Im letting psplus lapse after 12 years because it is no longer of value to me. 80$ a year for shit games.
My PS account got hacked years back, they charged a bunch of fifa coins or something to my account. Got my account back. Disputed the charges with bank and PS suspended my account next day until I added gift cards to my account. Sold my PS and went to PC. Do I understand this correctly that I won't be able to play HD2 unless I make a new PSN account?
Correct, and creating a new account when your previous account has been banned can also get your new account banned.
After the 30th, yes. Also yes PSN has had A LOT of data breaches over the years.
I don't have a PSN account, for the same reason I don't have a hand-cranked brontosaurus feeder.
Oh no! Did it die because you weren't feeding it? :(
No they are pretty self sufficient if you let them roam free in the neighbourhood
Seems like that would cause issues with the HOA
They can take it up with the brontosaurus
He should have gotten the power cranker 5000 I used to always forget to crank mine before I got the power cranker 5000.
Ahh, the many hours spent binging the yearly ZP compilations. Memories.
Do we have to telegraph the info or is faxing it sufficient?
fuck that
"We understand that while this may be an inconvenience to some of you, this step will help us to continue to build a community that you are all proud to be a part of.
Many thanks for your continued support of HELLDIVERS 2!
Sony Interactive Entertainment"
Of course it's not the dev team writing such bullshit but Sony themselves
Yet the Devs will catch all the flak anyway
If steam actually gives refunds for this, which I believe there is a good chance of happening, the devs are probably going to feel like shit that their corporate greed fucked their passion project.
They made the deal with the devil.
Well that's annoying.
Helldivers 2 PC players is about to tank. What a decision.
Devs are pretty cool the community is great and if the game shits the bed then I’m gonna feel bad for the devs
I feel like the reviews on steam are about to fucking tank. Then the devs will probably respond with something like "DoNt YoU HaVe PhOnEs?"
Edit: I checked last night and the reviews were at 86%. They are now at 72%. I feel bad for Arrowhead since this was probably Sony breathing down their neck but goddamn do I love the PC community.
Edit 2: Reviews currently sit at 20%
6.4k negative reviews today (just checked steamdDB)
Edit: 14.5k as of 15:40 (UTC)
Edit2: 31.4k as of 17:50 (UTC)
Holy shit that's a lot
72% negative reviews and increasing, with most having at least 10 hours played from what I've skimmed. I have 165h personally and if the change goes through, I won't be coming back. There's other stuff to play.
Same, Will probably go back to Deep Rock.
Rock and Stone!
Did I hear a rock and stone!!!!
Rockety rockety stone
Its okay, sony will just pay/strongarm valve to remove all of those mean reviews for not being "relevant to the game"
That off topic review system is the kind of thing that sounds like a good idea (stopping people from review bombing a game over things like the irl politics of the devs rather then the game's quality), but it pretty quickly just got abused. I think one of the early examples of that was with Superhot VR, when they removed the , with no option for players to play the game with them included, outside of using the Steam console to download an earlier version, or pirate it.
Far as I can understand, there's no good reason to do this. This shouldn't be mandatory and while it's not the end of the world no one should be advocating for the change.
The reason is that Sony wants to sell player data. It's a terrible move from the game's perspective since this will only lose them players.
Nobody's going to buy the game because of the change, but at least some will quit because of it. It's always going to be a net loss.
Lets not forget Sony's atrocious record with cyber security-
The reason is that Sony wants to sell player data
This is illegal in the EU.
By the GDPR you cannot make harvesting user data a mandatory part of offering a good or service, consent always has to be opt in, and it can't be sold to 3rd parties without your permission.
The only exception is when harvesting data is necessary to provide the good or service in the first place. I.e. if its some data analytics service you sign up for, you can't demand they separate data harvesting from the service offered because the service offered is literally data harvesting.
If enough people in the EU contact their national data protection agency Sony will get hammered on this.
Just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean they still wouldn’t do it lol
They’re claiming this is a anti cheating measure and I’m sure selling data is a happy accident
What happens if I own both the game on steam and psn? I bought 2 copies because I wanted to coop with my son (he on pc, me on ps5)
Nah I’m good
Preach. Clicking "uninstall" is super easy, less inconvenient than linking to an external account I don't have and may have security issues and frees up space and time for other games in the backlog, like Remnant 2.
What does linking an account to steam actually do. If Sony is hacked...again, would any of my steam information be lost. Because my steam account has 600 games on it and i'm not risk losing it to a data breach.
I can make a PSN account with a load of made up info if theres no risk of any other data being lost.
nothing my Sony account is all bogus info and a fake email I use for signing up for shit like that
Linking an account is just some API shit. You can’t break into a Steam account using a linked account. That would be astronomically stupid.
Ah yes, people that bought a game on steam to not be tied to a restrictive brand would surely be willing to be tied to a restrictive brand.
I was on the fence about getting this game, this pushes me off it.
I really wanted to pick this up and was planning on doing so in the coming weeks
However now I'm going to have to try and recover my PSN account which was hacked and stolen years ago and I no longer even have a Playstation.
I'm now considering not picking up the game, because I dont want to deal with the hassle. Bad decision on the devs part imo.
Sounds like I'm not alone in this either
Quiet telling, that they closed the discussion off on Steam. And btw.: This isn't about safety - there isn't even a report button in the game yet. So what exactly does linking the accounts change.
Funny thing for me personally: We just talked yesterday in my group about negative experiences and blocking randoms. All of my group had negative experience specially with console-players. And I am not talking about the one, that is on open mic with crying children in the background. Neither one who constantly dies, cause the game is new to him. Or the one with permanent team kill, cause he cant throw his stuff right. I am talking about players, that walk jokingly into holes, die in there with all the super samples never to be seen again, before leaving the group. Or the one that decides to call in extraction and fly away on his own, when the 3 others still collecting samples and doing side missions and optional targets. And there are also the ones, that run directly into everything the map has to offer, just to instantly die followed by berating and insulting the teammates. But my personal highlight was a guy killing everyone else in the end and kicking them out of the group before extracting.
Nearly everyone in my group disabled cross play independently of one another and our "random"-experience improved by a lot!
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to sh*t on console gamers, I played with many great ones, too. But with our small sample size, this is what we experienced.
So more than any account-linking, a properly working report-button would benefit the safety of the whole community!
EDIT: For clarification the in game report button is just for chat. No one of the encounters above has used in game chat. So you simply could not report them.
User deleted comment
30d
Its the 3rd Sony controversy in less than 7 days. I wonder what they have planned for the rest of the year.
What's the other two?
"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
I don’t even play the game but that’s just ass lol.
What‘s the arhumentation behind this?
The official explanation is that it will help "safety and security" and prevent "griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior".
But of course, such features are already available on steam through the VAC system. So this is just a plausible, pro-consumer sounding excuse.
The real answer is this game is published by Sony, and they want to tie people into their gaming platform.
Lock-in is key in the platform wars. If they can get you to make a PSN account to play 1 game, you're now far more likely to be willing to buy games that are PSN exclusive than you were before.
"We want to acquire something that has value (user data) in order to exchange it for money."
Next step: Please purchase a PSN subscription to play this game online.
This is a joke, but it'd be hilarious if that actually happened.
This joke definitely has the potential to become reality in the not-so-distant future, unfortunately...
I think that's their ultimate goal.
If Sony wants to fork my data they can just use Google like everyone else. I don't own a Playstation and never will, not gonna create a PSN account just to play a single game.
Had a good time but the bugs, crashes since launch, latest weapon changes and performance issues made me pull off from the game. This is just the nail in the coffin.
Do they want bad reviews? because that's how you get bad reviews.
I bought for both systems. Family plays on my account on there. Hope there is no issues.
Stuff like this reminds me of the Breaking Bad quote "We had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had Fring, we had a lab, we had everything we needed, and it all ran like clockwork! You could have shut your mouth, cooked, and made as much money as you ever needed! It was perfect! But no! You just had to blow it up! You, and your pride and your ego! You just had to be the man! If you'd done your job, known your place, we'd all be fine right now!" but of course change it to be in the proper context
So, is it similar to how some Microsoft titles require Microsoft account before starting the game? Like Forza?
Fuck off Sony. Worked fine without.
what if you dont have a PSN account?
More Data collection to sell.
Well and here I was thinking I might finally treat myself and get it now that I have a few disposable bucks.
Guess I won’t be doing that now.
Well this just dropped off my wishlist... That's so lame...
why do companies always want to collect your data
I love this game, but their “security” practices in general are just deranged.
Damnit. The most fun game I’ve played in years. I’m reading that this will block a lot of my fellow Helldivers from spreading democracy. It takes a lot of the fun away knowing that people that are having just as much fun as me and looking forward to getting on the game like me can’t play anymore just because they live in the wrong spot. That’s shitty. Not that it matters at all, but I don’t think I’m gonna play anymore either. Not even doing it as a honorable thing just as a fuck you sony thing. Ruining fun for people. Fuck offfffff.
It was fun while it lasted, fellow helldivers. RIP democracy
Unacceptable
It’s just disappointing to be honest. Never owned a PlayStation, never will. Don’t even use my TV, literally just my PC. I’m not gonna make an account on their network to play one game; that I could previously play without linking. Rather not give my data to a company that suffers leaks as often as they do.
Sounds to me like a requirement of Sony rather than something AH want
Sounds like a requirement that AH agreed to when they signed a contract with Sony.
Bingo lmao
Cross save then?
Why should you need a PSN account to play a PC game? What the absolute F Sony?
Going to be fun reviews soon. Oddly I cannot leave negative review on the game ln mobile.
Sounds very anti democratic