Helldivers 2

[Lurch 1,618]

I’ve really enjoyed playing it!

[phil bottle 9,812]

Ah cool, I've picked up the PS5 version and I've done the tutorial 🫡

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

Sony have thrown PC players and the game under the bus by forcing a Playstation account requirement out of nowhere. Not every country has access to PSN so players wont be able to play the game anymore. Use of VPN or falsifying location could lead to termination on PSN and Steam itself so that is not an option. This utterly needless and dumb requirement is nothing more than to inflate Sony's network numbers as the game does not need an extra DRM layer because it functions as it is without it. They also have a diabolical record of account security and data integrity after 7 significant breaches in 13 years so I can also see why players are reluctant to create one when Sony can't even protect their own employees personal information let alone the community.

 

Helldivers developers were also completely unaware of this move and as I said in another thread, Sony are responsible for the game as per their publication rights which includes the server infrastructure and this is yet another absolute shit show of an oversight to the community. If they don't do a u-turn then this could severely impact the game. It's already down to 32% positive based on recent Steam reviews and still falling. The community manager has also made a complete tit of himself with some of the most ignorant takes imaginable. First Tarkov and now this. 2024 is turning into year of fucking up your successful game for no valid reason. 

[Lurch 1,618]

Over 100K negative reviews and counting. This is such a shame for the Helldivers community and developers.

[NCA-Paendrag 2,764]

Not to mention Sony sucking up to woke wannabe journalist morons and censuring Stellar Blade one day after launch. Yeah, it has an M rating too.

Making loads and loads of people cancelling their PS+ subscriptions.

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

Fallen to 49% positive overall now with an estimated 98 countries of recognised owners being excluded from playing the game they own. Helldivers 2 has also been removed from sale in 170 countries. The game already survived a torrid start after Sony's absolutely horrendous implementation of servers but I can't see it getting past this even if they remove the requirement. Looks like Sony are standing firm on their decision so this could get very messy indeed. 

 

Somehow I don't think the developers will be working with Sony again after two absolutely devastating errors of judgement have ruined a very successful game. This will also shatter Sony's venture into the PC gaming space and a lot of people will turn their backs on future releases with or without the PSN requirement. 

 

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

Arrowhead Games CEO has just admitted he knew all along that PSN would be a requirement and chose to disable it at launch so ‘players could play the game’. Sounds like an astonishing bait and switch and he knew millions of players would be screwed over down the line. He also said that he didn’t do enough to ensure that players would be made aware of such requirement but that surely was the whole objective to sell as many copies globally and to hell with players. Now it begs the question as to whether the in-house devs actually knew all along and their newfound ‘shock’ is nothing more than PR theatre.

 

Ukrainian’s are also reporting that they need to own a PS5 console to register an account to play the game now. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

Sony have done a u-turn

PlayStation Reverses Course on Helldivers 2 PSN Account Requirement - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

---

PlayStation has walked back the PSN account requirement for Helldivers 2, telling fans "we've heard your feedback" and saying "we're still learning what's best for PC players."

 

Pity it had to get to this stage where far too much damage has been done. Just hope their next catastrophic decision isn't quite as bad. 

[Lurch 1,618]

I wonder how many people will change there stream reviews after this?

 

Happy for the fans and developers who didn’t want this change.

 

However, it did seem quite petty to me that people didn’t want to sign up for an account to play a game.

 

This is exactly what you have to do to play any EA game online, and I didn’t see the difference between that and this.

 

It's probably just more that it wasn’t a thing at the start and they instead rolled it out after people had already been playing it for months.

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

3 hours ago, Lurchzy said:

However, it did seem quite petty to me that people didn’t want to sign up for an account to play a game.

That's not the point - over 600,000 owners in 98 countries would have lost access to the entire game because PSN is not available in their region. The game was also forcibly removed from sale in 170 counties where PSN is not supported the day before they did a u-turn. Sony also have a shambolic reputation for security integrity so I can see why a lot of people are apprehensive about creating an account and mandatorily sharing their information with them and their affiliates, however the central issue with this situation was a huge portion of product owners would have not been able to play their purchase ever again due to this needless requirement. EA's service operates globally and if there is content restrictions in place, users cannot purchase outright so they aren't at risk of being burned down the line by things becoming inaccessible. 

 

This would be like Sony saying you need an Asian PSN account to play Final Fantasy games now and if you don't have one, you can't play their games anymore. 

[Lurch 1,618]

2 hours ago, J4MES OX4D said:

That's not the point - over 600,000 owners in 98 countries would have lost access to the entire game because PSN is not available in their region. The game was also forcibly removed from sale in 170 counties where PSN is not supported the day before they did a u-turn. Sony also have a shambolic reputation for security integrity so I can see why a lot of people are apprehensive about creating an account and mandatorily sharing their information with them and their affiliates, however the central issue with this situation was a huge portion of product owners would have not been able to play their purchase ever again due to this needless requirement. EA's service operates globally and if there is content restrictions in place, users cannot purchase outright so they aren't at risk of being burned down the line by things becoming inaccessible. 

 

This would be like Sony saying you need an Asian PSN account to play Final Fantasy games now and if you don't have one, you can't play their games anymore. 

I don’t appreciate your tone with this response.

 

However if that is the case that’s pretty shit, I just thought this was a verification wall they were adding (hence why I brought up EA). If this is the case it makes no sense. Why would you get rid of that many players?

[phil bottle 9,812]

45 minutes ago, Lurchzy said:

I don’t appreciate your tone with this 

 

Don't think any harm  meant mate 🙂 @J4MES OX4D is a bit like me like and doesn't have many filters on, well i say like  me, he's always wrong when he disagrees with me, obviously 🤪🤣🖤

 

But yeah the having to sign into Sony shouldn't be that big a deal, many Steam games require using a non Steam launcher, so why they wanted to stitch ppl up in Sony-less countries is baffling.

[Lurch 1,618]

48 minutes ago, phil bottle said:

 

Don't think any harm  meant mate 🙂 @J4MES OX4D is a bit like me like and doesn't have many filters on, well i say like  me, he's always wrong when he disagrees with me, obviously 🤪🤣🖤

 

But yeah the having to sign into Sony shouldn't be that big a deal, many Steam games require using a non Steam launcher, so why they wanted to stitch ppl up in Sony-less countries is baffling.

I understand, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be called out. FG should be a place of discussion not Know-It-All lambasting.

 

I obviously didn’t know the full story and I can accept that. What I can’t accept is being talked to like that and I would go as far as to say it creates a negative view for other less informed people that want to comment and discuss topics.

[Lurch 1,618]

What I don’t understand about the Sony situation is why they would purposely do that to themselves? Did no one think ahead of this idea? It seems blatantly obvious from James’ explanation of the situation that this would be terrible.

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

28 minutes ago, Lurchzy said:

What I don’t understand about the Sony situation is why they would purposely do that to themselves? Did no one think ahead of this idea? It seems blatantly obvious from James’ explanation of the situation that this would be terrible.

I don't get what was wrong with my tone - all I said that it wasn't the point about it being 'petty' - it was about a large percentage of existing owners not being able to play their game ever again if Sony followed through with their demands. 

 

Sony largely don't give a toss their self-published 3rd party games, their server infrastructure, their global community, their online security, their employees integrity or users purchase history. It's always been known that they couldn't give a monkey's about any country outside of the usual Japan, Europe and the USA. 

 

I've always liked Sony personally - I have all their consoles, hundreds of games and their free online offering of PSN during the PS3 era was fantastic for gamers but this is a company with utterly dreadful policies and lack of services outside of mainstream nations and it's partly because of shocking technical and business decisions without due consideration. 

 

They were also very happy to see Helldivers 2 pulled from sale in 170 countries before this embarrassing u-turn and this was not a goodwill gesture - they knew from a legal standpoint they'd be toast if they enforced it and they have no desire to rollout PSN globally either. 

[Lurch 1,618]

29 minutes ago, J4MES OX4D said:

I don't get what was wrong with my tone - all I said that it wasn't the point about it being 'petty' - it was about a large percentage of existing owners not being able to play their game ever again if Sony followed through with their demands. 

 

Sony largely don't give a toss their self-published 3rd party games, their server infrastructure, their global community, their online security, their employees integrity or users purchase history. It's always been known that they couldn't give a monkey's about any country outside of the usual Japan, Europe and the USA. 

 

I've always liked Sony personally - I have all their consoles, hundreds of games and their free online offering of PSN during the PS3 era was fantastic for gamers but this is a company with utterly dreadful policies and lack of services outside of mainstream nations and it's partly because of shocking technical and business decisions without due consideration. 

 

They were also very happy to see Helldivers 2 pulled from sale in 170 countries before this embarrassing u-turn and this was not a goodwill gesture - they knew from a legal standpoint they'd be toast if they enforced it and they have no desire to rollout PSN globally either. 

That’s fine, as I said I didn’t like your tone. If you and Phil don’t think you said anything wrong that’s fine. (That’s the internet)

 

Funny thing is I actually agree with your point and everything you’ve said about it.

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

23 minutes ago, Lurchzy said:

That’s fine, as I said I didn’t like your tone. If you and Phil don’t think you said anything wrong that’s fine. (That’s the internet)

 

Funny thing is I actually agree with your point and everything you’ve said about it.

Sorry if it came across bad - sometimes I just type what my brain tells me and I don't re-read for tonal purposes. Didn't mean anything by it.

[GazzaGarratt 11,066]

Can I ask for some thoughts thats popped in my head on this one recently please?

 

Started playing Sea of Thieves again because its now on PSN - stay with me, its not an offtopic thread point! 😅 - its been amazing to play, just like Helldivers. But the first thing that struck me was you MUST sign into a Microsoft account to play Sea of Thieves on Playstation. I quickly googled if Microsoft Xbox was available in all countries and it isn't, similar to Playstation. For Helldivers to get the bad press was gutting for Arrowhead but understandable knowing the restrictions PSN reading online. However, Sea of Thieves have had none of this media coverage since it launched 10 days ago.

 

Am I missing where these two games are different in any way at all? I appreciate the insight if anyone has any 👍

[Lurch 1,618]

On 5/7/2024 at 6:13 PM, J4MES OX4D said:

Sorry if it came across bad - sometimes I just type what my brain tells me and I don't re-read for tonal purposes. Didn't mean anything by it.

You’re all good mate, no hard feelings.

 

5 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

Can I ask for some thoughts thats popped in my head on this one recently please?

 

Started playing Sea of Thieves again because its now on PSN - stay with me, its not an offtopic thread point! 😅 - its been amazing to play, just like Helldivers. But the first thing that struck me was you MUST sign into a Microsoft account to play Sea of Thieves on Playstation. I quickly googled if Microsoft Xbox was available in all countries and it isn't, similar to Playstation. For Helldivers to get the bad press was gutting for Arrowhead but understandable knowing the restrictions PSN reading online. However, Sea of Thieves have had none of this media coverage since it launched 10 days ago.

 

Am I missing where these two games are different in any way at all? I appreciate the insight if anyone has any 👍

 

This was my point Lee, however I think the issue that James has explained is that this wasn’t an original part of the game and now that it’s been sold all over the world, it would be terrible to then say they can no longer play the game.

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

5 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

Can I ask for some thoughts thats popped in my head on this one recently please?

 

Started playing Sea of Thieves again because its now on PSN - stay with me, its not an offtopic thread point! 😅 - its been amazing to play, just like Helldivers. But the first thing that struck me was you MUST sign into a Microsoft account to play Sea of Thieves on Playstation. I quickly googled if Microsoft Xbox was available in all countries and it isn't, similar to Playstation. For Helldivers to get the bad press was gutting for Arrowhead but understandable knowing the restrictions PSN reading online. However, Sea of Thieves have had none of this media coverage since it launched 10 days ago.

 

Am I missing where these two games are different in any way at all? I appreciate the insight if anyone has any 👍

You can't buy Sea of Thieves and other Microsoft games/products if there is content restrictions in place in a specific region. Microsoft also don't introduce retroactive or newfound restrictions that block access to users paid products. The point with Helldivers 2 is that people bought the game in regions it was distributed to, and then Sony wanted to enforce a mandatory DRM which would've restricted those purchasers in such areas from accessing the game ever again whilst offering no recourse. They'd be locked out of a product they have previously paid and played.  

 

If you are in a location where Microsoft don't operate then you will not be able to buy their products or register an account.

[GazzaGarratt 11,066]

Perfect, makes sense now. Thanks @Lurchzy and @J4MES OX4D.

 

I've now read that Sony seem to have still not made the game re-available in the 177 countries they are not in so even though PSN linking was made optional again, I don't think this is the end from a Sony perspective. I do think things can change in games over time, especially in live service ones like this one but clearly if they knew this before as an option that may happen then all they had to do was communicate it. Mental how many things fall over in the world just because someone didn't say something at the relevant time.

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

A couple of days ago, Sony added another 3 countries to their global delisting taking it to roughly 177. Even though Sony have 'scrapped' the PSN requirement, it seems they have no intention of reinstating the game for sale in the affected regions. Once again, the developer is completely in the dark about Sony's actions and it would appear the latter are simply biding their time as they look for a loophole or backdoor to get around this. This PSN saga is not over and it would suggest they are looking to implement the requirement on new purchasers in regions where Playstation Services are active. I don't think I've seen a developer treated so dreadfully by their very own publishers who clearly have them by the balls.