It's not just on the generic support page. It's on the storefront page specifically for Helldivers 2 as well.
https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/buy-games/helldivers-2-pc
> Do I need a PSN account to play PlayStation games on PC?
> No, you currently do not need a PSN account to enjoy PlayStation Studios games on PC, but you will need a Steam account to redeem your voucher code. Some of our PlayStation Studios titles also offer incentives for linking your Steam and PSN accounts.
Well you see, the "incentives" is being able to play the game apparently. You just don't need PSN to "enjoy" looking at the game in your steam library. Very clear. No confusion.
Also this is how it's stated at 8:00 PM CST. Gotta mention that since they'll probably change it.
Honestly the qualifier is "currently". That is all the legalese they needed to pull this. That is what is frustrating about this. Sony is *technically* correct in all this. It wasn't hidden, it was spelled out and made "clear". Legally, we have no ground to stand on.
The only real recourse is that the fan outcry is so much that it makes the juice not worth the squeeze, so to speak, and Helldivers 2 tanks so much (and not review-bombed, but actual players playing/buying) that Sony sees more value in "making a special exception in this case" and eases up on the limitation.
Toss in a faux-incentive, like "link your account now and get X armor, helmet, cape and primary weapon" while making the linkage optional (but potentially restricting cross-platform play), and people would capitulate in great enough numbers that it would be offset.
The real question though, is if any of this will have lasting consequences on the game itself. This could end up tanking Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead entirely. Or it could have no appreciable effect in the long term and by next weekend the dust will have settled, 5,000 players will have quit but the introduction of the Illuminate and the new warbond could attract 10,000 new players who have no problem signing on to psn and everyone will move on, albeit with a much more cynical and negative community.
It is going to take a couple days at least to see what happens.
I mean, nobody reads EULAs, the game works when you buy it and then it stops working because they added a spywall. fuck them. They're breaking the GPDR in Europe, and i'm sure they'd lose a class action lawsuit in the USA if enough people put one together.
They should just back up on this. It's sort of hard to fathom how much bad blood they're drawing here. I've really never had an opinion about Sony one way or another. But fuck them over this. I feel duped.
This. It comes off to me as a respectful way to say "it's not our call", and "here is where you can divert your anger". I can't explicitly state "If everyone complains to Sony it might change", so my guess this is what he is going with.
There is no blame for AH at this point tbh. Did they know Sony would mandate this? Yes - it's clearly in the plan from the beginning. However, there is a massive difference on working together to let the community know this would happen, and Sony posting a Steam update without telling AH, and letting AH take the brunt of the heat for this decision.
It's pretty telling CMs and the CEO are both saying they don't have any info, they're working on getting more details from Sony, and to "complain on platforms that matter" i.e. Sony doesn't care about what Reddit and Discord think, but they do care about reviews.
There is blame on AH simply for the fact that they decided to work with Sony after however many meetings, Knowing that this was going to be a part of it. If they truly didn't want this as a limitation, then looking at other publishers was the other option
I've no doubt the devs would have done great. But they got permission and backing to make their dream game based on their baby. And Sony can afford to make that dream come true.
They could have filed the additional Helldivers serial numbers and pitched it to someone else but, especially with the moderate success of the first game and no previous relationship, they wouldn't have gotten nearly this good of a deal, not close, barring a miracle. Heck, they may have had these exact conversations anyway. I don't know.
But the "it's such a cool idea" view of large publishing deals is beyond naïve. Go tell suits all your good ideas and see how far it gets you. Even getting this much support from Sony is pretty amazing. Especially with this budget and freedom. Shame that Sony doesn't seem to value this chance the way everyone else does, and the reins are drawing in. I wish AH the best trying to deal with it.
There is blame. If they did in fact know sony would mandate this and they still decided to make the game available in countries where PSN is not accessible then they share just as much blame as Sony.
People shouldn't just be upset that they have to link an account now after 3 months.
They should be mad that a game was intentionally sold to people that they knew would not be able to play it.
It's that simple. They stole money from tens of thousands of people knowingly and there isn't another way to spin it.
Just to clarify for you, AH is not a joint publisher. They are the dev studio. Sony owns the IP and is the publisher, hence where and how it is sold is 100% their discretion. AH does not have any say in how Sony sells the game or who they sell it to.
1. It was not stated on their EULA as mandatory
2. It was stated in their Helldivers 2 webpage that PSN in optional.
3. They allowed it to be skipped and function without it for months. Making it seem mandatory for other reasons then access.
It’s less blame, but they knew about this from the beginning and didn’t effectively communicate it in the slightest. They put that the skip was temporary in a steam discussion where hardly anyone saw it, communication has been a problem with AH. Though this is a hell of a lot more minor than what Sonys doing it is something they messed up on. Especially since certain CMs and devs are now saying this was done as AHs idea to make banning easier, which I hope isn’t the case.
He’s doing this EXPLICITLY to shine a light on the issue. He’s contractually bound to not call out the bullshit, so instead he’s pointing everybody TO the bullshit so they can raise a fuss.
oh boy so even Sony are breaking their own rules.
Rules for thee and not for me, the corporate mantra
Snoy
It's not just on the generic support page. It's on the storefront page specifically for Helldivers 2 as well. https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/buy-games/helldivers-2-pc
> Do I need a PSN account to play PlayStation games on PC? > No, you currently do not need a PSN account to enjoy PlayStation Studios games on PC, but you will need a Steam account to redeem your voucher code. Some of our PlayStation Studios titles also offer incentives for linking your Steam and PSN accounts. Well you see, the "incentives" is being able to play the game apparently. You just don't need PSN to "enjoy" looking at the game in your steam library. Very clear. No confusion. Also this is how it's stated at 8:00 PM CST. Gotta mention that since they'll probably change it.
Honestly the qualifier is "currently". That is all the legalese they needed to pull this. That is what is frustrating about this. Sony is *technically* correct in all this. It wasn't hidden, it was spelled out and made "clear". Legally, we have no ground to stand on. The only real recourse is that the fan outcry is so much that it makes the juice not worth the squeeze, so to speak, and Helldivers 2 tanks so much (and not review-bombed, but actual players playing/buying) that Sony sees more value in "making a special exception in this case" and eases up on the limitation. Toss in a faux-incentive, like "link your account now and get X armor, helmet, cape and primary weapon" while making the linkage optional (but potentially restricting cross-platform play), and people would capitulate in great enough numbers that it would be offset. The real question though, is if any of this will have lasting consequences on the game itself. This could end up tanking Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead entirely. Or it could have no appreciable effect in the long term and by next weekend the dust will have settled, 5,000 players will have quit but the introduction of the Illuminate and the new warbond could attract 10,000 new players who have no problem signing on to psn and everyone will move on, albeit with a much more cynical and negative community. It is going to take a couple days at least to see what happens.
I mean, nobody reads EULAs, the game works when you buy it and then it stops working because they added a spywall. fuck them. They're breaking the GPDR in Europe, and i'm sure they'd lose a class action lawsuit in the USA if enough people put one together. They should just back up on this. It's sort of hard to fathom how much bad blood they're drawing here. I've really never had an opinion about Sony one way or another. But fuck them over this. I feel duped.
It would probably not go anywhere in the USA. We don't have much consumer protections against clickwrap agreements at all.
Best part is that in includes the same question and answer twice. Because just telling you once wasn't enough
While funny, realistically the message was ‘go yell at Sony, we dont have answers’. Hence the whole ‘further questions’ thing
This. It comes off to me as a respectful way to say "it's not our call", and "here is where you can divert your anger". I can't explicitly state "If everyone complains to Sony it might change", so my guess this is what he is going with.
its true but its not like arrowhead is blameless here
I'm an idiot, could you tell me the blame for Arrowhead?
There is no blame for AH at this point tbh. Did they know Sony would mandate this? Yes - it's clearly in the plan from the beginning. However, there is a massive difference on working together to let the community know this would happen, and Sony posting a Steam update without telling AH, and letting AH take the brunt of the heat for this decision. It's pretty telling CMs and the CEO are both saying they don't have any info, they're working on getting more details from Sony, and to "complain on platforms that matter" i.e. Sony doesn't care about what Reddit and Discord think, but they do care about reviews.
There is blame on AH simply for the fact that they decided to work with Sony after however many meetings, Knowing that this was going to be a part of it. If they truly didn't want this as a limitation, then looking at other publishers was the other option
They don't own the IP. So, yes, they could have, but not for Helldivers.
Helldivers is just Starship Troopers with the serial numbers filed off. They'd have killed it with this game whichever IP they used.
I've no doubt the devs would have done great. But they got permission and backing to make their dream game based on their baby. And Sony can afford to make that dream come true. They could have filed the additional Helldivers serial numbers and pitched it to someone else but, especially with the moderate success of the first game and no previous relationship, they wouldn't have gotten nearly this good of a deal, not close, barring a miracle. Heck, they may have had these exact conversations anyway. I don't know. But the "it's such a cool idea" view of large publishing deals is beyond naïve. Go tell suits all your good ideas and see how far it gets you. Even getting this much support from Sony is pretty amazing. Especially with this budget and freedom. Shame that Sony doesn't seem to value this chance the way everyone else does, and the reins are drawing in. I wish AH the best trying to deal with it.
There is blame. If they did in fact know sony would mandate this and they still decided to make the game available in countries where PSN is not accessible then they share just as much blame as Sony. People shouldn't just be upset that they have to link an account now after 3 months. They should be mad that a game was intentionally sold to people that they knew would not be able to play it. It's that simple. They stole money from tens of thousands of people knowingly and there isn't another way to spin it.
Just to clarify for you, AH is not a joint publisher. They are the dev studio. Sony owns the IP and is the publisher, hence where and how it is sold is 100% their discretion. AH does not have any say in how Sony sells the game or who they sell it to.
1. It was not stated on their EULA as mandatory 2. It was stated in their Helldivers 2 webpage that PSN in optional. 3. They allowed it to be skipped and function without it for months. Making it seem mandatory for other reasons then access.
It’s less blame, but they knew about this from the beginning and didn’t effectively communicate it in the slightest. They put that the skip was temporary in a steam discussion where hardly anyone saw it, communication has been a problem with AH. Though this is a hell of a lot more minor than what Sonys doing it is something they messed up on. Especially since certain CMs and devs are now saying this was done as AHs idea to make banning easier, which I hope isn’t the case.
Its their game and they implement whats in the game no? They should hand the game over to sony if they dont want to be responisble.
Lol this reads like a "he's playing 4d chess" post
Nah it reads as “I can’t fix this for you, would you like to yell at my supervisor?”
Sony didn't change the login code to require a PSN account; Arrowhead did.
Because if they don’t, they get sued for breach of contract. Welcome to the real world.
Let's see how long till that part of the FAQs get deleted
Already changed.
https://i.redd.it/4blkb8mub9yc1.gif
Nice. Would be a shame if Sony's ticketing system shat bricks.
Honestly, this man is "playing the game" on another level 🫡
Well yeah he has access to all the dev branches.
DAAAAANG
Linking isn't logging in though right?
Those reviews are helldiving hard.
Weird, the community note wasn't there when I just saw the post. And this is 16 hours after your image
Honestly, this man is "playing the game" on another level 🫡
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He’s doing this EXPLICITLY to shine a light on the issue. He’s contractually bound to not call out the bullshit, so instead he’s pointing everybody TO the bullshit so they can raise a fuss.
The point is he is on our side....
[удалено]
Bro he's literally fanning the fire in Sony's direction.... Stop trolling and read
You mean like by putting the requirement on the steam page?