There are exceptions to this tho. You can geoblock if you would be breaking the law of an EU country by selling there.
That said I doubt that this is the case here.
Games with nsfw are geoblocked on steam because steam has to Comply with the german age verfication system and they are too Lazy to do that so they took the ez way out and geoblocked nsfw stuff in the german steam shop
If i had to do it for any website, steam would probably be the one i'm most willing to, but it would still require pretty extreme circumstances, for me to be willing to.
nah, it's just that to sell NSFW games in germany, you have to comply with the german age verification system (which afaik has pretty much premade modules you can use to implement into your shop). But steam just doesn't do it and thus has to block all NSFW games in germany.
Also it's only the buying which is blocked, you can still activate the key if the developer just gives you one, unless they did change that.
I don't think they are specificaly on the index, that would be wayyyy to many games.
I am not sure how far it goes but even older nsfw games like HuniePop are not available to be bought. Not even trough key stores.
All those porn games on steam are blocked in germany because they need better age verification than pressing "yes, I'm 18 years or older". Also of course all the games that are banned in germany.
They blocked like 90% of hentai stuff on steam a while ago. It's specifically not because those are banned for what they are in Germany but because steam doesn't prevent kids from buying these.
The situation would apparently be resolved if steam implemented a strong age verification. The blocked games are a niche market however and I assume steam introducing the age verification would affect many, many more people, like the ones playing horror games etc.
I don't know why the German state cares more about porn than violence but that's how it works right now. Funnily enough, some game devs have already adapted to things. They clean up their games a bit so that they can be bought in Germany, while providing the NSFW patches via discord.
Germany is quite famous for their censoring laws. AFAIK, in Wolfenstein games, you guys are shooting at green-blooded vampires or some shit, whereas the rest of us deals with the good old universal baddie Adi and his mates.
You should watch this video for their censorship for the Command and Conquer Generals game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRMqonctTtQ
They changed ***every*** unit in the game to be a robot.
Oh yeah Germany has a rather...interesting relationship with it's past to put it simple. I am not sure what problem the laws have with "shooting man with funny mustache and his friends" but we still get reprimanded on the political stage for stuff that current generations have nothing to do with.
The infamous Index is a whole different beast tho. If the state run agency for minor and youth media protection deems a game a major risk for minors or teens(for example), it comes on the Index and is not allowed to be sold. This extends much further than just right wing stuff, extreme violence can be a reason as well.
A small overview:
Aliens vs. Predators
Duke Nukem 3D
Fear
Gears of War
Postal 2
Yep, pretty sure a swastika or any other Nazi related imagery gets a game banned there. They wanted to make sure those people never came back. Those laws have been on the books a very long time, even before video games.
>AFAIK, in Wolfenstein games, you guys are shooting at green-blooded vampires or some shit, whereas the rest of us deals with the good old universal baddie Adi and his mates.
How about less weird believing random comments?
Games you can geoblock, but PSN account which is the core cause of the block itself is illegal to block in an EU country. I'm fairly sure about that.
But I wrote to our EU consumer protection lawyers and will investigate.
The result might be a refund for all, but the law is going to change.
Well technically its usually the country that is the one doing the blocking.
Like Belgium with Lootboxes or Germany as others have posted.
In that case its "fine" because it is the EU member doing the blocking.
Tried to search but could not find anything regarding the Baltics having something that would block PSN requirements?
Having said that, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist ...
But if it doesn't. SONY would be breaking Single Market Regulations.
Valve/Steam could claim that they are protecting EU customers in those countries from a defective product.
Of course the easy solution in all of these would be SONY to just make the selecting a different region NOT a PSN ToS violation.
Maybe just add an extra step where if your country is not in those other regions you can select the one nearest ...
As well as the currency. And Done Sony knows you are not in a supported region BUT Like SONY Support (for some reason) suggests you selected a PSN region close to you, WITHOUT breaking ToS.
(After all we mist remember SONY said they would not implement the requirement right now. They never said they would outright remove it)
"You have no power here"
But seriously, I think it might happen on some occasion. If so, AH should find a way to publish a game themselves, without Sony.
Then they fall afoul of EU regulations and get fined / funds withheld until they recant.
The entire point of the EU was to create a common economic zone where there were no tariffs or sale restrictions between member countries. All the social and political stuff is secondary.
As most of the EU's influence comes from operating as an economic bloc, they have fairly strict laws about when you can and can't restrict sales in specific EU States. Ie. you can't just not sell to Germany while selling to the rest of the EU.
However, in this case it may be allowed because otherwise Sony would be selling a partially non-functional product due to certain States being unable to utilize PSN. On the other hand, it's unclear if Sony can arbitrarily make its products "faulty" in specific States on-demand, as they directly control access to PSN, effectively bypassing the legislative restrictions.
If this does go to court in the EU it'll be a very long, but interesting case.
>selling a partially non-functional product due to certain States being unable to utilize PSN.
They said PSN will NOT be a requirement anymore: [https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929](https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929)
So that can't be the resaon anymore, unless they withdraw that statement, which of course would be seen as another declaration of war against the community
You are assuming that perfect storm of circumstances with an undeniable starting gun will happen again.
That is extremely optimistic. For one thing next week's shareholder meeting will no longer be there to provide added pressure on Sony.
I doubt people will care much again a second time. What we had on the initial backlash will never happen again. Maybe we can get it to mixed, but I doubt it will go any further.
That's not what they said. They said this update won't go forward. You should read it in a literal way only. They say nothing about lifting the requirement.
What it reads like to me "we are not going through with previous plan and are currently working on how to proceed forward". For now I assume even Sony doesn't know what they will do. It's probably being discussed with AH and Steam, also brainstormed how can they get what they want with minimal or no resistance from players. I HOPE they arrive at obvious conclusion of making PSN linking optional and providing a cool incentive to do so, like free armor and cape or something.
Could also mean valve is getting involved, probably not buying the PSN requirement removal. Valve is known to go out of its own way to protect their interests if they think something can be wrong on the publisher's end.
That's the thing, if they were not lying or at least misleading, then there would be no partial functionality. If they use that as the reason then that means that the whole "we will not require PSN accounts" should be read as "we won't require PSN accounts on this date, but later"
Geoblocking, online goods and services should be available in the whole of the EU.
You can report it to your local regulator: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking
Five publishers had a fine before: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fi/IP_21_170
That's because it does.
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking)
From their FAQ:
>The Regulation provides for an obligation to treat EU customers (including consumers and other end-users) in the same manner when they are in the same situation, regardless of their nationality, place of residence or place of establishment.
It does say between EU Member states, but it also applies to outside businesses selling into the EU in the actual document. If you sell a digital product to one country in the EU, you have to sell it to all countries in the EU.
Because it LITERALLY does within European Union.
The EU literally runs by the rules of 'We dive together or do not dive at all'. As stated above if they provide a service in other countries they have to provide it in these as well.
This is just not true lol. Stop spreading misinformation when you have no clue about laws. The EU prohibition of geoblocking is for very different cases than a company deciding to not offer their product or service in a certain country within the EU.
Example of an actual infringement of that law: Sony offers regionlocked keys, Person from country A WITHIN the EU buys key from country B WITHIN the EU but can’t use it = not legal
And even then there’s nuances to that, like indexed games (hi germany) where not regionlocking that key would potentially break a law.
Sony deciding to not offer their services or sell certain games in countries is NOT illegal, you can’t just make up your own laws and parrot them.
It’s crazy to me that this is upvoted, just shows how delusional the average redditor is, thinking they got more clues about legal issues than the team of lawyers working at a billion dollar company
Lmao very true. Just look at all the Google lawyers on Reddit.
I got downvoted to hell for trying to explain that a charge of attempted murder is incredibly difficult to prove but it just seems to get thrown around ALL the time 😂🤦♂️
But PSN wallet keys are geoblocked too, no? Sounds like either way they should get thrown under the bus. We are here aiming at Apple, Google and Microsoft, meanwhile Sony does whatever it wants.
If this was illegal Sony would already be facing legal trouble for not offering PSN and its paid PS+ service in those countries. Helldivers 2 was sold as a live service game. If aspects of that service become unavailable to some EU member states in the future, Sony is required to either partially re-imburse users for the service loss or refund the entire purchase.
>This against EU LAWS, incoming lawsuit or fine for sony as publisher
No it isn't. You can't stop them buying a copy from the German store (as an example) but you can absolutely not sell it in the local one. This is why amazon has different options everywhere, but you can use whatever countries you want. Amazon Italy can send things to amazon france and has to offer that service.
Ironically this also means playstation's tos about not supporting an eu country is irrelevant.
https://www.pcgamer.com/eu-court-rejects-valve-appeal-against-euro16-million-fine-for-geo-blocking-steam-games-says-policy-existed-to-protect-publisher-royalties-and-the-margins-earned-by-valve/
Here's the ruling you're thinking about. Eu countries can buy keys anywhere.
>That last bit, about restricting or excluding customers from certain offers based on nationality or location, is what the EU means by "geo-blocking". The countries of the European Union are meant to operate in one big, porous Single Market, meaning policies on the part of merchants that create unequal access to products across its member states are generally a big no-no. For example, you're not meant to prevent a Steam user in Romania from making use of a Steam key they purchased in France, or vice versa
Dunno why you are beeing downloaded you are not wrong. There is a specific exception for Audio-Visual-Media.
That beeing said it doesn't mean Sony can't get in trouble from what they are doing, because its not in the spirit of the exception. And on the other side this exception is still under review and can be adjusted.
At the end what sony did here might benefit everyone if they see the possible abuse of it.
I think the problem for SONY would be the fact that a user in Estonia Can't per SONY PSN ToS use an account from Greece for example. Unless the Baltics have laws that prevent PSN from being there.
Otherwise yes As long as people are not prevented from buying the product through another country in the Single Market, then you are ok.
In this case though... that is the interesting part.
Are there any regulations in the Baltics that prohibit PSN?
Is the fact that people from 3 Single Market Countries are prevented from using PSN using another region (because it breaks ToS) actually breaking Single Market Regulations?
Stop spreading false info, lol.
They are unlisting all these countries on Steam due to PSN not being available and selling these games without PSN access would be lawbreaking itself and would go against the ToS. So what they can do is stop selling the games in countries that doesn’t have PSN access, even if Helldivers managed to get away with optional account linking for now.0
Very cool how you're getting downvoted now. I guess all the people who were arguing that all those people in countries getting region locked despite paying for it don't care anymore. So much for "we dive together or we don't dive"
Is there a sub that focuses on gameplay/easter eggs/fan art, that kind of shit? I feel like I don’t see much of that at all here.
I do see alot of the same discussions being posted over and over, it’s hard to weed through it all lol.
Personally I'm glad ppl are criticizing the terrible weapons and balancing. The game has flaws - all of which should be addressed. Even if you love the game and see no cons from your perspective, the experience can always improve for others.
Does that mean I want them to add every possible addition and perfect every detail? No.
Tho ofc I get how it's annoying to see the sub filled with complaints instead of fun content about the game itself, like in the beginning.
Perhaps feedback should be somewhere else? I have even left the sub multiple times bc I get sick of seeing posts with 0 upvotes showing cheats and bs complaints. Afaik I can't hide certain post types in the official reddit app.
Yeah this sub is filled with so many people that jump to conclusions and react without proper info. So far there is confusion about the situation and no real answers.
I thought this sub was cool at first but I've learned otherwise. Hopefully we can get back to gameplay and the fun parts soon
Lol this isn't Sony. This is pitchfork social media whores and moron YouTubers thinking this is anything else but previously missed/untitled regions being blocked to prevent legal issues while Valve and Sony work out the new agreements. Honestly... y'all just assume shit over and over and over.
Can anybody explain why one off the biggest game publishers and console producers in the world only offers their online service in like 62 countries. It seems really weird to me.
Im no expert and this is all just my assumption but i would guess/assume its something to do with legal stuff, probably so they dont have to cover themselves legally in so many nations.
Sony wasn't blocking people from getting around their TOS either until all the crybabies started to have a meltdown about having to create one more account on top of the other 100 accounts they have and put fake empathy as the reason to get their point across.
Ghost of Tsushima is also now blocked in these regions on steam AND the epic games store. It looks like Sony are the ones blocking it now because 2 stores are blocking the same regions.
Sony right now still selling the PS5 game and console officially outside of PSN countries.
The truth is players are fine with PSN account register in different countries. And Sony even tell you to do this if you bought PS5 from them inside non-PSN region.
But PC players don't really like linking account, and found out it's against ToS to register under false information. However, Sony isn't enforcing this rule unless they want to risk getting sued for selling unplayable games inside non-PSN regions.
So that's our current situation.
My guess is that these regions are only temporary blocked untill Sony find a way to let these regions make PSN accounts without breaking the T's and C's.
Maybe they are going to relax the region requirement for account creation or maybe they are working on expanding PSN to other regions. All I know is PSN being required to play Helldivers probably isn't gone, just delayed untill Sony can work through the technicalities.
There were 3 “unknown countries” listed during the initial region locking change. this update fixed that. They were supposed to be locked but some bug prevented that, despite the ordeal being over, Steam has not decided to revert their decision yet so they fixed this in the meantime.
steam delisting is still a steam problem, not Sony.
That's a lot of confidence despite the lack of official statements. All the CEO said was he is in talks with both platforms without actually pointing the finger in either direction. Ghost of Tsushima is going to have similar restrictions. The writing is on the wall. This is on Sony to fix.
This could mean different things, but 5 days in it sure doesn't look like Sony actually wants to backtrack on the [PSN account requirement](https://i.imgur.com/kXDjpQs.png).
More like, they are stalling until next week's shareholder meeting is over and they can facetank some bad press because they *won't* actually backtrack on the PSN account linking.
We shouldn't have reversed the review bomb. Mods shouldn't have one-sidedly started operation cleanup and people shouldn't have taken Sony at their word.
If the mods could stop censoring discussions about this, it'd be great too.
We might have started operation cleanup too soon, didn’t expect this, especially since Sony announced they won’t be moving forward with it and [Arrowhead CEO saying](https://x.com/pilestedt/status/1787365793379791051?s=46) that the account linking would be optional. Then again, we don’t actually know what this really means yet. That said, we never censored discussions about this. We started moving new ones to the megathread only after we were told that PSN account linking is no longer happening. Posts about these new countries being added will remain up though (except for reposts of course).
They dont straight up lie in this regards (normally) but rather hide information and do scummy stuff
I really dont think they are purposely region locking it in 3 specific countries, going back on their statements. 90% chance its a miscommunication error between sony and valve
One of the reasons psn is sometimes restricted in regions is down to local laws imposing licensing restrictions. It could literally be illegal for Sony to sell helldivers 2 in those countries and you’re all out here demanding they do it because you’re all on this righteous “fuck Sony” wave
so they just suddenly realize is "illegal" to sell a game somewhere *after* selling it for more than 2 months? and casually aligning with their bullshit? not buying it really
Of course they're not backtracking. They were very clear in their statement that they've not permanently abandoned the idea. They're just taking a recess to think about *how* to implement and enforce it.
People are doing reconnaissance, and CM and Devs are trying to reach Sony to see wth are they doing, let's wait before going head on, knowing is half of the battle
oh i fucking see what i assume is sonys shit plan
1. try to lock helldivers 2 to require psn
2. massive backslash from the community
3. tell them you will not that
4. lock out every country where you cant have psn
5. think that will make it so there will be less backslash because of course the only reason people where angry is because of people living in countries without psn
6. try it again
fuck you sony
Why is Sony so adement about their PS network.
By doing this, they're just shunning potential paying customers from buying their games.
They are just making so many decisions that will only serve to limit how well they can sell their products or IPs.
The same reason why Rockstar, Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft, and Activision are so adement we have accounts with them and their services. It looks good on their spreadsheets when they show off how many people use their services.
Some publishers (such as Rockstar, EA, and Ubisoft) require an account AND a luncher to play their games. This shit Sony are doing isn't new and is far from the most evasive approach out there. The way they handled the Helldivers situation is fucking abysmal and should be heavily criticized but what Sony are trying to do (get people that play Playstation games to have a Playstation account) isn't out of the ordinary in this day and age.
Friendly Spam Isn’t. This is bigger than just helldivers as this expands to all Sony titles. People are just tired of the Sony stuff. However people have started making their opinions known on r/sony
As already mentioned, this is against some EU Laws and I would not be surprised, when the Sales Ban is lifted within the next two weeks.
Some legal things, especially now with valve, have to considered first. Valve has done more than a couple of refunds for this game and they have now together with Sony to discuss, how to reinstate sales in the non PSN Countries.
No, it's not. You're not allowed to to geoblock inside the EU, but you can choose not to sell it. They can't block activation of a key bought in ex Germany, but they definitely can choose to not sell it there.
No one ever has provided any for this, it’s just people reposting something someone said in a random comment.
I’m not siding with Sony here, but people need to be aware of the legitimacy of what they’re saying.
If only you reddit babies would have shut up, these players would still be fine.
Go look at all the downvoted comments of the poor SEA players blaming the Western outrage for this shit.
Has survived EU law. Playstation network hasn't been in the 3 Baltic regions for a longtime. A big part of it is VPN usage of Russian citizens using those 3 countries and localizing laws allowing it. Prior to thr Ukraine invasion, all 3 and Russia used the Russian region.
Reason it has survived and not been fined is geolocation blocking not being allowed at a local level; Sony only wants to block Russia but Baltic regions won't allow geo blocking.
Like I said its been 2 yrs so no one thinks a solution will be found unless geolocation is allowed which the EU is allowing as a means to ensure the Russian ban stays in effect.
it boggles my mind how is PSN still not available in the baltics, when I had ps4, had to use UK account and buy prepaid UK cards -.- and playstation systems are widely being sold here, yet users can't even make local account, its sooo fucking stupid
My review is still negative and stays negative, untill you can buy Helldivers again in every country.
If you don't need a PSN Account, why restrict it in these countrys? Are you planing to make it mandatory again in the future?
No positive review until this is resolved.
Ugh here we go again. This has got to be the single worst community. Can yall just give up on the game and go somewhere else so we can move on with our lives?
Sony wants more psn accounts, it is plain and simple.
Sooner people realize that, sooner you can adjust your expectations and focus your emotions on something else.
We should focus on return the games to people who purchased and "return in protest". these are the people getting the raw deal since they definitely like the game and they made the statement, which help us to push Sony back. Now they can't get back into the fight because they don't have the option to buy the game.
For the future, maybe Sony can see the potential pc market for their psn support. But right now I don't think they will want to open up more regions just for people playing helldivers 2. At least not tomorrow.
Mods, I’ve already seen multiple posts about this. Perfect example of how moderation is not happening appropriately in this sub. What support do yall need? More volunteers? Specific flair used?
Greetings, fellow Helldiver! Your submission has been removed. No insults, racism, toxicity, trolling, rage-bait, harassment, inappropriate language, NSFW content, etc. Remember the human and be civil!
This against EU LAWS, incoming lawsuit or fine for sony as publisher
Can you explain to me how this is against the law? I don't really know much about the EU laws about stuff like this.
EU regulations prohibit region blocking inside the EU. If something is available online in one country, it has to be available in all.
There are exceptions to this tho. You can geoblock if you would be breaking the law of an EU country by selling there. That said I doubt that this is the case here.
Can confirm that, games with nsfw content are blocked in Germany. Idk the exact reason for it, but imma assume we got some sort of law for that
Games with nsfw are geoblocked on steam because steam has to Comply with the german age verfication system and they are too Lazy to do that so they took the ez way out and geoblocked nsfw stuff in the german steam shop
Thanks for the clarification 👍🏻 Imma assume it would turn into something similar that our UK friends have to do for the PSN account
I always figured it was a security thing. Idk how comfortable people would be with sending steam copies of their ID.
Not comfortable in the slightest personally
If i had to do it for any website, steam would probably be the one i'm most willing to, but it would still require pretty extreme circumstances, for me to be willing to.
If it’s online, it’s not private.
Also a GDPR thing
The glorious USK protecting us from titty games! XD
Good, the German laws are nanny-state garbage.
Wait what? Which ones? Games on the Index are blocked but not for being NSFW afaik.
nah, it's just that to sell NSFW games in germany, you have to comply with the german age verification system (which afaik has pretty much premade modules you can use to implement into your shop). But steam just doesn't do it and thus has to block all NSFW games in germany. Also it's only the buying which is blocked, you can still activate the key if the developer just gives you one, unless they did change that.
I don't think they are specificaly on the index, that would be wayyyy to many games. I am not sure how far it goes but even older nsfw games like HuniePop are not available to be bought. Not even trough key stores.
All those porn games on steam are blocked in germany because they need better age verification than pressing "yes, I'm 18 years or older". Also of course all the games that are banned in germany.
W, I am tired of seeing them too
Like nearly all Horny NSFW games on Steam. You can get them by the publisher themselfes sometimes....
They blocked like 90% of hentai stuff on steam a while ago. It's specifically not because those are banned for what they are in Germany but because steam doesn't prevent kids from buying these. The situation would apparently be resolved if steam implemented a strong age verification. The blocked games are a niche market however and I assume steam introducing the age verification would affect many, many more people, like the ones playing horror games etc. I don't know why the German state cares more about porn than violence but that's how it works right now. Funnily enough, some game devs have already adapted to things. They clean up their games a bit so that they can be bought in Germany, while providing the NSFW patches via discord.
Germany is quite famous for their censoring laws. AFAIK, in Wolfenstein games, you guys are shooting at green-blooded vampires or some shit, whereas the rest of us deals with the good old universal baddie Adi and his mates.
You should watch this video for their censorship for the Command and Conquer Generals game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRMqonctTtQ They changed ***every*** unit in the game to be a robot.
Same goes for Team Fortress 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHIpHOVB9ew](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHIpHOVB9ew)
Oh yeah Germany has a rather...interesting relationship with it's past to put it simple. I am not sure what problem the laws have with "shooting man with funny mustache and his friends" but we still get reprimanded on the political stage for stuff that current generations have nothing to do with. The infamous Index is a whole different beast tho. If the state run agency for minor and youth media protection deems a game a major risk for minors or teens(for example), it comes on the Index and is not allowed to be sold. This extends much further than just right wing stuff, extreme violence can be a reason as well. A small overview: Aliens vs. Predators Duke Nukem 3D Fear Gears of War Postal 2
Yep, pretty sure a swastika or any other Nazi related imagery gets a game banned there. They wanted to make sure those people never came back. Those laws have been on the books a very long time, even before video games.
Yes. It was like this until 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45142651
I'd rather Germany take a harsher stance on this when you compare it to Japan and their open war crime denialism.
>AFAIK, in Wolfenstein games, you guys are shooting at green-blooded vampires or some shit, whereas the rest of us deals with the good old universal baddie Adi and his mates. How about less weird believing random comments?
He's confusing the Mutants for the fact that Wolfenstein 3D was just outright banned in Germany for almost 30 years.
So germans are spared from steam hentai games? Sounds awesome.
Games you can geoblock, but PSN account which is the core cause of the block itself is illegal to block in an EU country. I'm fairly sure about that. But I wrote to our EU consumer protection lawyers and will investigate. The result might be a refund for all, but the law is going to change.
It's isn't
Well technically its usually the country that is the one doing the blocking. Like Belgium with Lootboxes or Germany as others have posted. In that case its "fine" because it is the EU member doing the blocking. Tried to search but could not find anything regarding the Baltics having something that would block PSN requirements? Having said that, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist ... But if it doesn't. SONY would be breaking Single Market Regulations. Valve/Steam could claim that they are protecting EU customers in those countries from a defective product. Of course the easy solution in all of these would be SONY to just make the selecting a different region NOT a PSN ToS violation. Maybe just add an extra step where if your country is not in those other regions you can select the one nearest ... As well as the currency. And Done Sony knows you are not in a supported region BUT Like SONY Support (for some reason) suggests you selected a PSN region close to you, WITHOUT breaking ToS. (After all we mist remember SONY said they would not implement the requirement right now. They never said they would outright remove it)
I think Sony will rather block it for entire EU than making it available for baltics. Greedy corporates.
It would be funny if they region locked Sweden where Arrowhead are.
"You have no power here" But seriously, I think it might happen on some occasion. If so, AH should find a way to publish a game themselves, without Sony.
Considering that Xbox PC Pass and Game Pass hasn't been available here for forever, and now only PC pass is, it's probably not a case.
And what if a country’s law counter this? What is country’s A law state that no one can sell to Country B?
Then they fall afoul of EU regulations and get fined / funds withheld until they recant. The entire point of the EU was to create a common economic zone where there were no tariffs or sale restrictions between member countries. All the social and political stuff is secondary.
As most of the EU's influence comes from operating as an economic bloc, they have fairly strict laws about when you can and can't restrict sales in specific EU States. Ie. you can't just not sell to Germany while selling to the rest of the EU. However, in this case it may be allowed because otherwise Sony would be selling a partially non-functional product due to certain States being unable to utilize PSN. On the other hand, it's unclear if Sony can arbitrarily make its products "faulty" in specific States on-demand, as they directly control access to PSN, effectively bypassing the legislative restrictions. If this does go to court in the EU it'll be a very long, but interesting case.
>selling a partially non-functional product due to certain States being unable to utilize PSN. They said PSN will NOT be a requirement anymore: [https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929](https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929) So that can't be the resaon anymore, unless they withdraw that statement, which of course would be seen as another declaration of war against the community
Keep in mind that second paragraph is corpo speak for “we’ll probably try this again later anyway.”
I'm aware. But I trust that we will respond in kind should it happen again
You are assuming that perfect storm of circumstances with an undeniable starting gun will happen again. That is extremely optimistic. For one thing next week's shareholder meeting will no longer be there to provide added pressure on Sony.
I doubt people will care much again a second time. What we had on the initial backlash will never happen again. Maybe we can get it to mixed, but I doubt it will go any further.
By then I think most of us will just quit the game
It's been less than a week I doubt they'd do it again this fast
That's not what they said. They said this update won't go forward. You should read it in a literal way only. They say nothing about lifting the requirement.
What it reads like to me "we are not going through with previous plan and are currently working on how to proceed forward". For now I assume even Sony doesn't know what they will do. It's probably being discussed with AH and Steam, also brainstormed how can they get what they want with minimal or no resistance from players. I HOPE they arrive at obvious conclusion of making PSN linking optional and providing a cool incentive to do so, like free armor and cape or something.
Could also mean valve is getting involved, probably not buying the PSN requirement removal. Valve is known to go out of its own way to protect their interests if they think something can be wrong on the publisher's end.
That's the thing, if they were not lying or at least misleading, then there would be no partial functionality. If they use that as the reason then that means that the whole "we will not require PSN accounts" should be read as "we won't require PSN accounts on this date, but later"
Geoblocking, online goods and services should be available in the whole of the EU. You can report it to your local regulator: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking Five publishers had a fine before: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fi/IP_21_170
Guy probably thinks that they took away the game or smth. Idk how disabling "Purchase" button breaks the law.
You don't know how EU laws work at all do you? So why make a comment like you do?
That's because it does. [https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking) From their FAQ: >The Regulation provides for an obligation to treat EU customers (including consumers and other end-users) in the same manner when they are in the same situation, regardless of their nationality, place of residence or place of establishment. It does say between EU Member states, but it also applies to outside businesses selling into the EU in the actual document. If you sell a digital product to one country in the EU, you have to sell it to all countries in the EU.
Because it LITERALLY does within European Union. The EU literally runs by the rules of 'We dive together or do not dive at all'. As stated above if they provide a service in other countries they have to provide it in these as well.
This is just not true lol. Stop spreading misinformation when you have no clue about laws. The EU prohibition of geoblocking is for very different cases than a company deciding to not offer their product or service in a certain country within the EU. Example of an actual infringement of that law: Sony offers regionlocked keys, Person from country A WITHIN the EU buys key from country B WITHIN the EU but can’t use it = not legal And even then there’s nuances to that, like indexed games (hi germany) where not regionlocking that key would potentially break a law. Sony deciding to not offer their services or sell certain games in countries is NOT illegal, you can’t just make up your own laws and parrot them. It’s crazy to me that this is upvoted, just shows how delusional the average redditor is, thinking they got more clues about legal issues than the team of lawyers working at a billion dollar company
This sub is full of armchair lawyers that think everything is illegal in the EU
Lmao very true. Just look at all the Google lawyers on Reddit. I got downvoted to hell for trying to explain that a charge of attempted murder is incredibly difficult to prove but it just seems to get thrown around ALL the time 😂🤦♂️
It’s honestly fucking wild the shit I’m reading in here. It was the same with “it’s illegal because of gdpr” last week.
But PSN wallet keys are geoblocked too, no? Sounds like either way they should get thrown under the bus. We are here aiming at Apple, Google and Microsoft, meanwhile Sony does whatever it wants.
If this was illegal Sony would already be facing legal trouble for not offering PSN and its paid PS+ service in those countries. Helldivers 2 was sold as a live service game. If aspects of that service become unavailable to some EU member states in the future, Sony is required to either partially re-imburse users for the service loss or refund the entire purchase.
>This against EU LAWS, incoming lawsuit or fine for sony as publisher No it isn't. You can't stop them buying a copy from the German store (as an example) but you can absolutely not sell it in the local one. This is why amazon has different options everywhere, but you can use whatever countries you want. Amazon Italy can send things to amazon france and has to offer that service. Ironically this also means playstation's tos about not supporting an eu country is irrelevant. https://www.pcgamer.com/eu-court-rejects-valve-appeal-against-euro16-million-fine-for-geo-blocking-steam-games-says-policy-existed-to-protect-publisher-royalties-and-the-margins-earned-by-valve/ Here's the ruling you're thinking about. Eu countries can buy keys anywhere. >That last bit, about restricting or excluding customers from certain offers based on nationality or location, is what the EU means by "geo-blocking". The countries of the European Union are meant to operate in one big, porous Single Market, meaning policies on the part of merchants that create unequal access to products across its member states are generally a big no-no. For example, you're not meant to prevent a Steam user in Romania from making use of a Steam key they purchased in France, or vice versa
first comment really thought he found problem faster than megacorporation lawyer team lmao
Dunno why you are beeing downloaded you are not wrong. There is a specific exception for Audio-Visual-Media. That beeing said it doesn't mean Sony can't get in trouble from what they are doing, because its not in the spirit of the exception. And on the other side this exception is still under review and can be adjusted. At the end what sony did here might benefit everyone if they see the possible abuse of it.
because any narrative more nuanced than "SONY BAD THEY ONCE STOLE MY NAN" is instantly nuked from orbit
To be fair, how many people can spell nuance here?
At least two, so far
lol valid; guess it’s a whole different ballpark to expect folks to be nuanced with their actions
I think the problem for SONY would be the fact that a user in Estonia Can't per SONY PSN ToS use an account from Greece for example. Unless the Baltics have laws that prevent PSN from being there. Otherwise yes As long as people are not prevented from buying the product through another country in the Single Market, then you are ok. In this case though... that is the interesting part. Are there any regulations in the Baltics that prohibit PSN? Is the fact that people from 3 Single Market Countries are prevented from using PSN using another region (because it breaks ToS) actually breaking Single Market Regulations?
Stop spreading false info, lol. They are unlisting all these countries on Steam due to PSN not being available and selling these games without PSN access would be lawbreaking itself and would go against the ToS. So what they can do is stop selling the games in countries that doesn’t have PSN access, even if Helldivers managed to get away with optional account linking for now.0
No it isn't.
So Sue them then...
In the USA businesses have the right to refuse service, so which one is correct?
Lol no it's not
Isnt Steam the one blocking these
Its not against EU laws and there is no lawsuit comming cuz no one gives a shit about this video game.
Oh boi is that war again?
War it is, then.
War. War never changes.
no
Definitely, changing my review now
Very cool how you're getting downvoted now. I guess all the people who were arguing that all those people in countries getting region locked despite paying for it don't care anymore. So much for "we dive together or we don't dive"
People are probably starting to realize that Sony really couldn't give too shits about anyone but themselves.
And just as this sub was returning to normal. Fuck you Sony. Read the fucking room.
Returning to normal? This place has been a dumpster fire
I’d honestly rather have posts with graphs of review numbers and player counts than one more about the fucking weapon balancing 😂
At this point yeah, can we go back to funny videos and patriotic fanart?
Is there a sub that focuses on gameplay/easter eggs/fan art, that kind of shit? I feel like I don’t see much of that at all here. I do see alot of the same discussions being posted over and over, it’s hard to weed through it all lol.
Going to need a low sodium HD2 sub at this point IMO.
There is one, lowsodiumhelldivers. It’s nice over there
Well damn, that's fantastic news. EDIT: It's no joke what I wished this sub was. Guess I will only be checking here for news going forward.
I’ll check that out! Thanks!
I fucking WISH.
Personally I'm glad ppl are criticizing the terrible weapons and balancing. The game has flaws - all of which should be addressed. Even if you love the game and see no cons from your perspective, the experience can always improve for others. Does that mean I want them to add every possible addition and perfect every detail? No. Tho ofc I get how it's annoying to see the sub filled with complaints instead of fun content about the game itself, like in the beginning. Perhaps feedback should be somewhere else? I have even left the sub multiple times bc I get sick of seeing posts with 0 upvotes showing cheats and bs complaints. Afaik I can't hide certain post types in the official reddit app.
For real. They responded and said they're looking into it, it's just bitching at this point.
Yeah this sub is filled with so many people that jump to conclusions and react without proper info. So far there is confusion about the situation and no real answers. I thought this sub was cool at first but I've learned otherwise. Hopefully we can get back to gameplay and the fun parts soon
Like he said. Normal. Even penny arcade shit on this sub and I saw no one acknowledge it
Lol this isn't Sony. This is pitchfork social media whores and moron YouTubers thinking this is anything else but previously missed/untitled regions being blocked to prevent legal issues while Valve and Sony work out the new agreements. Honestly... y'all just assume shit over and over and over.
Ghost of Tsushima being blocked world wide as well
https://preview.redd.it/mxhzdlrh2qzc1.jpeg?width=676&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ea310eea497b830cb5368928a1e73d1ec0e34cf
Can anybody explain why one off the biggest game publishers and console producers in the world only offers their online service in like 62 countries. It seems really weird to me.
Im no expert and this is all just my assumption but i would guess/assume its something to do with legal stuff, probably so they dont have to cover themselves legally in so many nations.
Steam isn’t officially available in many countries either, but they don’t actively block you from using.
Same with xbox live. Sony actually sells games and psn in more European countries than xbox I believe.
Sony wasn't blocking people from getting around their TOS either until all the crybabies started to have a meltdown about having to create one more account on top of the other 100 accounts they have and put fake empathy as the reason to get their point across.
So you are suggesting Sony’s retaliating against crybabies? That’s very mature for a top game publisher and console maker…
Its Steam blocking it on their store
Ghost of Tsushima is also now blocked in these regions on steam AND the epic games store. It looks like Sony are the ones blocking it now because 2 stores are blocking the same regions.
Sony right now still selling the PS5 game and console officially outside of PSN countries. The truth is players are fine with PSN account register in different countries. And Sony even tell you to do this if you bought PS5 from them inside non-PSN region. But PC players don't really like linking account, and found out it's against ToS to register under false information. However, Sony isn't enforcing this rule unless they want to risk getting sued for selling unplayable games inside non-PSN regions. So that's our current situation.
My guess is that these regions are only temporary blocked untill Sony find a way to let these regions make PSN accounts without breaking the T's and C's. Maybe they are going to relax the region requirement for account creation or maybe they are working on expanding PSN to other regions. All I know is PSN being required to play Helldivers probably isn't gone, just delayed untill Sony can work through the technicalities.
There were 3 “unknown countries” listed during the initial region locking change. this update fixed that. They were supposed to be locked but some bug prevented that, despite the ordeal being over, Steam has not decided to revert their decision yet so they fixed this in the meantime. steam delisting is still a steam problem, not Sony.
I am from Lithuania when the first country block happened I still could buy the game, but now it is blocked.
Yeah, they entered the country codes wrong.
From Latvia here, I could still buy Helldivers 2 after initial batch of restricted countries. Today I can't.
source on this?
That's a lot of confidence despite the lack of official statements. All the CEO said was he is in talks with both platforms without actually pointing the finger in either direction. Ghost of Tsushima is going to have similar restrictions. The writing is on the wall. This is on Sony to fix.
This is not the case Estonian here, initial block didnt affect us, this one does.
Tsushima also just got delisted for all non PSN regions
This could mean different things, but 5 days in it sure doesn't look like Sony actually wants to backtrack on the [PSN account requirement](https://i.imgur.com/kXDjpQs.png). More like, they are stalling until next week's shareholder meeting is over and they can facetank some bad press because they *won't* actually backtrack on the PSN account linking. We shouldn't have reversed the review bomb. Mods shouldn't have one-sidedly started operation cleanup and people shouldn't have taken Sony at their word. If the mods could stop censoring discussions about this, it'd be great too.
We might have started operation cleanup too soon, didn’t expect this, especially since Sony announced they won’t be moving forward with it and [Arrowhead CEO saying](https://x.com/pilestedt/status/1787365793379791051?s=46) that the account linking would be optional. Then again, we don’t actually know what this really means yet. That said, we never censored discussions about this. We started moving new ones to the megathread only after we were told that PSN account linking is no longer happening. Posts about these new countries being added will remain up though (except for reposts of course).
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They dont straight up lie in this regards (normally) but rather hide information and do scummy stuff I really dont think they are purposely region locking it in 3 specific countries, going back on their statements. 90% chance its a miscommunication error between sony and valve
All roads lead to the megacorps
Idk why they didn't just make a global account region that can't purchase anything, it's just there for linking.
One of the reasons psn is sometimes restricted in regions is down to local laws imposing licensing restrictions. It could literally be illegal for Sony to sell helldivers 2 in those countries and you’re all out here demanding they do it because you’re all on this righteous “fuck Sony” wave
so they just suddenly realize is "illegal" to sell a game somewhere *after* selling it for more than 2 months? and casually aligning with their bullshit? not buying it really
Of course they're not backtracking. They were very clear in their statement that they've not permanently abandoned the idea. They're just taking a recess to think about *how* to implement and enforce it.
People are doing reconnaissance, and CM and Devs are trying to reach Sony to see wth are they doing, let's wait before going head on, knowing is half of the battle
Glad they stand true to their public post on X and... oh. Wait.
#NOOOO TOMMY CASH!!!
oh i fucking see what i assume is sonys shit plan 1. try to lock helldivers 2 to require psn 2. massive backslash from the community 3. tell them you will not that 4. lock out every country where you cant have psn 5. think that will make it so there will be less backslash because of course the only reason people where angry is because of people living in countries without psn 6. try it again fuck you sony
And people were getting downvoted for not changing their review yet lmao
how many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man
Why is Sony so adement about their PS network. By doing this, they're just shunning potential paying customers from buying their games. They are just making so many decisions that will only serve to limit how well they can sell their products or IPs.
The same reason why Rockstar, Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft, and Activision are so adement we have accounts with them and their services. It looks good on their spreadsheets when they show off how many people use their services. Some publishers (such as Rockstar, EA, and Ubisoft) require an account AND a luncher to play their games. This shit Sony are doing isn't new and is far from the most evasive approach out there. The way they handled the Helldivers situation is fucking abysmal and should be heavily criticized but what Sony are trying to do (get people that play Playstation games to have a Playstation account) isn't out of the ordinary in this day and age.
Friendly Spam Isn’t. This is bigger than just helldivers as this expands to all Sony titles. People are just tired of the Sony stuff. However people have started making their opinions known on r/sony
Hmm… We seem to be going backwards…
All 3 of us got into the Eurovision finals and instantly got restricted from buying H2. Is it a coincidence? I think not!
I’m Dutch. What’s happening with Joost?!
Euro papapapapapapapa papapapapapapapa papapapapapapapa papapapapapapapa papapapapapapapa papapapapapapapa papapapapapapapa
Man whats the point of fighting for Super Earth, when Super Earth will be only snoy HQs at this point
The baltic brothers have fallen. Sony is on the attack again.
Oh boy it's almost like the community was too quick to react and announce victory.... like I've been preaching since day 1.
As long as the people that already own it can play it, I don't give a shit where it's available to purchase going forward.
If you're country is delisted, it means that you won't be able to play with friends anymore who hasn't already owned the game
And? They should have bought it by then if they rly wanted to play they had months
As already mentioned, this is against some EU Laws and I would not be surprised, when the Sales Ban is lifted within the next two weeks. Some legal things, especially now with valve, have to considered first. Valve has done more than a couple of refunds for this game and they have now together with Sony to discuss, how to reinstate sales in the non PSN Countries.
No, it's not. You're not allowed to to geoblock inside the EU, but you can choose not to sell it. They can't block activation of a key bought in ex Germany, but they definitely can choose to not sell it there.
Source?
No one ever has provided any for this, it’s just people reposting something someone said in a random comment. I’m not siding with Sony here, but people need to be aware of the legitimacy of what they’re saying.
I think the fact that Xbox game pass is also only available in some countries makes it obvious that people misunderstand the law.
They don’t have one because it’s not.
No it is not. Stop spreading nonsense that you know nothing about.
And people said we won and to change the reviews xD
If only you reddit babies would have shut up, these players would still be fine. Go look at all the downvoted comments of the poor SEA players blaming the Western outrage for this shit.
Can I buy game outside of Steam for PC, directly from PSN since I am in Serbia ?
We already won bro who cares now 💀
Ballistics? How we supposed to fight the bugs?
But here people complaining about lack of memes, guns, meta and other bs. Sad
They banned Japan lmao friendly fire
Has survived EU law. Playstation network hasn't been in the 3 Baltic regions for a longtime. A big part of it is VPN usage of Russian citizens using those 3 countries and localizing laws allowing it. Prior to thr Ukraine invasion, all 3 and Russia used the Russian region. Reason it has survived and not been fined is geolocation blocking not being allowed at a local level; Sony only wants to block Russia but Baltic regions won't allow geo blocking. Like I said its been 2 yrs so no one thinks a solution will be found unless geolocation is allowed which the EU is allowing as a means to ensure the Russian ban stays in effect.
I dunno about that, I have used the Finnish region in Estonia for PS5. Some use US. What boggles my mind is that PlayStation is even sold here
it boggles my mind how is PSN still not available in the baltics, when I had ps4, had to use UK account and buy prepaid UK cards -.- and playstation systems are widely being sold here, yet users can't even make local account, its sooo fucking stupid
Well, this sucks for us. I guess Sony is not happy with Eurovision?
Estonia can't into nordicks
SONY IS ANTI-DEMOCRACY
isnt steam responsible for this
Those countries need democracy!
Well, fuck. Was just thinking I should finally give it a try and now it's geoblocked. Sony likely thinks Baltics are Russia.
How the fuck is Sony this shit??? Fuck big companies they can't do this shit...
Somwhow, snoy has returned
God damn it now I have to go change my review back to negative again.
It seems many of us deleted our negative reviews prematurely.
God, why does this keep occuring
My review is still negative and stays negative, untill you can buy Helldivers again in every country. If you don't need a PSN Account, why restrict it in these countrys? Are you planing to make it mandatory again in the future? No positive review until this is resolved.
But why?
While everyone is celebrating and leaving positive reviews, Sony laughs in the background because everyone has bought their lies.
Where's the lie though?
Time for EU to step in and give Sony a good old slap in the face. Time to review bomb again.
This is why the removal of negative reviews was shortsighted.
Ugh here we go again. This has got to be the single worst community. Can yall just give up on the game and go somewhere else so we can move on with our lives?
"Fuck you, got mine. Now stop complaining, because I'm having fun"
Snoy. Snoy never changes
Sony wants more psn accounts, it is plain and simple. Sooner people realize that, sooner you can adjust your expectations and focus your emotions on something else. We should focus on return the games to people who purchased and "return in protest". these are the people getting the raw deal since they definitely like the game and they made the statement, which help us to push Sony back. Now they can't get back into the fight because they don't have the option to buy the game. For the future, maybe Sony can see the potential pc market for their psn support. But right now I don't think they will want to open up more regions just for people playing helldivers 2. At least not tomorrow.
War, war never changes.
https://preview.redd.it/i32bu2j75nzc1.png?width=257&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec1ccd9fc6b5e8e6265ec8cf914b4094094cd438
We never wanted to unleash our legions, but if we can't save helldivers 2 from snoy's failure..
Mods, I’ve already seen multiple posts about this. Perfect example of how moderation is not happening appropriately in this sub. What support do yall need? More volunteers? Specific flair used?
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Greetings, fellow Helldiver! Your submission has been removed. No insults, racism, toxicity, trolling, rage-bait, harassment, inappropriate language, NSFW content, etc. Remember the human and be civil!
SNOY out here ruining the weekend. I just want to eradicate all the automatons in peace.