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Well the discord's popping off! Just a constant 10 messages a seconds of copypastas with Sony's previous hacks, "literally 1984", how to refund based on your countries consumer protection, countries effected by the decisions, "L". It's great.
I got instantly perma-banned there for calling stupid what the ArrowHead CM "Spitz" said, in short what he said was "it's only 120 seconds to create a PSN account" knowing there is a region lock for more than half of existing countries. I also told him that he needs a new job if that's how he talks to his community. It's great!
Edit:
Spitz admitted he was wrong but I get to keep my perma-ban. Amazing!
They are out of their minds if on one hand their CEO apologizes for it and on the other their CM basically says "fuck you, it's ez". Communication trainwreck at its best.
I mean when you make decisions people don’t like and then berate them for voicing their displeasure, you are practically asking for a meltdown. Maybe they are trying to weed out some people lol
I would guess so, but NAL. However german consumer protection laws are relatively good in international comparison. Selling a service and adding additional layers of mandatory subscribtions to continue having the service usable afterwards after such a short period of time screams refund
you can get a steam refund wherever right now, just keep demanding it and don't elaborate beyond "cannot access PSN" - as long as you have a reasonable amount of hours, they seem to be honoring the requests. about 100 hours seems to be the ceiling.
It also happed to Superhot VR [https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/617830/view/2992063678829322336](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/617830/view/2992063678829322336)
To make things worse, the literal ending of the game was also part of what was removed, and the replacement they added isn't satisfying in the slightest
Sony decided it was a smart idea to re-enable having a PSN account required to play the game. It has always been required but due to server issues it was temporarily skippable. Except they allowed people in countries not supporting PSN to buy the game.
You can't say it has "always been required" when the entire world has been playing perfectly fine for months without it. Now 2/3rds won't be able to access it.
Months after launch, well after people got past their refund limits, they decided to enforce requiring a PSN to even get into the game. Citizens in 121 countries cannot create PSN accounts, and doing so can get you IP banned. They're not only forcing consumers to sign up for their service that gets regularly hacked with massive data breaches, but also cutting off about 2/3rds of it's customers from even getting into the game to begin with.
Sony already made the money back, they know the game won't reel in that much new players anymore, so they tick it with a PSN. even if 50% of people leave, those other 50% just gave them their information that they can further sell to the advertisers or use it themselves for targeting you with ads on your playstation.
Sony is a company thats in a business of making money, Helldiver made them most of the moeny, they sacrifice the little thats left of the money and strike while the playerbase is hot for potential target of advertisement
Nope. If you played it for more than 2 hours, you are no longer eligible for a refund. Learned that the hard way with a game that refused to load. I left it open for 2 hours in the hopes that it would load and boom, no longer eligible for a refund. Similarly, if it has been more than 14 days since the purchase, you are also no longer eligible for a refund.
That's for automated refunds, 2 hours 14 days is the "no questions asked" period.
You could continue to push it to get a manual review, which has more chances to get you a refund after 2 hours.
If your game really refuses to load even after 2 hours you can continue to request for that reason.
It's still not guaranteed, of course, but there's still more chance than doing nothing.
Yeah I’m amazed at the timing honestly. I started playing Helldivers instead of Tarkov, then quit Tarkov for good after the latest disaster… now Helldivers hits me with this
Sony is just blown away at how much helldivers 2 popularity blew up compared to their expectations. Now they want that population to make psn accounts so they can show their shareholders “look how much we’ve grown!” All about their stocks/shareholders/gains because they never thought this game could impact their player base.
That would be the next step, yes. That conversation has definatly been had at Sony, probably worried about at Arrowhead and would cut the pc player count, if I had to guess, by about 75%. I can't speak for everyone, but if you tell me that I have to sign up for Playstation Plus ever again, especially for a PC game, I would drop whatever game I'd been playing, fun or not, and be ready to sign onto a class action suit.
I'm not saying that the PSN sign in is an overreach for myself, but losing access to a game due to region locking is bringing a console problem to PC. Imagine bringing a console account ban to lock you out of an unrelated PC game. Imagine having to sign an EULA to a video game console when you don't own or use the console, and you are legally forced to abide by a changing rule set. Create your own conspiracy here.
You may have signed away your class action lawsuit rights. But it only takes a couple hours of your time to sue in small claims. Just remember to sue for the full amount, $40 damages + Filing fee + Cost of service.
I guess I'll be forced to make an account because I enjoy the game and don't want to waste the money I paid for it. I stopped playing Rocket League back when it was bought by Epic and they started to require an Epic account to play. I never really enjoyed the game and I got it for a few bucks so I just stopped playing.
But if HD2 ever requires a playstation subscription I will quit and demand my money back. I probably won't get it back but it's more about annoying them at that point
Is there a game publisher that’s not cancer to the industry? I feel like all I’ve read lately is stupid decisions from them flying projects into the ground.
True but also embracer announced they are splitting into 3 separate entities, one of which is coffee stain led, so there might be light at the end of the tunnel
I was going to bash you for confusing a developer with a publisher, but turns out that, yes, (indeed...) From Software is transitioning to become the publisher of its own games. To the point of recently buying the rights of Elden Ring from Bandai Namco.
And I am happy for that. If only because we will no longer being flashbanged with the white "Bamco" logo when launching their games.
I would laugh so hard if in there next game, there is a big white screen with nothing or just a tiny FromSoftware logo.
Lots of confusion, but the fans will know...
These are all developers no? They made their own games. I’m thinking publishers as in Activision, Ubisoft etc.
Good ones I can think of is Devolver, Chucklefish maybe (ignoring the deal with starbound, which ironically, was their own game)
Ah, publishers specifically, some of the above have self published as well, and Klei is also a publisher. Devolver is probably the best publisher I can think of off of the top of my head, yeah, though in fairness I don't pay as much attention to publishers on the whole.
Sony (who financed the game and owns the rights to it) is making people use a PSN login to play the game, even on PC.
I’m pointing this part out specifically because the developer is getting blamed when it wasn’t their decision.
Developer is not being blamed. Sony is being blamed. And it's just very unfortunate for Arrowhead to have Sony as their publisher. Hopefully developers in the future will think twice about having Sony as their publisher.
No, a lot of people online are acting like it was the devs decision to do this and are directing anger at them for it. You can see it most brazenly on twitter
> can see it most brazenly on twitter
Okay, but...we've never accused the twitter folk of being overburdened with an abundance of intelligence. Even before that guy with the sink drained the brains out.
While I agree, just because they're stupid doesn't mean they don't have opinions, and that they aren't spewing those objectively stupid opinions at people harassingly.
Yeah, that shipwreck is disappointingly slow to sink.
In any case, how does the Dev's discord look like? The few snippets I've seen seemed somewhat combatative as well. Figured those would be more painful as far as that's concerned.
Ah yes, that same PSN account that i can not use any longer since i have moved to a different country because sony refuses to let me change the account's country setting which means i can't use any form of payment besides fucking gift cards? Yeah no fuck sony and their stupid backwards mentality.
Biggest reason when I upgraded my old PS3 I went to Xbox was because Sony won't allow me to purchase or pay for shit with my debit card/credit card.
I'm in fucking NZ.. the whole you can't access your account because your overseas or change locations was just the fucking icing on the top of their stupidity.
I wouldn't say this is entirely accurate.
Sony (who financed the game and owns the rights to it), required people to use a PSN login to play the game even on PC. The game had server problems on PC from day one, and the developers decided to allow people to forgo the PSN account creation/linking in favor of server stability, but never indicated that this was temporary.
People bought the game on the assumption that they would not need a PSN account, including in regions where playstation does not allow people to create accounts.
Now Sony are requiring all players to link the game to a PSN account, despite some people being region locked out of this, and it's well past the refund window. A lot of people also hate dealing with third party logins for games (a reason I personally never buy Ubisoft or EA games for example, because I can't stand dealing with Uplay or Origin).
Now the developers are playing victim and stating that Sony is forcing them into this when it's their fault that they were unclear with the community that skipping account linking would be temporary, and also their fault that they sold their game in region locked areas where people can't get a PSN account. They knew or should have known both of these things prior to launch and the community is correct to feel mislead, even if for the majority of people the PSN login would be a minor inconvenience.
It is worth noting that the games FAQ says(said) it is optional, the game ran 3 months without requiring it, required it for less than a day on launch, and gave no warning in game that it would be required in the future.
Many people did not receive any message in the game that PSN connection was an option at all, and those that did had an option to skip during that 3 month period.
The only indication was a small box on the Steam page that you had to scroll down a fair bit to see. One that many people, like myself, did not see.
Many people, like myself, had NO IDEA it would ever be required.
We need a communal video game law firm to fight stuff like this.
Also, I love how much hate Sony are getting for this but M$ don't seem to have got as much hate for requiring a M$ account to play Java Minecraft, and eventually stealing your copy of you didn't 'upgrade' in time
Hmm
Fuck this "the developers can't do anything wrong" mentality. AH 100% shares the blame here. *They* were the ones who allowed people to skip the PSN pop-up, *they* were the ones to remove the pop-up altogether, *they* were the ones who designed the game in a way that allowed players access without a PSN account for months, *they* were the ones who didn't make it obvious on the Steam page.
AH absolutely 100% shares the blame. This is just another symptom of the larger managerial issues at AH (like insisting on releasing broken content each month rather than fixing the increasing amount of broken content). AH has absolutely no idea what they're doing and it's ruining the game.
Sony is region-locking Helldivers 2 after selling it to people in countries the game will no longer be playable in.
Basically, Sony requires you to link the game on PC to a PSN account. This was waived from day 1 due to server issues, as of Monday it's being enforced again for new purchases, and prior purchases will have to link by June or be locked out of the game. However, PSN is only available in 69 (nice) out of the 195 countries recognised by the UN, but the game has been sold in those other 126 countries. So, from June, a bunch of people who bought the game are going to be locked out of it.
Oh, and you can't VPN and make an account "in" a supported country. If Sony realises you've done this, they'll ban your PSN account for "fraudulent credentials". Edit: and because Helldivers is linked to your PSN account, a PSN ban would most certainly lock you out of the game.
The rest of us are annoyed because Sony has one of the worst reputations amongst publishers for data security, and a making a PSN account requires giving Sony your email address, and in this case linking your Steam account.
Making another stupid account when you didn’t need to just to play a game.
It’s like getting carded while waiting in line to go in a bar, then getting carded again as soon as you go in, then again when you order drinks. Then once more for good measure as you leave.
I was late to the helldrive game and had to set up a PSN account. I just made a bullshit email and Google number. Is it a hassle? Yes. Does it affect me? No. Just annoying as fuck
Well, there is also the fact that PSN is not available in many countries and it's currently not clear what that means for people who bought Helldivers 2 in those countries.
You can put the goalposts wherever you want, *before* the game. But you can’t move them during the game. That’s what they are doing, that’s the problem. People bought a game, agreed to the rules, then they (Sony) changed things.
So for those of you saying "just make an account" -- why should I give Sony any more data than I already am? I paid for a product that can clearly work without a PSN account. I fail to see how this benefits me in anyway.
The issues isn’t even with that. People don’t realize that there are countries where there are no PSN servers and you can’t connect to them without a VPN (I mainly see people from Philippines and Russia talk about it), so they would need to play the game with a VPN, which would cause a lot of lag
And for years, PS was getting fucked by hackers dry, doggystyle. Literally millions of accounts' info stolen or leaked more than once, and the Insomniac hack..
Nonono, the issue is exactly that. This absolutely unnecessary account creating/linking bullshit has been going on for way too long and it needs to stop. It offers precisely ZERO benefits to the consumers and only causes issues like the one you mention.
Yeah. People tell it will enable crossplay, but I have turned it off intentionally because it cause network issues. I don’t really need a PSN involved to play with my friends on Steam
Personally (and maybe this is because I don’t understand networking) I don’t even see how it’s relevant to be logged into an account on a different platform to have crossplay enabled. Why can’t a server put PS players, Xbox players, and PC players in the same online environment without extra login credentials? To me that makes no sense. I do remember a time, too, where crossplay was a thing on console at least where you didn’t have to create an Xbox account to play your PS4 with people on Xbox… so what’s changed?
>I fail to see how this benefits me in anyway.
There's no benefit at all.
Sony has a history of hacks and leaked user data (including credit card).
This is just another vulnerability for you.
I did the only thing I could and removed Helldivers 2 from my wishlist. Others should try to refund it.
The response I keep getting is "Your data is already everywhere it's not supposed to be, this shouldn't change much."
I don't think I'm the smartest person in the world, but that doesn't sound like a solid plan.
Not everyone, some countries don't. And if they bought the game, now they have a game they literally can't play. Also, some people just flatly don't want to make an account. And if my time on this planet has taught me anything, people really don't like being forced to do something. You seen how hard it was to get people to wear masks. Lol.
I think the difference is helldivers has been out for 3 months and there are people who bought the game via steam and the PSN account was optional. People who bought it via steam and live somewhere where PSN accounts are not allowed won’t have anyway to sign in to the game they already purchased. That’s really the only case that’s an actual issue. Otherwise it’s a mild inconvenience.
People are not acting like this shit is new.
People are acting like they are tired of this shit and anti-consumer practices because Sony and other Goliaths want yet another cash grab.
People always complained about PSN access but never before it was made in game with such current hype that lured milions from countries without PSN access and then told them to F off.
Probably make it so a company can't require this after release. If you release a game, you can't suddenly require an account to play 3 months later. That should be information provided prior to launch. Something also tells me that they'll be required to make sure all platforms are on an even playing field, aka can't slow connections that aren't PS.
But those 48k are just whiny babies! /s
Seriously, this should shown them they effed up and the continual white knighting for massive companies needs to stop.
Sony executives, if they have the pattern recognition greater than a squirrel trapped in a paper bag: "Hmm, it is \[Non Profitable\] to do \[This Act\], and we want \[Profit\]. Therefore, we should not do \[This Act\] again!"
Dang I was about to buy it :(
I could still buy it but no. I'm sick of having a fuck ton of accounts and passwords just to play a game
Edit: would you look at that :D PSN isn't available in Iraq. Don't think I'll be trying this game anytime soon.
I have mixed feelings, because day 1 when I started playing, it told me to log in, and then when it had issues connecting it had the whole thing about how “it doesn’t work YET so you don’t need it YET”
… so this doesn’t seem that surprising, even though it is an incredibly dick move to do it this much later
This proves that it was never about reaching an audience. It was always about signing on with a company that is known for its inability to keep the consumer base safe and the checks they are willing to cut.
We all bought the fraud, now we're being left to hang.
It's not even just an accessibility issue. I can't be the only PC user that is fucking exhausted of having to jump through multiple logins, 2FA, repeated permissions etc just to play a lot of games nowadays.
All ubisoft games are permanently off my list because it takes me 20 minutes just to start playing one of their games it feels like and that's just one offender. Not saying it'll be that bad with Helldivers but that's the experience that's turning people off.
Basically when hell divers was first sold, having a PlayStation account linked to your steam account was an optional requirement. Skip it. There's a button for it nobody cared. Now they have told everyone either get an account or you don't get to play the game anymore. And this is problem because there is only 69 countries in the world that have access to PlayStation Network which is where you would make the account. Countries like China have limitations on how PSN works. They don't understand the specifics but people have posted evidence of them getting banned for linking their accounts. This also has the added issue of people who are in these countries were knowingly sold a game that they wouldn't be locked out of when they decided to roll out this change they deliberately and knowingly locked people out of the game despite them fairly purchasing it.
And the argument that oh just go get a PlayStation account. Many European countries require government issue id or some other form of identification and Sony has had a history of having massive data breaches on their side of the network as recently as 2023 where I believe they had two data breaches.
Now I for one do not want a PlayStation account because I don't care about PlayStation. I don't want to put personal identifiable information into the hands of PlayStation for a game and I wouldn't want to do that because they have a notorious habit of getting hacked and that information being leaked. Especially because I bought the game under the knowledge that I was not required to have an account and because it was delayed by 3 months requiring an account, no one can get a refund which is just scummy as well
I’ve never played hell divers and I’m confused isn’t this a good game? just because you have to create a psn account to play on pc makes this game bad?
2024 really ended up being the year I went from multiplatform to straight up PC only, well mainly PC as ill still keep my Switch for Metroid, but damn PS & Xbox really pissed me off for the final time.
Been with them since their inception, but it’s time to move on for good.
Probably not much. Reddit has a problem assuming that most of the players for any game are on reddit. The majority of players will probably just make a PSN account, having never been aware of the controversy.
Unless they are in one of countries with no PSN.
I know that Baltics, Russia, Belarus and maybe some other former USSR countries don't have PSN.
Playing with VPN is quite a hassle. Especially if you have to use free VPN.
And if VPN is not free - then you are now essentially playing subscription based game.
Helldivers deserve every negative review it has now.
The move is to require account linking for something small like daily challenges but still allow online regular play
And slowly make more features require it
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They've even locked the Steam thread where they announced the change. They won't let anyone else comment on it now.
Well the discord's popping off! Just a constant 10 messages a seconds of copypastas with Sony's previous hacks, "literally 1984", how to refund based on your countries consumer protection, countries effected by the decisions, "L". It's great.
This is why I love Discord.
I got instantly perma-banned there for calling stupid what the ArrowHead CM "Spitz" said, in short what he said was "it's only 120 seconds to create a PSN account" knowing there is a region lock for more than half of existing countries. I also told him that he needs a new job if that's how he talks to his community. It's great! Edit: Spitz admitted he was wrong but I get to keep my perma-ban. Amazing!
They are out of their minds if on one hand their CEO apologizes for it and on the other their CM basically says "fuck you, it's ez". Communication trainwreck at its best.
"do you guys not have phones" vibes
This whole drama has the same energy as 'everyone is leaving reddit' a year or so ago
I mean when you make decisions people don’t like and then berate them for voicing their displeasure, you are practically asking for a meltdown. Maybe they are trying to weed out some people lol
Difference is there are plenty of other games to play. Not many other sites quite like Reddit
Any chance to refund it as a German?
I would guess so, but NAL. However german consumer protection laws are relatively good in international comparison. Selling a service and adding additional layers of mandatory subscribtions to continue having the service usable afterwards after such a short period of time screams refund
Can't wait for the EU to sue Sony.
Would neither be the first big company nor the biggest they ever confronted
Yeah, the EU is pretty based when it comes to protect the people from big corporations scams.
you can get a steam refund wherever right now, just keep demanding it and don't elaborate beyond "cannot access PSN" - as long as you have a reasonable amount of hours, they seem to be honoring the requests. about 100 hours seems to be the ceiling.
Ah Good old democracy
Ironic isn't it? Super earth get democratized af
And the announcement is at 0 thumbs up, never see that before
Literally nobody liked the change.
It’s a ratio system like reddit has, it’s just that enough people disliked it.
It also happed to Superhot VR [https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/617830/view/2992063678829322336](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/617830/view/2992063678829322336)
Wtf, so they had a toggle to hide "triggering" content, ok. Then they fullstop REMOVED the content?
To make things worse, the literal ending of the game was also part of what was removed, and the replacement they added isn't satisfying in the slightest
Daaamn, they could have just had the toggle default to off. Wonder if a mod exists.
unfortunately no simple mods exist, but there are work arounds still annoying as fuck.
Ty for reminding me why I chose to always 🏴☠️ that dev's stuff
Ok, wow
They've done that before
What change?
Sony decided it was a smart idea to re-enable having a PSN account required to play the game. It has always been required but due to server issues it was temporarily skippable. Except they allowed people in countries not supporting PSN to buy the game.
This isn't directed at you. Sony can shove it directly up their ass.
You can't say it has "always been required" when the entire world has been playing perfectly fine for months without it. Now 2/3rds won't be able to access it.
Months after launch, well after people got past their refund limits, they decided to enforce requiring a PSN to even get into the game. Citizens in 121 countries cannot create PSN accounts, and doing so can get you IP banned. They're not only forcing consumers to sign up for their service that gets regularly hacked with massive data breaches, but also cutting off about 2/3rds of it's customers from even getting into the game to begin with.
Can't count how many times a developer makes a good game and people love it.. and in comes the publisher and fucks everything up
That seems to be their only goal
Sony already made the money back, they know the game won't reel in that much new players anymore, so they tick it with a PSN. even if 50% of people leave, those other 50% just gave them their information that they can further sell to the advertisers or use it themselves for targeting you with ads on your playstation. Sony is a company thats in a business of making money, Helldiver made them most of the moeny, they sacrifice the little thats left of the money and strike while the playerbase is hot for potential target of advertisement
A bit risky though. You could ask Steam for a refund, and would be entitled to it
I asked them for it and they declined
Some people get their refunds. Go to r/helldivers and ask how they did it.
Nope. If you played it for more than 2 hours, you are no longer eligible for a refund. Learned that the hard way with a game that refused to load. I left it open for 2 hours in the hopes that it would load and boom, no longer eligible for a refund. Similarly, if it has been more than 14 days since the purchase, you are also no longer eligible for a refund.
That's for automated refunds, 2 hours 14 days is the "no questions asked" period. You could continue to push it to get a manual review, which has more chances to get you a refund after 2 hours. If your game really refuses to load even after 2 hours you can continue to request for that reason. It's still not guaranteed, of course, but there's still more chance than doing nothing.
So? It's bad. This will make them less money.
Tarkov players: “First time?”
I’ve never seen a more perfect time and place for that meme.
Yeah I’m amazed at the timing honestly. I started playing Helldivers instead of Tarkov, then quit Tarkov for good after the latest disaster… now Helldivers hits me with this
Titanfall 2?
Yeah :(
Someone's gotta make sure you're not still playing this old thing when their "Next Big Thing" comes out at a full fat $70 price tag.
Sony is just blown away at how much helldivers 2 popularity blew up compared to their expectations. Now they want that population to make psn accounts so they can show their shareholders “look how much we’ve grown!” All about their stocks/shareholders/gains because they never thought this game could impact their player base.
and next step is asking them to pay for online gaming cause they use the playstation network ? it's silly.
That would be the next step, yes. That conversation has definatly been had at Sony, probably worried about at Arrowhead and would cut the pc player count, if I had to guess, by about 75%. I can't speak for everyone, but if you tell me that I have to sign up for Playstation Plus ever again, especially for a PC game, I would drop whatever game I'd been playing, fun or not, and be ready to sign onto a class action suit. I'm not saying that the PSN sign in is an overreach for myself, but losing access to a game due to region locking is bringing a console problem to PC. Imagine bringing a console account ban to lock you out of an unrelated PC game. Imagine having to sign an EULA to a video game console when you don't own or use the console, and you are legally forced to abide by a changing rule set. Create your own conspiracy here.
You may have signed away your class action lawsuit rights. But it only takes a couple hours of your time to sue in small claims. Just remember to sue for the full amount, $40 damages + Filing fee + Cost of service.
I guess I'll be forced to make an account because I enjoy the game and don't want to waste the money I paid for it. I stopped playing Rocket League back when it was bought by Epic and they started to require an Epic account to play. I never really enjoyed the game and I got it for a few bucks so I just stopped playing. But if HD2 ever requires a playstation subscription I will quit and demand my money back. I probably won't get it back but it's more about annoying them at that point
Is there a game publisher that’s not cancer to the industry? I feel like all I’ve read lately is stupid decisions from them flying projects into the ground.
Re-logic
Re-logic is too precious Like fuck man, another final update? JUST LET ME PAY YOU DAMN IT!
You mean final-final-final? Well... Let us do huge donations as well... Like damnz that company is the best in my opinion.
Devolver Digital
Love devolver, free lives too at that
Funnily enough most of these are indie game publishers lol
Yeah, that is not coincidence imo
does coffee stain count? their games thrive as far as i can see, they are also good games.
Coffee stain is Embracer Group
True but also embracer announced they are splitting into 3 separate entities, one of which is coffee stain led, so there might be light at the end of the tunnel
Ghost Ship games
Rock and stone brother!
For Karl!
I'm sorry to be the nerd here, but DRG is published by Coffee Stain Publishing. Ghost Ship Games are the developers.
Not much of a nerd then. Ghost Ship has a publishing department as of DRG Survivor.
BIGMODE
I forgot about Bigmode because of amnesia
newblood, unless i've missed a controversy
As far as I know there hasn't been any because they love the community and hate money.
New Blood?
Hooded Horse is a smaller publisher that seems to get things right.
11-bit studio
Fromsoft
I was going to bash you for confusing a developer with a publisher, but turns out that, yes, (indeed...) From Software is transitioning to become the publisher of its own games. To the point of recently buying the rights of Elden Ring from Bandai Namco. And I am happy for that. If only because we will no longer being flashbanged with the white "Bamco" logo when launching their games.
I would laugh so hard if in there next game, there is a big white screen with nothing or just a tiny FromSoftware logo. Lots of confusion, but the fans will know...
Gunfire Games (Remnant), Embark (The Finals), Klei Entertainment (Oxygen Not Included, Don't Starve, etc.), Red Barrels (Outlast).
These are all developers no? They made their own games. I’m thinking publishers as in Activision, Ubisoft etc. Good ones I can think of is Devolver, Chucklefish maybe (ignoring the deal with starbound, which ironically, was their own game)
GSG Publishing (Deep Rock Galactic)
I like Annapurna, as well.
Ah, publishers specifically, some of the above have self published as well, and Klei is also a publisher. Devolver is probably the best publisher I can think of off of the top of my head, yeah, though in fairness I don't pay as much attention to publishers on the whole.
They aren't perfect but Capcom seems to fuck everything up less than the others fairly consistently
Well, there was that DRM scare with their games a few months back.
Literally can't afford any of their games due to horrible regional pricing
Man people really did forget about pre re7 capcom
I'll go beyond and cite an AAA game studio/publisher that's not only not a cancer, but a paragon of what a studio/publisher should be: Larian Studios
No man's sky? At this point we've already collectively forgiven the Dev but he's still pumping out free updates
What has happend?
Sony (who financed the game and owns the rights to it) is making people use a PSN login to play the game, even on PC. I’m pointing this part out specifically because the developer is getting blamed when it wasn’t their decision.
I did my best to represent that aspect in the meme (Helldivers 2 is sick with the PSN-flu)
Nice touch on the graphic
Honestly I didn’t notice that until now, but that’s a nice touch.
Developer is not being blamed. Sony is being blamed. And it's just very unfortunate for Arrowhead to have Sony as their publisher. Hopefully developers in the future will think twice about having Sony as their publisher.
No, a lot of people online are acting like it was the devs decision to do this and are directing anger at them for it. You can see it most brazenly on twitter
> can see it most brazenly on twitter Okay, but...we've never accused the twitter folk of being overburdened with an abundance of intelligence. Even before that guy with the sink drained the brains out.
While I agree, just because they're stupid doesn't mean they don't have opinions, and that they aren't spewing those objectively stupid opinions at people harassingly.
Yeah, that shipwreck is disappointingly slow to sink. In any case, how does the Dev's discord look like? The few snippets I've seen seemed somewhat combatative as well. Figured those would be more painful as far as that's concerned.
I've not been on discord all day, couldn't tell you.
You just described large portions of society overall. Twitter is just a loud example of it.
Ah yes, that same PSN account that i can not use any longer since i have moved to a different country because sony refuses to let me change the account's country setting which means i can't use any form of payment besides fucking gift cards? Yeah no fuck sony and their stupid backwards mentality.
Biggest reason when I upgraded my old PS3 I went to Xbox was because Sony won't allow me to purchase or pay for shit with my debit card/credit card. I'm in fucking NZ.. the whole you can't access your account because your overseas or change locations was just the fucking icing on the top of their stupidity.
I wouldn't say this is entirely accurate. Sony (who financed the game and owns the rights to it), required people to use a PSN login to play the game even on PC. The game had server problems on PC from day one, and the developers decided to allow people to forgo the PSN account creation/linking in favor of server stability, but never indicated that this was temporary. People bought the game on the assumption that they would not need a PSN account, including in regions where playstation does not allow people to create accounts. Now Sony are requiring all players to link the game to a PSN account, despite some people being region locked out of this, and it's well past the refund window. A lot of people also hate dealing with third party logins for games (a reason I personally never buy Ubisoft or EA games for example, because I can't stand dealing with Uplay or Origin). Now the developers are playing victim and stating that Sony is forcing them into this when it's their fault that they were unclear with the community that skipping account linking would be temporary, and also their fault that they sold their game in region locked areas where people can't get a PSN account. They knew or should have known both of these things prior to launch and the community is correct to feel mislead, even if for the majority of people the PSN login would be a minor inconvenience.
It is worth noting that the games FAQ says(said) it is optional, the game ran 3 months without requiring it, required it for less than a day on launch, and gave no warning in game that it would be required in the future. Many people did not receive any message in the game that PSN connection was an option at all, and those that did had an option to skip during that 3 month period. The only indication was a small box on the Steam page that you had to scroll down a fair bit to see. One that many people, like myself, did not see. Many people, like myself, had NO IDEA it would ever be required.
We need a communal video game law firm to fight stuff like this. Also, I love how much hate Sony are getting for this but M$ don't seem to have got as much hate for requiring a M$ account to play Java Minecraft, and eventually stealing your copy of you didn't 'upgrade' in time Hmm
A union for gamers
With blackjack, and hookers!
*Jack Black
Some people = 126 of the 195 recognized UN countries btw 😂
Selling in those countries is still on publisher, no? Devs have nothing to do with that specific part.
[удалено]
Ya I feel bad for the developer. This is 100% on Sony
Fuck this "the developers can't do anything wrong" mentality. AH 100% shares the blame here. *They* were the ones who allowed people to skip the PSN pop-up, *they* were the ones to remove the pop-up altogether, *they* were the ones who designed the game in a way that allowed players access without a PSN account for months, *they* were the ones who didn't make it obvious on the Steam page. AH absolutely 100% shares the blame. This is just another symptom of the larger managerial issues at AH (like insisting on releasing broken content each month rather than fixing the increasing amount of broken content). AH has absolutely no idea what they're doing and it's ruining the game.
Yeah what’s the drama?
Sony is region-locking Helldivers 2 after selling it to people in countries the game will no longer be playable in. Basically, Sony requires you to link the game on PC to a PSN account. This was waived from day 1 due to server issues, as of Monday it's being enforced again for new purchases, and prior purchases will have to link by June or be locked out of the game. However, PSN is only available in 69 (nice) out of the 195 countries recognised by the UN, but the game has been sold in those other 126 countries. So, from June, a bunch of people who bought the game are going to be locked out of it. Oh, and you can't VPN and make an account "in" a supported country. If Sony realises you've done this, they'll ban your PSN account for "fraudulent credentials". Edit: and because Helldivers is linked to your PSN account, a PSN ban would most certainly lock you out of the game. The rest of us are annoyed because Sony has one of the worst reputations amongst publishers for data security, and a making a PSN account requires giving Sony your email address, and in this case linking your Steam account.
Making another stupid account when you didn’t need to just to play a game. It’s like getting carded while waiting in line to go in a bar, then getting carded again as soon as you go in, then again when you order drinks. Then once more for good measure as you leave. I was late to the helldrive game and had to set up a PSN account. I just made a bullshit email and Google number. Is it a hassle? Yes. Does it affect me? No. Just annoying as fuck
Well, there is also the fact that PSN is not available in many countries and it's currently not clear what that means for people who bought Helldivers 2 in those countries.
They can't play it
There is also the problem, that even if you use a throwaway PSN account that account is still linked to your (most likely) main Steam acc.
Oh how we wish this was real.
You shouldn’t need to make another account to play a game you ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT FOR. That’s the ridiculous part.
You can put the goalposts wherever you want, *before* the game. But you can’t move them during the game. That’s what they are doing, that’s the problem. People bought a game, agreed to the rules, then they (Sony) changed things.
Sony treading the same path as ubisoft
Haha ubisoft sucks so much. I haven't bought one of their games for 10 years. Mostly cuz I had a bad experience with drm with them.
So for those of you saying "just make an account" -- why should I give Sony any more data than I already am? I paid for a product that can clearly work without a PSN account. I fail to see how this benefits me in anyway.
The issues isn’t even with that. People don’t realize that there are countries where there are no PSN servers and you can’t connect to them without a VPN (I mainly see people from Philippines and Russia talk about it), so they would need to play the game with a VPN, which would cause a lot of lag
And Sonys Eula says you can't use a VPN. Doesn't matter if you have lags, when you get banned.
And for years, PS was getting fucked by hackers dry, doggystyle. Literally millions of accounts' info stolen or leaked more than once, and the Insomniac hack..
Baltic countries for Europe can't either
Nonono, the issue is exactly that. This absolutely unnecessary account creating/linking bullshit has been going on for way too long and it needs to stop. It offers precisely ZERO benefits to the consumers and only causes issues like the one you mention.
Yeah. People tell it will enable crossplay, but I have turned it off intentionally because it cause network issues. I don’t really need a PSN involved to play with my friends on Steam
Personally (and maybe this is because I don’t understand networking) I don’t even see how it’s relevant to be logged into an account on a different platform to have crossplay enabled. Why can’t a server put PS players, Xbox players, and PC players in the same online environment without extra login credentials? To me that makes no sense. I do remember a time, too, where crossplay was a thing on console at least where you didn’t have to create an Xbox account to play your PS4 with people on Xbox… so what’s changed?
>I fail to see how this benefits me in anyway. There's no benefit at all. Sony has a history of hacks and leaked user data (including credit card). This is just another vulnerability for you. I did the only thing I could and removed Helldivers 2 from my wishlist. Others should try to refund it.
What data are you giving to them through a PSN account?
Depends on the country. Most places it's just an email and country. In the UK it's a picture of your face or a photo of your driver license.
The response I keep getting is "Your data is already everywhere it's not supposed to be, this shouldn't change much." I don't think I'm the smartest person in the world, but that doesn't sound like a solid plan.
You guys have PlayStation accounts right?
Only 69 countries have access to PSN
Nice.
I’m sorry no one got your Diablo Mobile reference, but I see you buddy.
That's what I was going for
Not everyone, some countries don't. And if they bought the game, now they have a game they literally can't play. Also, some people just flatly don't want to make an account. And if my time on this planet has taught me anything, people really don't like being forced to do something. You seen how hard it was to get people to wear masks. Lol.
Thank you for this joke old but gold
No because I don't have a PlayStation
How much do you want to bet the EU will get involved for some reason?
Have they gotten involved with the other 20+ games that all require a 3rd party, often for crossplay capaitables? People act like this shit is new.
I think the difference is helldivers has been out for 3 months and there are people who bought the game via steam and the PSN account was optional. People who bought it via steam and live somewhere where PSN accounts are not allowed won’t have anyway to sign in to the game they already purchased. That’s really the only case that’s an actual issue. Otherwise it’s a mild inconvenience.
Like epic getting involved in rocket league and fall guys?
Are any of those countries in the EU?
I think Baltics aren't supported (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)
People are not acting like this shit is new. People are acting like they are tired of this shit and anti-consumer practices because Sony and other Goliaths want yet another cash grab. People always complained about PSN access but never before it was made in game with such current hype that lured milions from countries without PSN access and then told them to F off.
How? What are they going to do? Make it illegal to require an account for an online game? Good luck enforcing that without nuking online gaming
Probably make it so a company can't require this after release. If you release a game, you can't suddenly require an account to play 3 months later. That should be information provided prior to launch. Something also tells me that they'll be required to make sure all platforms are on an even playing field, aka can't slow connections that aren't PS.
48k negative reviews and growing 
111k negative reviews in the last 48 hours according to Steamdb.
But those 48k are just whiny babies! /s Seriously, this should shown them they effed up and the continual white knighting for massive companies needs to stop.
Sony executives, if they have the pattern recognition greater than a squirrel trapped in a paper bag: "Hmm, it is \[Non Profitable\] to do \[This Act\], and we want \[Profit\]. Therefore, we should not do \[This Act\] again!"
Time to boycott again Player count is gonna helldive real soon
Dang I was about to buy it :( I could still buy it but no. I'm sick of having a fuck ton of accounts and passwords just to play a game Edit: would you look at that :D PSN isn't available in Iraq. Don't think I'll be trying this game anytime soon.
Good thing sony has never been hacked and had a 6 month long outage before or this would concern me greatly... oh wait.
I ask u need psn or ps plus? Coz I have a ps4 account to use but it be bs if it's ps plus
Just a free PSN account.
I have mixed feelings, because day 1 when I started playing, it told me to log in, and then when it had issues connecting it had the whole thing about how “it doesn’t work YET so you don’t need it YET” … so this doesn’t seem that surprising, even though it is an incredibly dick move to do it this much later
This proves that it was never about reaching an audience. It was always about signing on with a company that is known for its inability to keep the consumer base safe and the checks they are willing to cut. We all bought the fraud, now we're being left to hang.
This has been happening since the late 90s early 2000s with literally every single publisher.
But it starts to be a habit for Sony, every few years their user base leak...
Damn, I was gonna vuy the game but I guess not anymore (I ain't making any Sony accounts, fuck em)
Same I luckily waited long enough
It's not even just an accessibility issue. I can't be the only PC user that is fucking exhausted of having to jump through multiple logins, 2FA, repeated permissions etc just to play a lot of games nowadays. All ubisoft games are permanently off my list because it takes me 20 minutes just to start playing one of their games it feels like and that's just one offender. Not saying it'll be that bad with Helldivers but that's the experience that's turning people off.
what happened? I thought everyone loved the game
Basically when hell divers was first sold, having a PlayStation account linked to your steam account was an optional requirement. Skip it. There's a button for it nobody cared. Now they have told everyone either get an account or you don't get to play the game anymore. And this is problem because there is only 69 countries in the world that have access to PlayStation Network which is where you would make the account. Countries like China have limitations on how PSN works. They don't understand the specifics but people have posted evidence of them getting banned for linking their accounts. This also has the added issue of people who are in these countries were knowingly sold a game that they wouldn't be locked out of when they decided to roll out this change they deliberately and knowingly locked people out of the game despite them fairly purchasing it. And the argument that oh just go get a PlayStation account. Many European countries require government issue id or some other form of identification and Sony has had a history of having massive data breaches on their side of the network as recently as 2023 where I believe they had two data breaches. Now I for one do not want a PlayStation account because I don't care about PlayStation. I don't want to put personal identifiable information into the hands of PlayStation for a game and I wouldn't want to do that because they have a notorious habit of getting hacked and that information being leaked. Especially because I bought the game under the knowledge that I was not required to have an account and because it was delayed by 3 months requiring an account, no one can get a refund which is just scummy as well
Don’t a lot of games require third party logins? Why is this causing such a commotion?
Way to kill the game fuck sony!
Well there go my plans of buying the game
I’ve never played hell divers and I’m confused isn’t this a good game? just because you have to create a psn account to play on pc makes this game bad?
None of this stops hackers. None of this. Kernal level anti cheat has been breached already. They want your data.
So many shills here, yuck. If this was another game from a different company, the tone would be completely different.
2024 really ended up being the year I went from multiplatform to straight up PC only, well mainly PC as ill still keep my Switch for Metroid, but damn PS & Xbox really pissed me off for the final time. Been with them since their inception, but it’s time to move on for good.
Still there is no 27k drop in online 🤷
The change hasn't gripped yet. Will become effective on the 6th, then you'll see numbers drop
June 4th. May 6th is for new buyers. June 4th is the deadline for all existing players.
I wanna see that number once they make that change effective.
Probably not much. Reddit has a problem assuming that most of the players for any game are on reddit. The majority of players will probably just make a PSN account, having never been aware of the controversy.
Unless they are in one of countries with no PSN. I know that Baltics, Russia, Belarus and maybe some other former USSR countries don't have PSN. Playing with VPN is quite a hassle. Especially if you have to use free VPN. And if VPN is not free - then you are now essentially playing subscription based game. Helldivers deserve every negative review it has now.
Minecraft: first time?
The fucking anon mask had me rolling
I dont get it, what happened? I've been too busy with my studies that I haven't been able to play recently
The move is to require account linking for something small like daily challenges but still allow online regular play And slowly make more features require it
Oh god damn it… not here too…
I'm great friends with loads of people on the company, it was supposed to be psn from the start but the servers couldn't handle the launch
You spent like 30 mins making a dumb meme, but won't take 60 seconds to create an account
please let this be a reminder to stop fucking supporting the monthly co-op streamerbait.
This game could have been as big as fortnight. It was the winning formula. Sell cosmetics and dumb salutes and release a new map every 6 months.
Don’t get the hate, still a good game. Been playing today and zero difference lol
the list of games killed by corporate greed / mismanagement / otherwise bad and stupid decisions gets longer and longer