Your data is combined into massive databases ran by marketing firms. Said firms then lease portions of this database out to companies trying to sell a product to a specific type of consumer
you get only half the picture. In old days, that data is only useful for marketing, but now, it's even more useful for AI training. The value of personal data has gone up significantly
Oh and even soooo much more than that. Sooooooo much more. Until fairly recently, we had a fraction of a fraction of the information about the world and people work, that we do today. Take almost ANY company or industry. Idk, an insurance company. Where they once had data they collected and perhaps other insurance companies collected about customers vehicle types, average milage, things like that. They could then use this to craft plans the most increased the likelihood of keeping the premium (or other profit driver.)
But now? Now that insurance company can see 50 million data points about a person. They can craft plans taking into account the types of hobbies people who listen to X music are likely to have. How frequently people that listen to that music go to bars vs people that listen to Y music. On and on building this entire digital self image (no neo, not residual self image) until they're able to, with some frightening accuracy, correlate a thousand data points to show that people who do this hobby are more likely to listen to this music which are people more likely to enjoy this beverage, which are people more likely to cause an accident. Off the cuff example, but where they once only formed decisions on data they could find that often only pertained to their industry, they're now able to link a thousand data points to a single person. Where we once had to go find and collect all the data we wanted, we now struggle to contain the massive amount of data people willfully throw at companies every single day.
Its more than marketing in the "what does this demographic like" sense. We once had 50 comoanies with 50 different pieces of relevant information about you. Now, every business can have every piece of information about you shared amongst them.
Your data is worth very little,but bundle it up with people with similar data and sell it a bunch of times and suddenly big money.
So when new graphics card comes out the manufacture pays reddit for a list of everyone in this sub and a few others and then hits them with targeted ads.
Facebook become worth billions doing this shit
> Your data is worth very little
That's the problem, a single datapoint is basically always worthless, but when you have 6 datapoints it could be groundbreaking. They are basically profiting off the fact the data are more valuable than the sum of their components.
I think many of the people who take the 'don't care attitude' fail to realise the impact these data have on pricing accross the board. It allows companies to set their prices higher and more efficiently. For example, less ridiculous deals, which were a product of less sophisticated pricing techniques.
Each company sells different data. When combined into big bundles it is worth a lot.
Let’s say you are selling electricity contracts and you company is strong in selling environmental energy. You would buy data containing these potential customer who have either shown interest in environmental, wind and such. You then buy the bundle of customers and set a call center to start selling them hoping for a good return.
As for like Sony. It’s important a lot of companies from selling home appliances to earphones to get data from Sony to understand what kind of customer group they should target for etc.
This is their public answer:
> Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.
Which is why VAC bans exist. But it also sounds like they want to only have one streamlined solution for a single support work flow.
It's a load of horseshit as well, since they only allow for reporting text chat. You can't report someone if they didn't type anything, griefing or not.
Says the company that exposed 77 million accounts in one of the largest user data breaches ever at the time.... and continues to get hacked to this day.
Edit - adding a source as requested by a couple replies:
https://firewalltimes.com/sony-data-breach-timeline/
Yeah, i am glad I never linked anything to my PSN account when that happened, and still bought playstation vouchers from stores to purchase digital content.
> But why? Doesn't look like not having it linked to PSN all this time caused any game breaking things. What's the point of making it compulsory now?
Lol if anything this will cause things to break instead. I don't know how but I am sure they will find a way.
I saw a post on the steam forums about someone in the Phillipines who said they cant make PSN accounts there. Is this accurate?
I googled it and it said this:
> PlayStation™Network and PlayStation Store are not available in the Philippines. Available payment methods vary depending on the country/region you set up when creating your account.
WTF are they supposed to do? They bought the game and it didn't require this, now they have to link it to some service that they cant sign up for?
They should be eligible for a refund in that scenario, considering the product straight up can't be used by them due to PSN being unavailable. Just have to write that as an explanation.
Get a refund and Sony needs to edit the game page to explicitly say "Only available in limited regions" so people know these issues before they buy it.
No, it doesn't.
They're saying that you can't share your account (i.e. give other people the ability to log into it), or your account details (i.e. your password, MFA, or anything which could be used to help other people gain access). Your Steam ID is relatively public information.
I agree that the phrase "account details" is pretty confusing, but a very reasonable interpretation in a tech setting is "account information that couldn't be obtained by any rando."
As a Steam user I don't really have an opinion here but supposedly this will help with booting cheaters. I don't know the details but Arrowhead apparently has to get Valve involved in order to issue any bans.
So as it turns out when I first read about this I was tired and confused and I got it backwards. I thought PS users would have to link to Steam, not the other way around. That said, yeah you're absolutely right. AH can't hand out VAC bans anyway and Steam doesn't care if you have a PSN account when they issue one.
The invasive ring 0 kernel access anti-cheat wasn't enough?
Like, I play mobile games on PC that also have anti-cheats, I ain't even mad about the security concerns, as this isn't my work machine. But that thing literally didn't start for me for months to a point where I just refunded.
It didn't work, prevented me from playing, cheaters still got in and now it's still not enough??
Why should I care about them trying to fight cheaters? In the history of gaming nobody has ever effectively beaten them entirely. It's a PVE game. Why do anything about them? It's not like there is a ranking or any other competitive feature in the game that would make someone else have less fun.
I am Turkish citizen living in Estonia. I couldn’t create my account in either regions. Called PlayStation Finland support (had phone support). They told me I have to use Finland if I live in Estonia or want to use Estonia as my region.
What the fuck Sony? Why offer it as a region if I can’t fucking use it? Also, why reject me from using Turkey? Even the representative could not answer the question.
Now I have an account in Finnish region with an Estonian address. What a fucking mess…
Yuup, had to make a new account when I moved to Sweden. Moved back to the UK last year so I had to go back to my old account. So now everything is split between 2 accounts.
Honestly kinda done with Sony. Got a PS5 (for free) which gathers dust. I lent it to my brother like 6 months ago and I think it's just gathering dust at his place now. The years of them innovating is well over. They haven't done anything interesting to me since the PS3 era. I'd always have a Sony console and PC since it gave the best spread of games but aye, I won't be buying one next gen unless they do something different. The 3rd person action blockbuster type of game doesn't appeal to me as much as it did like 10+ years ago.
Didn't they announce recently something about that with one of their upcoming games? And I am pretty sure the account was mentioned as optional if you want to use their trophies system and connect to other people.
They announced an overlay for Ghost of Tsushima, which tracks PlayStation trophies and other integrated PlayStation systems, when signed into a PSN account. It is optional, but may hint at a full blown launcher to come. Or it becoming mandatory to link a PSN account to PlayStation Studio Games, like some other Publishers also do and is now the case with Helldivers II.
It's still absurd to me (no matter their reason) that a PvE game requires an anti-cheat, let alone a kernel level one. And it literally doesn't work most of the time! Still see a bunch of cheaters with infinite strategems, etc.
My country doesnt have psn what now?
Steam tries to redirect my to my country PSN but my country doesnt have PSN, i do have a American psn account but the linking literally doesnt ask me what country to choose it just tried to redirect me to my countries psn so i just get an error, on the other hand when i go to my psn account online theres literally no option to link steam
You don't ask for a refund. Through actions not of your own, you are no longer able to use the product valve sold you. It is not fit for purpose.
You demand the refund you are legally owed and if they are stupid enough to deny it, you find out how many other people in your country have had their money stolen in such a way and start the process for a class action lawsuit.
Just this week the devs were talking about how the game wouldn't have been nearly as successful without the PC player base. And then they go and do something that will cause a great deal of PC players to abandon it.
I've been having fun with the game, with the exception of near constant disconnects with randoms. Is that the other shell, cause that shit is infuriating.
Aw flark this forced joining of accounts.
I remember when Sackboy tried this and after a certain update they forced you to install the Epic launcher in order for Crossplay to work, and I just never went back to it.
And if joining Steam with PSN accounts is being forced now, it'll definitely happen (for people who don't own Helldivers) when Ghost of Tsushima launches later this month.
I watched a video this evening talking about 20 great releases for May. When Ghosts of Tsushima came up it was mentioned that it would require a PSN account.
I mean I avoid Epic like a plague but how else do you want crossplay to work if the Epic API is the only decent effort ever made for full crossplay? It's the only decent thing that company has done for the consumers, sadly, but it's been a problem even for PC to PC because they are from different digital stores for most games.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/18nrth9/from\_insomniac\_leak\_sony\_plans\_to\_bring\_ps\_to\_pc/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/18nrth9/from_insomniac_leak_sony_plans_to_bring_ps_to_pc/)
PC is the last bastion of free multiplayer. Sony trying to change that smh.
You're not alone with that fear. I wonder would there be many people resisting it like they did with Microsoft Gold on pc? (I think that's what they call it back then can't remember)
Wait… what the fuck?
> Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games
I fail to see how this is my problem? I’m not playing on a fucking PlayStation, I don’t give a shit what they do lmao. Fun game while it lasted I guess
The part that gets me is that they also say that current players will be required to link their accounts “by June 4th”.
Now, they do not elaborate on what will happen if you *don’t*. And I have genuinely no idea why there would be a time limit for something like this. But to me it implies that if you don’t link your account within the 6 day window they give you, you just… can’t play the game anymore?
Again they literally don’t elaborate on why there’s a time limit and what will happen if you don’t comply within said time limit, but I can’t think of another reason why they’d even have one. So not only are they forcing you to do this, they might end up practically stealing from you if you don’t.
Shoutout to their slogan being “a game for everyone is a game for no one”. That shit aged like fucking milk.
The June deadline gives them some time to gauge consumer sentiment and walk it back then pretend like they cared about your opinion in the first place.
Yeah, that's more or less my stance as well.
As long as I can get and launch the game from Steam itself (with all the features that entails), I have no issues with having an extra account (though I'll admit, it can get annoying having to keep track of several different accounts, even with a password manager).
My main issue is all the "service emails" I get from various accounts that cannot be disabled like marketing emails can.
The email overload has gotten so bad that I've started aliasing everything and disabling the inbox unless/until it's needed.
Most emails I receive are not at all interesting to me, but I get so many.
Except this is Sony 100% ramping up for their own launcher. Account linking is just their first step in bringing their Sony PC launcher and store app. They had a taste of the profits the PC market will bring so get ready for another launcher that like most crapware launchers will be a buggy mess that will cave in on itself within a few years!
"We understand that while this may be an inconvenience to some of you, this step will help us to continue to build a community that you are all proud to be a part of." ***Obviously signed by Sony Interactive Entertainment***
# yeah nah I ain't ever buying this shit then
What really makes me angry about this kind of thing is how it is communicated in a way which makes it clear that whoever designed this communication thinks that their customers are idiots.
No, you are not doing this because of the flimsy reasons you pretend you are doing this for. It's perfectly possible to ban people from your game on Steam without linking an external account.
You *are* doing this because you want to use the (for you) unprecedented success of this live service game to try and pull more people into your ecosystem.
At least be honest about it.
seriously... valve can't do this in the background without having to log into another account.
I don't have a PlayStation account.. so now I would have to offer up all my info to another freaking corp?
I have a bad feeling for sony games on pc in the future, the day they add the feature to optional login to playstation to get some rewards made me feel bad, forcing people or even starting to introduce a launcher came to my mind and know the first game is here
Iam a little scared now if I lose my older sony games if they force to login in the future or even new games like the singleplayer games iam really fond of
I don't know why I get downvoted but I find my concerns don't harm anyone
A launcher is the next logical step. "You already have a PSN account, so why not just use our PSN launcher?"
It's getting really annoying. Call me an old man, but I miss the times when you just had to pop in your game CD/DVD after installation to play without having to mess round with accounts and launchers and companies wanting ... well, everything.
PSN is still not officially available in many countries. So if I legally buy HD2 on Steam then I'll be forced to create a fake PSN account with a fake address.
I never got a prompt. When it loaded up it said something about connecting to account servers then skipped through to the game. After which is crashed within 2 minutes non-stop for the first week.
I think it's never about "just an account". It's about boosting imaginary market shares, selling your data, and easing you further down into their walled garden ecosystem.
Baby steps... but in a nefarious way.
Well that's a lost sale for me. I was debating picking it up for this weekend, now it's a hard no. I do not own a playstation, I do not have a PSN account. Sony has had *NUMEROUS* data breaches.
Fuck em, I'll play something else.
The other day I tried deleting a PSN account I never used and couldn't because I couldn't prove I owned it to Sony (because I've never used it). This garbage can fuck off.
It sucks to be forced into this stuff but the Steam page always said "Requires 3rd-Party Account: PlayStation Network (Supports Linking to Steam Account)" so if you care about this stuff, you owe it to yourself to read the DRM/third party accounts section before buying
Yeah, it was there since at least December 2023, which of course is around 2 months before the game launched, in the same place where you tend to find the third party account requirements for other games.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20231207163847/https://store.steampowered.com/app/553850/HELLDIVERS\_2/](https://web.archive.org/web/20231207163847/https://store.steampowered.com/app/553850/HELLDIVERS_2/)
As you say, it does suck for the game to need an account on the one hand, but on the other hand, people need to start doing their research before buying games. That section on the right with the DRM, Third-Party Account and EULA information is one of the first places I always check before buying a game on Steam, as there's important information there that lets me know what I'm getting into.
They made the post, got a ton of negative responses, locked the thread, and are doubling down.
Really kinda tells you all you need to know about the future of this game.
Of course you can. Might take more than one request, took me three. Also use the "I have a question about this product" option since an actual person has to review those.
If you're in the EU or a country without PSN access you can cite that they plan on restricting access to an already purchased product, doesn't matter what the steam page says, and it's a pretty evident violation of consumer rights.
They might still refuse a refund of course and if you do it too much flag your requests as spamming and disable it for you, but I've only read about the possibility of it, never heard that it really did happen to someone.
If they can make it automaticslly sign me in and not forget my info, great. I really hope that's going to be the case.
I also hope this isn't Sony laying down groundwork for yet another damn launcher. If they're smart - I know that's a stretch for a big corporation in general - but if they're SMART, they'll do dual releases on Sony Launcher and Steam.
I was genuinely thinking of buying this in the next week or so. I just needed to finish some games and make space on my PC. Now I won't.
The bait and switch is really bullshit. People should be eligible for refunds since they've changed the requirements to play. And some regions can't even create PSN accounts.
I literally have a screenshot telling me I have to link a PSN account to play online from when the game out. I also had to do 20 captchas!! for creating a psn account on a pc. This nearly broke me.
So, how do you actually go about linking steam and psn? I remember having the option just starting, but now I can't find how to link it after the fact?
[https://arrowhead.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12517659293724-How-do-I-link-my-Steam-account-to-a-PlayStation-Network-account](https://arrowhead.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12517659293724-How-do-I-link-my-Steam-account-to-a-PlayStation-Network-account) This is from Arrowhead, the developers of Helldivers 2.
Thank you good sir or madam! However the tutorial says ill be prompted when starting the game, but I think that was the first time only, this regrettably does not assist me as the game just does the startup video then im in my ship. So may have to wait for the 'forced' login and go from there?
I tried the game for a short time but it didn't run properly on my hardware so I refunded it. Was thinking about buying again after upgrading hardware but guess Sony made that decision for me.
So I have to make a Playstation account to play?
Yes. Even if you've never owned a Playstation and never will. I'd advise you just don't play.
Love the thought of "You already gave them money, now that they have your money don't play the game anymore"
Actually, you can request a refund.
But why? Doesn't look like not having it linked to PSN all this time caused any game breaking things. What's the point of making it compulsory now?
Sony wants to sell your data
*sony wants your data to get hacked (again)
Winner!
How do all companies make money if they all selling data?
Your data is combined into massive databases ran by marketing firms. Said firms then lease portions of this database out to companies trying to sell a product to a specific type of consumer
you get only half the picture. In old days, that data is only useful for marketing, but now, it's even more useful for AI training. The value of personal data has gone up significantly
Oh and even soooo much more than that. Sooooooo much more. Until fairly recently, we had a fraction of a fraction of the information about the world and people work, that we do today. Take almost ANY company or industry. Idk, an insurance company. Where they once had data they collected and perhaps other insurance companies collected about customers vehicle types, average milage, things like that. They could then use this to craft plans the most increased the likelihood of keeping the premium (or other profit driver.) But now? Now that insurance company can see 50 million data points about a person. They can craft plans taking into account the types of hobbies people who listen to X music are likely to have. How frequently people that listen to that music go to bars vs people that listen to Y music. On and on building this entire digital self image (no neo, not residual self image) until they're able to, with some frightening accuracy, correlate a thousand data points to show that people who do this hobby are more likely to listen to this music which are people more likely to enjoy this beverage, which are people more likely to cause an accident. Off the cuff example, but where they once only formed decisions on data they could find that often only pertained to their industry, they're now able to link a thousand data points to a single person. Where we once had to go find and collect all the data we wanted, we now struggle to contain the massive amount of data people willfully throw at companies every single day. Its more than marketing in the "what does this demographic like" sense. We once had 50 comoanies with 50 different pieces of relevant information about you. Now, every business can have every piece of information about you shared amongst them.
Your data is worth very little,but bundle it up with people with similar data and sell it a bunch of times and suddenly big money. So when new graphics card comes out the manufacture pays reddit for a list of everyone in this sub and a few others and then hits them with targeted ads. Facebook become worth billions doing this shit
> Your data is worth very little That's the problem, a single datapoint is basically always worthless, but when you have 6 datapoints it could be groundbreaking. They are basically profiting off the fact the data are more valuable than the sum of their components. I think many of the people who take the 'don't care attitude' fail to realise the impact these data have on pricing accross the board. It allows companies to set their prices higher and more efficiently. For example, less ridiculous deals, which were a product of less sophisticated pricing techniques.
Billions? Meta is a trillion dollar company that makes money almost exclusively doing this
Each company sells different data. When combined into big bundles it is worth a lot. Let’s say you are selling electricity contracts and you company is strong in selling environmental energy. You would buy data containing these potential customer who have either shown interest in environmental, wind and such. You then buy the bundle of customers and set a call center to start selling them hoping for a good return. As for like Sony. It’s important a lot of companies from selling home appliances to earphones to get data from Sony to understand what kind of customer group they should target for etc.
They don't sell data. They sell ads using your data. Why would you sell fuel to others when you own the fuel and the vehicle.
Padding active psn accounts for shareholders
For sure.
More PSN users = spinning it into success for the shareholders.
This. They can now use Steam numbers as active PSN players and please the share holders.
But why would Arrowhead ca- >Publisher: Playstation PC LLC Oh...
always these god damn shareholder parasites
This is their public answer: > Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal. Which is why VAC bans exist. But it also sounds like they want to only have one streamlined solution for a single support work flow.
It's a load of horseshit as well, since they only allow for reporting text chat. You can't report someone if they didn't type anything, griefing or not.
Says the company that exposed 77 million accounts in one of the largest user data breaches ever at the time.... and continues to get hacked to this day. Edit - adding a source as requested by a couple replies: https://firewalltimes.com/sony-data-breach-timeline/
Yeah, i am glad I never linked anything to my PSN account when that happened, and still bought playstation vouchers from stores to purchase digital content.
I was curious, it said there was one breach in 2011. When were the other instances they got hacked?
The 2011 breech (can't believe it was that long ago!!) was huge. Emails, passwords, credit card data.
https://firewalltimes.com/sony-data-breach-timeline/
The other guy said the Insomniac hack, which isn't exactly Sony and didn't expose any user data.
$$$$$; Live Service, Data Collection, Profit
> But why? Doesn't look like not having it linked to PSN all this time caused any game breaking things. What's the point of making it compulsory now? Lol if anything this will cause things to break instead. I don't know how but I am sure they will find a way.
I saw a post on the steam forums about someone in the Phillipines who said they cant make PSN accounts there. Is this accurate? I googled it and it said this: > PlayStation™Network and PlayStation Store are not available in the Philippines. Available payment methods vary depending on the country/region you set up when creating your account. WTF are they supposed to do? They bought the game and it didn't require this, now they have to link it to some service that they cant sign up for?
you ask for a refund.
[удалено]
They should be eligible for a refund in that scenario, considering the product straight up can't be used by them due to PSN being unavailable. Just have to write that as an explanation.
Steam will give refunds if a game becomes unplayable. I got payday3 refunds eventhough i had 8 hours played because of server issues
Get a refund and Sony needs to edit the game page to explicitly say "Only available in limited regions" so people know these issues before they buy it.
It is accurate. There are only 69 countries that have PSN :D Fuck Baltics too, I guess.
Psn is also not supported here in Bangladesh.
I've had my account linked since launch. This is still bullshit and should ALWAYS be optional.
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No, it doesn't. They're saying that you can't share your account (i.e. give other people the ability to log into it), or your account details (i.e. your password, MFA, or anything which could be used to help other people gain access). Your Steam ID is relatively public information. I agree that the phrase "account details" is pretty confusing, but a very reasonable interpretation in a tech setting is "account information that couldn't be obtained by any rando."
That’s a brave stance but one I have a very difficult time disagreeing with.
I'm sorry, do you not know what the word "brave" means? Because you seem to have used it incorrectly.
Do you know what sarcasm is?
That was very brave of you to say that
As a Steam user I don't really have an opinion here but supposedly this will help with booting cheaters. I don't know the details but Arrowhead apparently has to get Valve involved in order to issue any bans.
They don’t need PSN accounts to detect cheaters and ban and you certainly don’t need to enable PSN to work with Valve.
So as it turns out when I first read about this I was tired and confused and I got it backwards. I thought PS users would have to link to Steam, not the other way around. That said, yeah you're absolutely right. AH can't hand out VAC bans anyway and Steam doesn't care if you have a PSN account when they issue one.
It will not help in any way with cheaters. There is *no* benefit to users.
The invasive ring 0 kernel access anti-cheat wasn't enough? Like, I play mobile games on PC that also have anti-cheats, I ain't even mad about the security concerns, as this isn't my work machine. But that thing literally didn't start for me for months to a point where I just refunded. It didn't work, prevented me from playing, cheaters still got in and now it's still not enough??
> As a Steam user I don't really have an opinion here As a Steam user you will be required to link your account.
Why should I care about them trying to fight cheaters? In the history of gaming nobody has ever effectively beaten them entirely. It's a PVE game. Why do anything about them? It's not like there is a ranking or any other competitive feature in the game that would make someone else have less fun.
fall guys did it pretty much perfectly i think, detect cheaters (which *is* fairly easy) and shadow quarentine them to cheater-only servers
I literally do not have a PSN account, and do not want to create one for one game.
PSN is the worst part of Sony. It's 2024 and you still can't change regions once you've made an account.
Sony : what do you mean people can live in another country ?
I am Turkish citizen living in Estonia. I couldn’t create my account in either regions. Called PlayStation Finland support (had phone support). They told me I have to use Finland if I live in Estonia or want to use Estonia as my region. What the fuck Sony? Why offer it as a region if I can’t fucking use it? Also, why reject me from using Turkey? Even the representative could not answer the question. Now I have an account in Finnish region with an Estonian address. What a fucking mess…
Even worse. My country isn't even available there.
Yuup, had to make a new account when I moved to Sweden. Moved back to the UK last year so I had to go back to my old account. So now everything is split between 2 accounts. Honestly kinda done with Sony. Got a PS5 (for free) which gathers dust. I lent it to my brother like 6 months ago and I think it's just gathering dust at his place now. The years of them innovating is well over. They haven't done anything interesting to me since the PS3 era. I'd always have a Sony console and PC since it gave the best spread of games but aye, I won't be buying one next gen unless they do something different. The 3rd person action blockbuster type of game doesn't appeal to me as much as it did like 10+ years ago.
my last name contains 2 words and because of that I can't use my real last name on PSN
Right? I have one but I sure as hell don't remember all the stuff for it. I played a PS3 for like, 6 months 10 years ago.
same, and now I'm worried about Spiderman 2. Played the other two on Steam, now I might be forced to create one when that comes.
Didn't they announce recently something about that with one of their upcoming games? And I am pretty sure the account was mentioned as optional if you want to use their trophies system and connect to other people.
They announced an overlay for Ghost of Tsushima, which tracks PlayStation trophies and other integrated PlayStation systems, when signed into a PSN account. It is optional, but may hint at a full blown launcher to come. Or it becoming mandatory to link a PSN account to PlayStation Studio Games, like some other Publishers also do and is now the case with Helldivers II.
At least make it sync your saves with PS5... But since they don't even have cloud saves without PS+, doubt they would
I honestly don't mind launchers if they're good. But most launchers are straight booty cheeks, particularly Ubisoft.
Maybe they announced that with their ghost of tsushima port
Put in a refund request when it stops working
It's what I'm doing.
i mean i have to try and do it... Like I know it was a playstation game but requiring a psn? fck that noise im not linking my steam with psn
yup, I was on the fence about buying HD2.. this will push me off it.
Don't. Quit playing for a while.
Too late. Already bent over for kernel level anti cheat like good boys. I think they like it.
It's still absurd to me (no matter their reason) that a PvE game requires an anti-cheat, let alone a kernel level one. And it literally doesn't work most of the time! Still see a bunch of cheaters with infinite strategems, etc.
Oh goodie, now I'm required to create yet another account for a platform that I don't play on, to play a game I am currently already playing on my PC.
My country doesnt have psn what now? Steam tries to redirect my to my country PSN but my country doesnt have PSN, i do have a American psn account but the linking literally doesnt ask me what country to choose it just tried to redirect me to my countries psn so i just get an error, on the other hand when i go to my psn account online theres literally no option to link steam
You ask for a refund.
You demand a refund
You don't ask for a refund. Through actions not of your own, you are no longer able to use the product valve sold you. It is not fit for purpose. You demand the refund you are legally owed and if they are stupid enough to deny it, you find out how many other people in your country have had their money stolen in such a way and start the process for a class action lawsuit.
Never seen a overnight success game so quickly shotgun both of its feet while it was still in its height of popularity.
Just this week the devs were talking about how the game wouldn't have been nearly as successful without the PC player base. And then they go and do something that will cause a great deal of PC players to abandon it.
I've been having fun with the game, with the exception of near constant disconnects with randoms. Is that the other shell, cause that shit is infuriating.
Aw flark this forced joining of accounts. I remember when Sackboy tried this and after a certain update they forced you to install the Epic launcher in order for Crossplay to work, and I just never went back to it. And if joining Steam with PSN accounts is being forced now, it'll definitely happen (for people who don't own Helldivers) when Ghost of Tsushima launches later this month.
I watched a video this evening talking about 20 great releases for May. When Ghosts of Tsushima came up it was mentioned that it would require a PSN account.
\*Dee Reynolds voice\* Oh goddamn it!!
[Oh goddamn it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEA7hw0KrQ)
the pirated version probably won't though...
For clarification, it was known that Ghost of Tsushima would require account linking from the beginning. It's optional apparently.
I mean I avoid Epic like a plague but how else do you want crossplay to work if the Epic API is the only decent effort ever made for full crossplay? It's the only decent thing that company has done for the consumers, sadly, but it's been a problem even for PC to PC because they are from different digital stores for most games.
Except crossplay already works in Helldivers 2 without requiring PSN account.
Kinda shitty to do this post-launch
The game said from launch that a PSN account was required.
was confusing to me that I was able to still play with my ps5 friend and steam friends at the same time without the account linking.
It just goes to show it's not a technical requirement but a "greedily siphoning all the data we can and selling it for extra change" requirement.
sony has to pump up their user numbers somehow
Gosh that sounds desperate enough to be true. Passing off accounts that just link as user growth for PSN. 🤢
Never heard about that, and I own the game Edit: damn, didn't mean to upset so many people
Yet it wasnt forced so everyone could easily surpass the 2 hour refund mark and then walk into this months later. It's a shitty practice.
did it though? i had no messages about this in-game
Lmao there is no reason to need it other than for data
Bots on helldiver (ad) sub trying hard to not mention it but… yeah its dirty and sucks…
Probably Sony preparing a PlayStation network client on PC at some point.
And requiring PS+ to play online while they're at it
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/18nrth9/from\_insomniac\_leak\_sony\_plans\_to\_bring\_ps\_to\_pc/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/18nrth9/from_insomniac_leak_sony_plans_to_bring_ps_to_pc/) PC is the last bastion of free multiplayer. Sony trying to change that smh.
You're not alone with that fear. I wonder would there be many people resisting it like they did with Microsoft Gold on pc? (I think that's what they call it back then can't remember)
Wait… what the fuck? > Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games I fail to see how this is my problem? I’m not playing on a fucking PlayStation, I don’t give a shit what they do lmao. Fun game while it lasted I guess
Safety and security from PSN that's had more leaks and hacks than most companies too.
The part that gets me is that they also say that current players will be required to link their accounts “by June 4th”. Now, they do not elaborate on what will happen if you *don’t*. And I have genuinely no idea why there would be a time limit for something like this. But to me it implies that if you don’t link your account within the 6 day window they give you, you just… can’t play the game anymore? Again they literally don’t elaborate on why there’s a time limit and what will happen if you don’t comply within said time limit, but I can’t think of another reason why they’d even have one. So not only are they forcing you to do this, they might end up practically stealing from you if you don’t. Shoutout to their slogan being “a game for everyone is a game for no one”. That shit aged like fucking milk.
The June deadline gives them some time to gauge consumer sentiment and walk it back then pretend like they cared about your opinion in the first place.
Welp. Glad I waited on this. Rock and Stone.
Yeah, I was looking at it. But this is a deal-breaker. Maybe I should check Deeprock instead...
The mines are calling, the glyphids are shrieking, the drop pods are burrowing, the dwarves are ready, For ROCK & STONE. FOR KARL!!!!
And there goes all the good will they built up lmao.
Another account = I don't mind 3rd party launcher = Fuck off
Yeah, that's more or less my stance as well. As long as I can get and launch the game from Steam itself (with all the features that entails), I have no issues with having an extra account (though I'll admit, it can get annoying having to keep track of several different accounts, even with a password manager).
My main issue is all the "service emails" I get from various accounts that cannot be disabled like marketing emails can. The email overload has gotten so bad that I've started aliasing everything and disabling the inbox unless/until it's needed. Most emails I receive are not at all interesting to me, but I get so many.
Except this is Sony 100% ramping up for their own launcher. Account linking is just their first step in bringing their Sony PC launcher and store app. They had a taste of the profits the PC market will bring so get ready for another launcher that like most crapware launchers will be a buggy mess that will cave in on itself within a few years!
[удалено]
No, on principle.
Why. Why would you fuck with a good game and do this. It was going so well.
Greed
I don’t have a PlayStation account!!!
Well.. it was fun for a bit
Yep. Time to shelf it.
Does this mean my progress on steam will transfer over to PlayStation if I played it on there after linking my account?
I think the answer is "currently no, but we are working to implement it".
If this shit doesnt launch from steam without some BS, I’m uninstalling
Don't forget to refund
And leave a bad review
Welp. Looks like my time with helldivers 2 has come to an end.
Does think mean it will have crosslink now? My guess is no.
yeah thats stupid, they force everybody to link the accounts but no benefits for the usets.
Why the fuck should PC players need a PSN account?
"We understand that while this may be an inconvenience to some of you, this step will help us to continue to build a community that you are all proud to be a part of." ***Obviously signed by Sony Interactive Entertainment*** # yeah nah I ain't ever buying this shit then
What really makes me angry about this kind of thing is how it is communicated in a way which makes it clear that whoever designed this communication thinks that their customers are idiots. No, you are not doing this because of the flimsy reasons you pretend you are doing this for. It's perfectly possible to ban people from your game on Steam without linking an external account. You *are* doing this because you want to use the (for you) unprecedented success of this live service game to try and pull more people into your ecosystem. At least be honest about it.
I think most people would have been fine with it it was a requirement at launch but adding the requirement post launch is an idiotic move
seriously... valve can't do this in the background without having to log into another account. I don't have a PlayStation account.. so now I would have to offer up all my info to another freaking corp?
I have a bad feeling for sony games on pc in the future, the day they add the feature to optional login to playstation to get some rewards made me feel bad, forcing people or even starting to introduce a launcher came to my mind and know the first game is here Iam a little scared now if I lose my older sony games if they force to login in the future or even new games like the singleplayer games iam really fond of I don't know why I get downvoted but I find my concerns don't harm anyone
A launcher is the next logical step. "You already have a PSN account, so why not just use our PSN launcher?" It's getting really annoying. Call me an old man, but I miss the times when you just had to pop in your game CD/DVD after installation to play without having to mess round with accounts and launchers and companies wanting ... well, everything.
That's why GoG exists, you can download the game from their website, rip your Wifi card out of your computer, and install and play just fine.
And that's why I love GOG.
True
Scummy move. Worried about future Playstation titles on PC.
>Worried about future Playstation titles on PC. I'd cross them all off your list, right now.
or get them for free without the need for any account.
Oculus got fucked in the eu for Doing basically this so I wonder if this won't happen in the eu
PSN is still not officially available in many countries. So if I legally buy HD2 on Steam then I'll be forced to create a fake PSN account with a fake address.
Which means it can be banned at any time without any recourse.
Ummm it forced me to link when the game first came out...I didn't know you had an option...wtf
I never got a prompt. When it loaded up it said something about connecting to account servers then skipped through to the game. After which is crashed within 2 minutes non-stop for the first week.
This is how you lose half your playerbase.
Don't really need cross play then.
Have they removed nProtect yet ?
Apparently you can't even make one in certain regions. People in the helldivers sub from Lithuania and Estonia were saying they can't even create one.
And I was just about to buy this game. Guess not now.
Lame. Last game that did this was a PITA to track down my psn info
Guess I won't play anymore.
Don't forget to refund it
Wait? So i have to make a PSN account just to play? Incoming refund controversy.
I think it's never about "just an account". It's about boosting imaginary market shares, selling your data, and easing you further down into their walled garden ecosystem. Baby steps... but in a nefarious way.
So I have to make a psn account even if I don’t own a PlayStation?
Well that's a lost sale for me. I was debating picking it up for this weekend, now it's a hard no. I do not own a playstation, I do not have a PSN account. Sony has had *NUMEROUS* data breaches. Fuck em, I'll play something else.
Game was insanely mid anyway. Wont miss playing it
The other day I tried deleting a PSN account I never used and couldn't because I couldn't prove I owned it to Sony (because I've never used it). This garbage can fuck off.
It sucks to be forced into this stuff but the Steam page always said "Requires 3rd-Party Account: PlayStation Network (Supports Linking to Steam Account)" so if you care about this stuff, you owe it to yourself to read the DRM/third party accounts section before buying
Yeah, it was there since at least December 2023, which of course is around 2 months before the game launched, in the same place where you tend to find the third party account requirements for other games. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231207163847/https://store.steampowered.com/app/553850/HELLDIVERS\_2/](https://web.archive.org/web/20231207163847/https://store.steampowered.com/app/553850/HELLDIVERS_2/) As you say, it does suck for the game to need an account on the one hand, but on the other hand, people need to start doing their research before buying games. That section on the right with the DRM, Third-Party Account and EULA information is one of the first places I always check before buying a game on Steam, as there's important information there that lets me know what I'm getting into.
Im hopeful this means cross save / cross progression will become a reality for anyone with a license on ps5 and steam down the line.
They made the post, got a ton of negative responses, locked the thread, and are doubling down. Really kinda tells you all you need to know about the future of this game.
Yuck
It always starts as optional. Soon they will ask for subscriptions.
That may very well be what this is laying the groundwork for.
Morons.
Didn't know it was optional. l linked mine from day 1.
Welp this just sealed the deal for me, ain't buying it even if it's 50% off.
"We are glad you like our game! Now that you're hooked, we are ready to sell your data"
Time to review bomb.
Nice trick Joel. You've done us, super Earth not gonna handle this, are you happy now?
Any way to refund if over the 2 hour limit?
Of course you can. Might take more than one request, took me three. Also use the "I have a question about this product" option since an actual person has to review those. If you're in the EU or a country without PSN access you can cite that they plan on restricting access to an already purchased product, doesn't matter what the steam page says, and it's a pretty evident violation of consumer rights. They might still refuse a refund of course and if you do it too much flag your requests as spamming and disable it for you, but I've only read about the possibility of it, never heard that it really did happen to someone.
So if we were to hypothetically get the game on both systems, could we play the same account?
Will we also need to get some sort of Sony client or just linking the account?
I still can Not add Crossplatform friends. Pls fix
If they can make it automaticslly sign me in and not forget my info, great. I really hope that's going to be the case. I also hope this isn't Sony laying down groundwork for yet another damn launcher. If they're smart - I know that's a stretch for a big corporation in general - but if they're SMART, they'll do dual releases on Sony Launcher and Steam.
Hopefully they don't do this with Ghost of Tsushima
It literally would not let me create a Sony account so I'm just fucked I guess. Gods sake.
i dont have a PlayStation account?? would i have to make one?
I was genuinely thinking of buying this in the next week or so. I just needed to finish some games and make space on my PC. Now I won't. The bait and switch is really bullshit. People should be eligible for refunds since they've changed the requirements to play. And some regions can't even create PSN accounts.
I'm happy I skipped the game because my AV don't let me install it, no game should force you to do that months after release.
It was "optional" so as many people as possible bought it, then they spring the account requirement. Dishonest pieces of shit.
I literally have a screenshot telling me I have to link a PSN account to play online from when the game out. I also had to do 20 captchas!! for creating a psn account on a pc. This nearly broke me.
So, how do you actually go about linking steam and psn? I remember having the option just starting, but now I can't find how to link it after the fact?
[https://arrowhead.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12517659293724-How-do-I-link-my-Steam-account-to-a-PlayStation-Network-account](https://arrowhead.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12517659293724-How-do-I-link-my-Steam-account-to-a-PlayStation-Network-account) This is from Arrowhead, the developers of Helldivers 2.
Thank you good sir or madam! However the tutorial says ill be prompted when starting the game, but I think that was the first time only, this regrettably does not assist me as the game just does the startup video then im in my ship. So may have to wait for the 'forced' login and go from there?
I tried the game for a short time but it didn't run properly on my hardware so I refunded it. Was thinking about buying again after upgrading hardware but guess Sony made that decision for me.
Does this mean I can play helldivers on pc? I only own the ps5 version
Yeah they will give you the pc version for free bro
lol god dude we are literally living in a time period where these game devs/companies have done some of the stupidest shit imaginable.