Sony overturns Helldivers 2 PSN requirement following backlash
eurogamer.net
eurogamer.net
The publishers wish to somehow capture the players with their own launchers, but this is never going to do them any good and is widely hated.
What monopoly position? There are dozens of game stores available on all the platforms Steam supports with nothing restricting users from installing and using however many of them they want. Outside of Valve's own Steam Deck hardware users had to go out of their way to install Steam in the first place. Even there the installation of third party launchers is not just supported but encouraged.
Some of the world's most popular games are not even available on Steam.
By the same logic was it not Apple's job to decide that music downloads shouldn't have DRM and tell publishers to either get on board or not be available on iTunes?
I mean just like in that case I wish it didn't need to come to this, I wish the publishers would just not be piles of garbage to begin with, but this is the world we actually exist in so sometimes it's nice for a player in a position of power to use their power for good.
Steam cannot stop people from installing other game stores, so they can have whatever rules they want.
Publishers have been hard for micro transactions. That’s the whole reason for it. Maybe they are also siphoning your usage data, but that’s mainly a side hustle at this point.
Why cut a piece off for Steam when they can bypass them entirely and force users to buy directly?
That is a completely different issue, and if you believe you don't need steam go ahead.
But here people brought and played H2 via steam, before Sony decided they could profit off of the game's popularity to boost their PSN account numbers by forcing all players to create a PSN account.
Nah, if it was possible to sign up for PSN accounts, people would have hated it but done it. Look at how Bethesda, Ubisoft, EA, and other enshittified game companies still sell gajillions of copies.
It's inaccurate to lump in the actual reason for change (game being unavailable in regions) vs. a reason no game company has ever been motivated to change ("we don't like making thirdparty accounts").
> promising free upgrades and then walking back from it
When did they do this? As I remember they did not promise free upgrades, but was forced to provide them anyway for some games because of the backlash.
> forcing people to use the new controllers even if the PS4 ones are perfectly capable to play the new games
This is an interesting topic. The PS5 controller is one of the console's key selling points over competing consoles. I can definitely understand why they would want to ensure that game developers support that controller specifically. Otherwise its features would likely not be used as much by third party games, which would be a shame.
Obviously Sony factored the additional earnings from controller sales into their decision to enact this artificial limitation. But I think there's more to it than just consumer hostility.
> increasing prices of games and consoles
They were the first company to increase the price of their AAA games, which everyone has since done as well.
How did they raise the price of consoles?
> bullying companies so they don't support cross-platform play
Definitely consumer-hostile. Luckily things have changed for the better in this generation due to better competition I guess. I would just wish that more games would have "console only" crossplay.
> When did they do this? As I remember they did not promise free upgrades, but was forced to provide them anyway for some games because of the backlash.
It's been a while, but I think it was with Horizon Forbidden West
> PS4 controllers
I agree this one needed a bit more nuance. I understand they wanted to incentivize the new controller features, but it's the fact that the PS5 is technically capable of using those controllers (since you can use them for PS4 games) but Sony chooses to not allow it that's anti-consumer. Also since you can use PS4 controllers to play streamed PS5 games on PC or PS4 itself.
> How did they raise the price of consoles?
In August 2022 they increased the console price by ~10% pretty much all over the world except the US. Microsoft did the same in June 2023.
All it took was a 3-4 day campaign of PR hell, and refunds from around the globe to get them to move an inch.
I bet Sony has a backlog issue to make account creation globally available. Then at that point, there will be nothing to stop them from forcing it down everyones throat.
What I have heard is that in some countries (UK?), Sony requires identity verification to register an account ( similar to “id.me” or login.gov) for a gaming service.
Shit is wild
I assume that it is widely believed that account activation enables all kinds desirable outcomes - additional data collection, product stickiness, a marketing target, a pre-activated credit card, etc - even if it is customer hostile and customers absolutely hate it.
We've long been in the phase of consolidated corporate capitalism where a company as large as Sony believes they can just force you to do what they want, if they believe it's good for them.
Unfortunately, without competition, they are probably right to believe this, at least in the short to medium term. I think that people just don't tend to vote with their dollar, like they should, when there are no alternatives. But I do think that companies that are customer-hostile eventually pay the price, even if two, or three, or ten executive teams get to cash out first.
More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40271104
I'm sure they would have maintained the requirement if they could, despite the backlash. But money got in the way.
What? If someone holds you up at gunpoint but decides to let you go after you scream for the police, they dont get praise they get jail time.
Sony did nothing right in a situation where the right thing would have been to do nothing at all to begin with. They decided to try to strangle a huge success for the sake of cash. The fact that They reverted after the game ene from “overwhelmingly positive” to “overwhelmingly negative” and they got bombed with refund requests isn’t something to praise, it’s a given. They realized that they fucked up royally and that their plan to spin the community to PSN would not work so they stopped.
The people deserving praise are the players and the community that united against Sony, and the developers and leads who listened to the community and honestly and openly said “if you don’t like it speak up, we can’t change the decision but Sony will have to listen to the response”
I have no doubt if refunds were not an issue, then Sony would have given gamers the equivalent of a middle finger.
Forget your privacy concerns.
Too often, these corporations act all high and mighty when they make some tiny concession to customers or avoid a PR disaster. That's not them being generous or ethical, that's just them covering their own butts. They have all the money and power in the world, so the least they can do is meet basic standards.We should not reward this as if it is some noble, praiseworthy behavior.
Corporations have immense power and resources. When they finally decide to do the right thing after public pressure, that is not deserving of accolades. They are looking out for themselves first and foremost. So let's not act like they're heroes for it - they're just avoiding getting called out, that's all. True ethics and responsibility from corporations should be the norm, not some rare, praise-worthy occurrence.