- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
Sony’s game publishing arm has done a 180-degree turn on a controversial policy of requiring PC players to sign in with PlayStation accounts for some games, according to a blog post by the company.
Sony hasn’t lost hope that players will still go ahead and use a PlayStation account, though, as it’s tying several benefits to signing in.
The change is a major about-face for a handful of single-player titles after Sony faced considerable backlash from many angry PC players about the PlayStation account requirement to play the games.
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I bet the pirate versions were the superior product because they never required a PSN account.
They were.
I bought God of War Ragnarok through Steam, and had a hell of a time trying to get past the PlayStation account. I spent an hour or two trying to do this, gave up, refunded the game, and immediately pirated the game.
No PlayStation login, and the game worked fine with whatever updates I could find.
Fuck that, and fuck Sony. You will not do that to me again. I can’t speak for others though. I’m sure they will eventually pull this scummy shit again, and we’ll be talking about it. Again.
I really hope other publishers will be inspired. Just yesterday I had an hour to kill on a train ride, and wanted to play some Mass Effect on my SteamDeck. It took 25 minutes just to get started, because EA updated their required launcher, which couldn’t be bypassed because it required Internet connection, and then forced the update (which of course bugged out, and had to be redone thrice). A 25 minute boot time for something that doesn’t affect the game the slightest is a terrible user experience.
Valve should use it’s position on the market for something good and straight up not allow single player games to use external launchers. I’m buying the game on Steam so I just want to play, not make yet another 3rd party account and then pray the 3rd party launcher will work fine on Linux.
Hey there! I’m also going through Mass Effect right now. The EA app is literally the only thing I HATE about trying to play through those games!
Enjoy the adventure! Such great games. The Legendary Edition and the SteamDeck is a match made in heaven, except for the piece-of-shit that is the EA launcher/app.
Thank you!
I’ve played through them before way back on the Xbox 360, but Steam had a sale for them a couple of years ago for like $20, so I couldn’t resist getting them for a superior platform.
The EA app is by and large the only thing that truly sucks about these games. I already beat Mass Effect 1 again, and damn is that game boring at times. The story is still great of course, but it definitely shows it’s age! Mods have alleviated most of what I hated (looking at you MAKO…) and now I am about 75% through Mass Effect 2. I’ve beat ME3 before, but it has been so long that I’m hoping it isn’t as bad as I remember.
I played Mass Effect 2 first at the time, because I was renting games from a local video rental place. Loved it to bits. It’s crazy being able to play it with Alec Ryder’s armor from Andromeda. Fits Shep to a T!
Mildly surprised Sony actually budged on this. Of course, they really should have had this setup from the start. No one is going to like being forced to set up a PSN account to play a game, but I imagine a lot of people will do it for a free cosmetic skin or whatever in-game incentives they come up with.
No one is going to like being forced to set up a PSN account to play a game, but I imagine a lot of people will do it for a free cosmetic skin or whatever in-game incentives they come up with.
That’s the thing I don’t get. If they give a free skin or two, and advertise that, and also make it clear that it’s optional, I see no reason why they wouldn’t still get tons of people either way. That way, everyone is happy.
These companies really don’t understand that like, if you make good games, and you do things that gamers like, they will be happier with your games, buy more games, buy more DLC, etc. These game companies would make far more money being nicer than being shitty.
I suspect the heads of those companies, frequently not even being gamers themselves, don’t really see gamers as fellow human beings but instead think of them with the same level of empathy as one has for numbers in a ledger.
It probably doesn’t help that the phenomenon of fanboyism means that a large proportion of gamers might was well be nothing else than numbers in a ledger, given that they always go along with whatever the game maker that they’re fans of wishes and does, with no real bottom-line-affecting reaction.
Nice, waiting paid off. I’m actually interested in picking up the new God of War and Horizon games now.
Yeah, $10 for a remastered re-play of Horizon doesn’t sound like a bad time tbh…
Is it cheaper if you own the base game? I’m seeing $64.99 CAD. For $10 and no account I’d totally replay it. I played through the first time on PS4.
Yeah, it’s a $10 upgrade if you own the base game; I got it on sale a long time ago for $14.
I have the base game and didn’t know that, thank you random Internet person! $10 is indeed a good deal.
God of War Ragnarok is really good! Valhalla (free DLC, included) is also pretty good, but only play it after the main game is finished.
“However, to incentivize you to still sign in with a PSN account while playing those games, Sony says that it will “soon” be adding “in-game content unlocks” like outfits and resources.”
This is a half win.
For now.
I’ve honestly wanted to play all of these but haven’t gotten around to them and also didn’t want to do the Sony account thing out of principle. I wonder how they’d perform on my Steam Deck OLED
Ragnarok is fine if you’re playing on the actual screen. But if you’re gonna hook it up to a monitor, be prepared to see edge jaggies or get lots of frame lag; The SD can’t keep a steady frame rate on anything above Low settings. Low is fine on the built in screen cuz it’s too small to really make a difference. But on a large TV, it makes a big difference.
Maybe there’s a chance those games will come to GOG now that there isn’t the psn requirement.
They’re still region locked on steam so I wouldn’t hold my breath on this one.
Glad they came to their senses. I had trouble setting up one as I have/had a sony group account with no security info which is needed to reset the password. Turns out sony doesn’t filter periods from usernames from email. Just ended up adding a couple to my email address for a new account.
Only to add it back once they’ve made their sales
Can’t imagine anyone is going to fall for it
Iirc, Steam policy is to allow no-strings-attached refunds if that happens, and it indeed has happened before. I don’t see Sony reneging, just doing as stated which is to provide incentives to log in.
the steam page still shows 3rd party account requirement? or did I read wrong?
Starting with tomorrow’s release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PC, we’re working to add more benefits to playing with an account for PlayStation Network. The Last of Us Part II Remastered (coming April 3, 2025), in addition to God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, will all soon be adding in-game content unlocks for PlayStation Network account users.
“Working to” and “soon be adding” makes it sound like they haven’t gone live with the patches for those games quite yet.
