Sony forcing you to have a PlayStation Network account for all their recent PC releases hasn't been well liked, and they of course have no plans to back down on it.
During the latest Sony Group Corporation investors call in their Q&A session at about 45:40, a question came up about what lessons they will take away from Concord (which Sony shut down and then closed the game studio).
Hiroki Totoki (President, COO and CFO) replied with an English translation from a live interpreter, so the translation is a bit loose and rough, but this is what was said:
Regarding that matter we have learned a lot. The way to face the issues regarding PC for instance, the PlayStation accounts that we have offered, by offering them for instance, sometimes that tends to invite push-back. But for the live service games, so in order to maintain order of the gaming, so that anybody can enjoy the game safely, we need to create environment conducive to that, of course enjoying the game freely.
Having some restrictions, may not call it rule, but to ask the users and gamers to follow the manner, and those balances are very important and we have to continue to seek the best way to achieve this.
Clearly the PSN requirement isn't going anywhere, and will be in all their future games, even though it's unpopular and locks out a whole lot of regions from buying their games. Sony want that extra control over their games, especially when they're now releasing outside of their own PlayStation console.
In some ways, it makes sense for their online live-service games, and you do have to remember the context of the question was for Concord that was supposed to be live-service.
However, it really makes very little sense for their single-player games where it's also now forced like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Until Dawn, God of War Ragnarök and more to come. Forcing online accounts for single-player games is never going to go down well but it's here to stay for Sony's PC releases.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Now I'm feeling like not buying anything from them even more.
As for multiplayer safety: They already lost me at the mere principle of multiplayer being centralised on servers fully owned and managed by the dev/publisher. That's a red flag for the playable software in question being a business model first, game second.
Last edited by emphy on 10 November 2024 at 3:40 am UTC
Avehicle7887 Nov 10
Their loss not mine. Plenty of other games to play.
I mean for Multiplayer games - ok, with a whole lot of good will and booze, i will accept that argument. But for singleplayer? Go try to fool your grandma instead of treating us like 3-year-olds...
Do you remember the time when digital distribution with its more or less hassle-free accessability essentially killed video game piracy?
Well, they saw how it's going with the video piracy and thought 'We can do better than that and revive piracy even quicker!'
Last edited by Termy on 10 November 2024 at 9:18 am UTC
DavidePorterBridges Nov 10
Crossbuy would be amazing but it ain’t happening. 🤣
I don’t appreciate being mandatory for everyone of course. But as long as they give you the option of not buying their games. I don’t see the issue.
Cheers.
Last edited by DavidePorterBridges on 10 November 2024 at 9:51 am UTC
Nope. ANY game that requires me to make an account with them does not get purchased.Even for MMOs this need can be disproven by counter-example.
Except for MMO type, where duh, you do NEED one.
Single player? Frack no.
Of course, I could make another new gmail acct just for them, but honestly,
none of their games are appealing to me anyway.
Guild Wars 2 lets you play on Steam and log in to arena.net (account management site) with a Steam account.
Though that does restrict what codes can be claimed, so an actual account does have benefits.
On which I lost all interest for the in attempting to create one before the Steam account option existed and learning how non-functional that process was.
Down to not being able to open a support ticket normally, having to dig through the site for another way to initiate one and ask them to fix the account.
Followed with horrendous onboarding ingame, making this another example of them clearly not wanting my money for expansions and other items, so also not receiving it.
I would still consider Horizon Forbidden West if it comes on a decent sale.
But any game which requires (it being optional is fine) a PSN account is a no-go.
This since it adds an unneeded point of failure to the game, outside of Steam's control and with Sony dirextly being able to sabotage it after purchase.
TangoBaker Nov 10
Sony wants me to use an account in their system for my safety. In return, I don't give them any money to keep them safe from being robbed. We all look out for each other and that makes the world a better place.
CanadianBlueBeer Nov 10
I'm gonna be leery about future Blizz games after the idiocy of D4. (mmo lite thing)
Oh, and the no lan play for D2 Res. (stoopids)
yeah, I'm getting crankier in my old age. /shrug
mZSq7Fq3qs Nov 10
I will then sail the seas for those titles... I am not gonna buy any game that requires 3rd party shittery.Tut tut tut, that is a terrible thing to do.
Mohandevir Nov 11
But in my case, my initial reaction is: "If at least it enabled cross-saves between Playstation and PC, it might make the pill easier to swallow?"
I don’t appreciate being mandatory for everyone of course. But as long as they give you the option of not buying their games. I don’t see the issue.
Cheers.
One of the issues that are heavily discussed here is that PSN is not available in 121 countries around the world (including even some european countries like Lithuania, Estonia, North Macedonia, Monaco and so on). They have access to Steam, but not PSN. And now Sony blocks Steam sales for them also.
So for many people it's not "the option of not buying their games", it's simply no option to buy those games.
Kuduzkehpan Nov 16
if you want to play sony titles you have to use psn account.
which i dont understand why they force people after selling their products. like helldivers
and which i dont really understand why sony BLOCK my friends around the globe arent these titles multiplayer online games?
So i dont tolarate imperial thoughts it reminds me ww2 japanese fascism. maybe that was the reason as i look into PSN accounts are blocked by sony as mostly Russian-Turkish regions. african regions and so on. This is all about Politics world wide. USA-EU vs BRİCS.
And yes, I would say this was a hassle. But was it more hussle than what it is (artificially produced) now? I don't think so.
It's a Service Issue, not a technology problem.
DavidePorterBridges Nov 16
So for many people it's not "the option of not buying their games", it's simply no option to buy those games.
Well, we can all agree that that sucks.
I still think the features without the mandatory part are interesting, for me anyway.
Cheers mate.
Last edited by DavidePorterBridges on 17 November 2024 at 9:59 am UTC
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