Account linking between steam and PlayStation is now mandatory
2 years ago by MrNesser to c/helldivers2
It's not available in any of the baltics countries either so wouldn't be surprised if it's not in Poland either.
Review bombing taking place.
"CALLING IN AN EAGLE"

Was the account linking mentionned anywhere on steam?
It's really feels like a new condition sneaked in... Edit: apparently it was clearly stated on steam and on the first launch of the game. I really have bad skipping habits...
The "it's to protect players against hakerzzzzz" doesn't feel very legit.
But they own Arrowhead. They already have 100% of the data and telemetry.
No they don't?
Helldivers 2 was produced with a Sony publishing deal, but unless I missed some news, Arrowhead is still independently owned.
How else are they going to make their subscription numbers look like they are going up when no one is buying PS5s?
If you read the announcement, it's obviously a very carefully worded prepared statement from Sony that they've been given and ordered to pass out. The hackers reasoning is made up and just the best excuse they could come up with, Sony wants more data in their environment and they're being forced to comply.
What a dumb move, timing this with trying to convince people to buy the new warbond. Hopefully Sony reverses this decision after seeing how badly this damages the health of the game.
Unfortunately for those requesting refunds, unless you're in an area that's soon to be excluded, you likely won't get your money back. The game has had the requirement for the PSN account linking listed on the Steam page since day 1, so it's unlikely that Valve will do much in this situation.
Arrowhead isn't free of guilt in this, but Sony and Valve should have both done a much better job at making this clear to players earlier on, since they're in charge of marketing/sales on PC. Like, in-game messaging would have been good for this. They also should have never allowed the sale of the game on regions PSN isn't available to in the first place, since they already knew they would killswitch non-linked accounts eventually.
What a disappointing day for democracy.
Arrowhead isn’t free of guilt in this, but Sony and Valve should have both done a much better job at making this clear to players earlier on, since they’re in charge of marketing/sales on PC.
Well they kinda did. When you first launched the game it did say that you need a PSN account to play. I know this because that's when I learned PSN isn't available in my country. But you were able to skip it and after skipping you never saw this notification again. Valve also has it on the store page "Requires 3rd-Party Account: PlayStation Network (Supports Linking to Steam Account)", but nobody reads those little notices. I don't blame anyone for missing that information, especially since not linking PSN accounts has not affected the game for months.
And if you want a really fun fact. Web archive link because I imagine Sony is going to change it, but on the Playstation website they explicitly state "Signing in to PSN is optional when playing a PlayStation game on PC.".
I'm not going to to anything hasty. I hope Sony walks it back because I do enjoy the game, but if by June nothing has changed I will ask a refund from Valve because I'll literally be unable to play the game, unless I go against PSN ToS. I have no problem getting on the FUCK SONY train once they've left me no other choice.
What's next? Verification butt plug?
I read this every time it pops up and it's still perfect
An internet classic
I sure hope so.
I can see it. Arrowhead just wants to keep shoving themselves up our asses.
I've left a negative review on the page. And I've requested a refund from steam.
I doubt steam will grant the refund, I'm at 275 hours. But I'm trying...
[update] refund denied. "We will not be granting a refund at this time."
Kind of weird seeing as they stated this requirement before release and you also agreed to it. Doesn't seem like your refund has ground to stand on.
That said, I didn't realize it either, but I'm not blaming my mistake on the storefront or devs.
It may have been in the fine print. I'll grant you that. But the de facto experience did not require a account with PlayStation.
I have on occasion accidentally bought an EA game, only to launch it to see that it requires an EA account, and then to refund it.
I don't have an issue with somebody creating a game that requires a PlayStation account, that's their business more power to them. Changing the requirements after the refund window has finished is what I have issue with. And I agree with you I don't expect them to give me a refund, but I'm going to god damn well ask.
But let's put it this way, I played a game, but I did not create a Sony account. Now the game is being taken away from me unless I agree to Sony's terms and conditions. If I don't agree if those conditions the game doesn't work. That's refundable
Not to mention a good middle ground would be you can't do steam to Sony cross play unless you have a Sony account. Fair enough
Alternative take: they didn't change the terms, they started enforcing the terms we already agreed to.
I'm gonna make an account anyway, for me the bigger issue was the exclusivity, I boycott Sony due that, and won't be buying any of the FF games, but I decided to make an exception for HD2, for better or worse.
Ironically, a feature I wish DRG would add is linking PSN accounts with Steam accounts, and save importing/exporting. I played 300hrs of DRG on PS5 since it was 'free" on PS+. Now I've switched to PC so I can play with mods but I'm back at square one with a new save.
If you can somehow get the save files out of the PS5, you can copy them into the PC save directory
What I actually ended up doing is just starting a new save on PC and using this DRG save editor on GitHub to get back my levels and overclocks. It would be nice if this could be added as a native feature though.
Please inform any inactive / retired Helldivers to ask for a refund if their country does not support a PS account as they should not have been able to play the game in the first place.
I am unable to verify which countries are affected.
I made an account initially, just use a junk email account
How kind of them to remind us that a live-service game is still a live-service game, and that arrowhead is still owned by a for-profit corporation.
I still plan to play, though. Wasn't account linking already required for crossplay, or was that a separate thing?
If you take a look at its reception, the community definitely treats it like a major departure from other live service game practices. I’d tend to agree— the price, micro transactions, content and quality all seem very fair compared to other live service games in the space.
See and that's where they lose me. If it was truly a requirement, why disable it at all? If it's a requirement now, why could I play before without it? I get the game had network issues when it launched so they disabled the PSN requirements at that time. They could have resolved those network issues without disabling the PSN linking. Convenient that they also sold this game in regions where PSN isn't available and now those people are just SOL.
I know legally they're covered, because they have disclosures on the store page and at the start of the game. I don't care. Fuck their disclosures. This was a stupid way to handle it. They can have their legal victory, they lost a player anyways.
All they had to do is make PSN linking optional and this wouldn't be an issue for the vast majority of people that don't exactly trust Sony with their data. Not like they've had a repeated history of hacks and leaks of PSN customer data.
I though the point was fairly simple, sorry for overestimating you.
If people stop playing Helldivers then they'll likely look for another game akin to it. Only upcoming game that fits that bill is EDF.
EDF is awesome. Maybe some folks will hop over to the starship trooper games. They're also a blast.
But mostly I don't think we'll see that big a dip realistically.
Let's be honest, most folks who play this aren't in the discord, Lemmy, or subreddit. They'll login and see the thing, sign up for a PSN and play.
But maybe, just maybe enough folks will review bomb or request refunds to get Sony to backtrack
But maybe, just maybe enough folks will review bomb or request refunds to get Sony to backtrack.
50k negative steam reviews in a single day is a pretty good incentive to reverse course. Thats more negative reviews in a single day then a fair amount of games recieve overall. Folks were absolutely not keen on what they viewed as a bait and switch.
As for how much it'll impact actual numbers I think time is going to be the important factor, more particularly trending players over time... and what happens on the proverbial D-day.
I loved this game but PSN isn't available in Estonia so I'm just locked out a month from now. I don't even want a refund, I just wanna play with my wife and friends.
Refund request is already pending, was fun while it lasted.
One was known to be part of the game right off the bat, so it wasn't as much of a betrayal to me even if i dont love it.
This psn stuff was technically somewhere in the fine print, but the fact no psn account was required for all these months makes their "security" pretense even more unbelievable, especially when as you point out a very invasive anti cheat is already part of the game.
Now players such as me have spent quite a few hours leveling up, farming stuff, perhaps even spending some cash, and are now when the refund period has lapsed coerced into creating yet another intrusive and redundant account with a console company, while I don't even have one.
Okay, fuck that noise. That is all
It wasn't required before? I was prompted to do it when I launched the game for the first time, and it didn't look like I could skip it. I fumbled with it for a bit because I apparently already had a PSN account with my email when i tried to make one, and ended up having to reset the password.
There was a skip button when I installed it. I guess there was some fine print I didn't read saying it's mandatory lol.
I was pretty late to the party tbh (the TCS had been deployed right before I started playing), so maybe the option to skip account linking had already been removed at that point? Either that or I was distracted while going through the first time launch.
I didn't see a skip button, either, and I got the game a few hours before the TCS was finished.
In short: yes
Honestly you're a bit late to the party. The player quality has dropped notably over the last weeks, and the gameplay is very fun but also not very varied.
A bit like playing d2 back in the day, you cleave through hordes of enemies to get more power and cleave more effectively through hordes of enemies.
If this PSN bullshit isnt putting you off feel free to of course, bit the big hype window has already passed and you can feel the decline.
When I asked Sony's support about playing in the Philippines they replied with 
This violates their TOS. Your PSN network must match the country you live in or you're breaking their TOS
I'm pretty sure that, even under guidance from a support rep, Sony would still ban your account for not registering it in a valid country if they ever somehow detected it.
They really need to put out some concise messaging on this, ASAP.
They have put out concise messaging. They have committed fraud selling a product which now cannot be played in multiple locations. That was the messaging.
Nahhh that’s ok the gameplay loop was getting samey anyway I’ll stick with game that respect the user base
Honestly I am too old and experienced to buy into hype. This game is fun - no ifs, no buts - it's fun.
Whatever else is going on - if you get to play this, it's fun.
Any bullshit around the game sucks for those involved - but I would say, the "hype" is justified.
First ksp2 now this.
Why can't publishers just leave dev teams and games with good potential alone!
This reminds me of that GirlfriendReviews joke about multiple game stores. "You mean to tell me that instead of clicking this thingy over here to launch my game, now I have to click this other thingy over there?"
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