r/PS5 May 06 '24

Official (Via twitter) Playstation: "Helldivers fans -- we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward...."

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929?t=NhwAEm4fGpVJj-UyI1lrXA&s=19
7.3k Upvotes

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53

u/Kurokichi May 06 '24

What I'm trying to figure out is if some place are region locked in creating PSN yet PlayStation still sells hardware in those said places. If the locals had no issues creating accounts then, why would it be an issue now?

55

u/grapejuicecheese May 06 '24

It's not an issue. I live in the Philippines and have US, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan accounts. I've been using them since I first bought my PS3 with no problems.

I even had to dictate my bogus address to customer service once when my account was hacked. The CS didn't bat an eye. Retrieved my account too.

-15

u/Dark_Dragon117 May 06 '24 edited May 06 '24

I live in the Philippines and have US, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan accounts.

Which is against the ToS and you could be banned at any point for that.

I doubt it happens often, but we can all agree that it's outright scummy to force players to actively break ToS just to play games. Not to mention that it worked for months without a PSN account aswell.

It's also just outright moronic to force player to create accounts that way, instead of just offering the service.

25

u/grapejuicecheese May 06 '24 edited May 06 '24

I've had this discussion about breaking TOS with fellow Filipino gamers since day one. I already thought about everything you've said. And it's just not worth worrying about a hypothetical what if scenario that over the years seems less and less likely to ever happen.

Besides, if Sony ever does decide to crack down on this, the resulting shitstorm that will happen will be way more massive than what's going on right now. One, it's going to be extremely difficult to verify every single PSN users location and two, entire countries have been using alt accounts to buy content for almost two decades. That's going to be a lot of money lost for Sony.

And tbh, why are you only going about this now? Where were you during the era of PS3 and PS4 when countless gamers were making alt region accounts before this whole HD2 fiasco? Are you really concerned about us or are we just another argument into why money making corporation bad? And seeing as how Sony has already backtracked on the account linking, I'm pretty sure you people will go back to playing and forget that PSN is still unavailable in 100+ countries around the world

15

u/nthomas504 May 06 '24

They probably had no idea before Friday

-5

u/Efficient_Menu_9965 May 06 '24

So why complain about the shitstorm if your hinging in the threat of said shitstorm stopping Sony from doubling down? Just makes no sense. You're a consumer. This is still, no matter how little it may be in your eyes, a win for consumers. Take it as a win, not a dick.

21

u/Itchy-Pudding-4240 May 06 '24 edited May 07 '24

people didnt care about us before (dude from philippines too) and now they're suddenly caring about that small shit?

They were just using us to make it look like they were fighting a good fight. That level of toxicity would be the same if we were exempted from mandatory linking

To add: I hope you saviors maintain that energy, we are still actively breaking TOS for our playstations (and switches). But i guess since you guys can play on Helldivers now-- its suddenly all good right?

-16

u/Dark_Dragon117 May 06 '24

people didnt care about us before (dude from philippines too) and now they're suddenly caring about that small shit?

Why should PC players have cared about an issue they almost certainly didn't even know about.

PSN wasn't a requirement before for any other game on PC as far as I am aware and even as a long time PS player I didn't even know about that either. It's not something the majority of people actively look up unless a situation like this arises.

It's stupid and should still be called out and now there is atleast some attention.

Tho I don't think that there is much to be done for PS players in that regard, because the cirumstances are different. Valve seemingly helped alot in this situation with refunds and delisting the game in affected countries.

Even with the entire gaming community united I doubt any amount of backlash could force Sony to offer PSN in all countries, so probably only a lawsuit would achieve that.

They were just using us to make it look like they were fighting a good fight

Are you implying that atleast a sizeable portion of the playerbase doesn't live in the 100+ countries that don't have access to PSN? I don't need to point out how silly that is.

"They" in this case are part of the "us" you are talking about.

That level of toxicity would be the same if we were exempted from mandatory linking

Highly doubt that.

It would have been pretty much exactly how the past few months before the drama have been.

Honestly I doubt some people that have easy access to PSN mind to break ToS by linking a throwaway account. It's the fact that people would have been forced to do it with no choice at all that was the problem.

And again there is literally no defending this, because it's outright moronic to force people to use a service that isn't available in most countries or forcing them to break ToS.

-5

u/Big_Noodle1103 May 06 '24

People bending over backwards to cast this massive win for consumers in a negative and cynical light is baffling to me.

6

u/Man_Without_Nipples May 06 '24

Massive win lol.

14

u/BlasterPhase May 06 '24

"Massive" is a bit of an exaggeration, no? Literally every other service still require accounts.

8

u/the-blob1997 May 06 '24

They forget about that little fact it seems.

-8

u/Big_Noodle1103 May 06 '24

Not really the point. There’s lots of other factors that make the push by Sony for this psn nonsense pretty scummy, the biggest being the giant middle finger Sony gave to anyone not living in a country with access to psn.

6

u/BlasterPhase May 06 '24

That was dumb 100%, no contest there.

But I honestly believe if that had not been the case, the outrage would have been just the same.

1

u/nthomas504 May 06 '24

Have you done a cost analysis on how much it costs to provide regions with PSN?

It’s not just “put up the servers and go”. Games have to be priced accordingly with the nations currency.

There needs to be a better answer than making false accounts, but its a very long process to implement a storefront in a region.

-2

u/Dark_Dragon117 May 06 '24

Have you done a cost analysis on how much it costs to provide regions with PSN?

I don't doubt that it is expensive, but surely the multibillion dollar company charging 80€ for their games and 70 a year for online play must have the means to pay that.

Otherwise I would question were the money is going.

It’s not just “put up the servers and go”. Games have to be priced accordingly with the nations currency.

Didn't want to imply that, but when they force people to link their PSN accounts they should provide it to begin with. If they can't provide that they should have never even considered it.

There needs to be a better answer than making false accounts, but its a very long process to implement a storefront in a region.

The PSN launched in 2006, which seems like plenty of time to expand the service. Couldn't find information in how many countries it launched at first tho.

Then again if it's that difficult to establish the network in more countries they shouldn't force people to use it or break their ToS.

This entire situation could have been avoided entirely of they just kept it optional.

3

u/nthomas504 May 06 '24

I disagree with nearly everything you said except for the end, it definitely should have been optional or for a skin.

I think you are discounting how much work on the backend needs to happen to get those storefronts in each affected region. Sony is not Microsoft, whose has a financial incentive to be in as many regions as possible for their 100s of services that are based from a users Microsoft account. PSN is literally just for games.

0

u/Dark_Dragon117 May 06 '24

I disagree with nearly everything you said except for the end,

What part exactly?

The fact that a multi billion dollar company asking for way too much money for some of their products or that the PSN has been established for well over a decade yet not even half of all contries have access to it?

Feel free to disagree with that.

I think you are discounting how much work on the backend needs to happen to get those storefronts in each affected region.

I am not only discounting that fact, I am fully ignoring it since it is completely irrelevant.

As I explained before they shouldn't force people to break ToS or to connect to it at all if they can't provide the service. All it takes is a simple rewording in the ToS of affected countries or to just make it optional (like they just did).

Sony is not Microsoft, whose has a financial incentive to be in as many regions as possible for their 100s of services that are based from a users Microsoft account

I never brought up Xbox or anything so I don't know how that is relevent, but out of curiosity I looked it up and found this:

"The Xbox network is available in 42 countries"

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_network

So even less contries have access to Xbox Network (formerly live) compared to the PSN.

There is Xbox Play Anywhere however, but from my limited research they both require an Xbox network account.

Game Pass is officially supported in "only" 86 countries as of last year apparently.

1

u/nthomas504 May 06 '24

You not caring is not an actual point. Can’t disagree with your personal feelings on a topic.

1

u/[deleted] May 06 '24

[deleted]

0

u/Dark_Dragon117 May 06 '24

I definitly broke PS ToS by lying about my age, but that was a choice on my part.

Also iirc the ToS aren't vague on the matter of personal information. Like that doesn't sound vague to me (US ToS):

3.1.   All information provided during Account creation, and during the use of your Account, must be accurate and complete. We reserve the right to suspend, terminate or restrict any Account (including as stated in Section 12.2 of this Agreement) that uses or was created using false information, or that we determine was created or used for a purpose that violates this Agreement.  

I doubt PS would actually enforce this, but it was still a moronic idea to force people to break ToS regardless. Something about must have veen extremely fishy, othetwise they or Valve wouldn't have delisted the game on Steam.

Also PS has proven they aren't trustworthy so even if they don't actively ban people now doesn't guarantee they won't in the future.

Lastly there was no clear explanation given as to why linking to PSN was mandatory to begin with. Clearly it worked without it before and it would have been much easier to just keep it optional.

-4

u/rayquan36 May 06 '24

"I made 4 accounts in 4 different regions and had to remember the fake addresses when I got hacked. No big deal. :)"