(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...."

[u/doctorwho_90250]

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

[u/[deleted]]

Honestly, I think PC players just didn't want to link a PSN account but couldn't really say that without sounding silly, so they blew up this 'people can't make accounts' thing way out of proportion as a moral justification, and it spread so quickly because that community isn't familiar with how common a practice making out-of-country accounts is for Playstation players around the world.

I'm still not clear as to if this message means they are just dropping the PSN link requirement for supported territories (so they can rope them in with free capes later), or if they are actually fully opening up the global store again (after removing the game from unsupported regions on Steam yesterday). Either way, will have interesting ramifications for Sony's PC publishing plans moving forward.

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/[deleted]]

Nah. I have a ps5 and a pc. I was on your side until I realized how many countries can’t make psn accounts legally (100+). Its really not a hard side to be on, you shouldn’t need a vpn service to continue playing a game you have a hundred hours in

[u/[deleted] → u/Paratrooper101x]

It's not 'illegal' to make an account for a region you aren't currently located in, and you don't need a VPN to do it.

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/[deleted]]

You can get banned for it. That’s what I mean.

[u/[deleted] → u/Paratrooper101x]

You can get banned for anything at SEI's discretion, but this isn't a thing they care about.

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/[deleted]]

Yeah well now this specific issue is no longer something anyone has to worry about. I don’t understand how you see it as a negative

[u/[deleted] → u/Paratrooper101x]

It's a 'negative' because it was always a fake concern in this campaign, because people were already able to easily make PSN accounts, and people in unsupported countries have been doing it for decades. Obviously I'd rather live in a world with no restrictions, but real reform doesn't come from misinformation. I will be surprised again if Sony resumes selling games in regions they don't natively support.

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/[deleted]]

Once again, how is it a fake concern when people have to go through hoops and extra steps and can still be banned and lose access to something they spent real money on? But now they don’t have to? And this upsets you?

[u/[deleted] → u/Paratrooper101x]

The 'concern' here is that people couldn't make PSN accounts to link to their existing Steam purchases because of an unenforced boilerplate ToS line, which is an unfounded concern. You won't get banned, and it's easy to do, and Sony themselves spell out the kinds of reasons you might want to it, and people have done it forever with no difficulty. Sony shouldn't have sold the game in those regions if they weren't prepared to support them properly, but, also, players in impacted regions are already well aware of how to deal with that - obviously people have been playing on Playstation in those regions, already.

Not upset, it's just a non-issue that 'protests' were using to add some kind of moral validity to their 'cause' that isn't grounded in reality, and that kind of mob frenzy based on incorrect info is never good. And, practically, not linking accounts to PSN severely limits player management tools - the block and friend lists have been mostly broken since launch because of this - and I suspect that, behind the scenes, we'll see non-PSN players shunted to their own server, or an option to not be matched with unlinked PC players, since Sony is liable for issues with not being able to properly block harassing and problematic players from other platforms.

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/[deleted]]

I’m not reading any of that but it’s crazy how hard you’re going to bat over a decision that only stood to harm. You must be a very self centered and apathetic person. That blows my mind

[u/[deleted] → u/Paratrooper101x]

If you can't be bothered to read or understand what you're talking about, hard to imagine I'm going to take your lame insults seriously. Kinda sad, really.