So, I'm sure most people here are familiar at least in name with Helldivers 2. It's a PS5/Steam exclusive that release early February this year that allows crossplay.
They (not the studio itself mind you, the announcement was signed by Sony) just revealed that PC players are soon going to need to link a PSN account with their Steam accounts in order to play the game. This apparently had always been a "requirement" but was put on hold for stability reasons, here's the exact quote:
Due to technical issues at the launch of HELLDIVERS™ 2, we allowed the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. That grace period will now expire.
So, for many PC players, this isn't a problem at all. Perhaps a mild inconvenience, having to sign up for a thing and click some buttons. Perhaps a much larger one considering Sony's penchant for having all of their data leaked.
However, PSN accounts aren't available in something like 60 countries worldwide. Countries like The Philippines and the Balkans and many more simply are unable to make these accounts due to region locks, but they've been able to purchase and play Helldivers 2 up until this (upcoming) point.
What they've done is essentially cut off entire countries worth of players who have had access to this game well beyond the return window, which is only a fraction of the issue – people love this game. Players who are inclined to make falsified PSN accounts through VPNs or invalid details subject themselves to bans and other forms of digital punishment.
I am curious if anyone has ever heard of another situation like this, one where a game has been officially launched, not Early Access or Beta, for an entire quarter, and then suddenly some hidden-in-the-EULA/TOU restriction based only on a publishers region locks took place, blocking thousands of players from access they had up to that point through no nefarious actions of their own.
EDIT: Some noteworthy information that has developed over the course of the day:
- It is against the PSN Terms of Use to create an account with falsified information, including your country of residence and therefore region. It is a bannable offense. Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.6, and 12.2. – https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/psn-terms-of-service/
- Countries that cannot create PSN accounts without restrictions include China as well as Russia.
- Allegedly at least one Chinese player has already been banned for attempting to play on an account created with a VPN.
- Over the course of the day, some documentation about PC/Steam and PSN interaction has been edited to change "optional" to "required".
39 Comments
This is extra weird cause their language settings are pretty expansive. Full audio in 7 languages isn’t common for smaller studios.
A “grace period” for a region lock where a piece of entertainment was available and suddenly is no more for certain regions is new to me (having something region locked and open up for other regions later is not as rare though).
Unfortunately for everyone that is going to be affected by this, the Helldivers 2 Steam store page has always mentioned the requirement for a PSN account. So it’s not something that suddenly came out of the blue, most people just didn’t read the entire description on Steam.
The thing is, the game apparently does function without the PSN account linking. So there might still be a small chance that this change is going to be reverted
It was always going to be required, they even said it would be required on the front of the Steam page for the game. It wasn’t a secret.
It then wasn’t at launch because they had a bunch of technical issues.
You can create an account in a nearby region if yours isn’t supported. Millions of people have been doing this since the inception of PSN. They aren’t looking to ban people for simply creating accounts in other regions when theirs isn’t supported.
Not a single person has ever been banned for this. They sell consoles in unsupported regions and expect people to just use other regions.
You can’t even change your region if you move so they don’t care and they don’t track you.
Again millions of people have been doping this for nearl;y two decades without problem. The same goes for the other consoles as well
I’m fairly certain they will just implement a white-list for those countries where Steam accounts can be created but PSN accounts can’t? Does that not solve this?
This is manufactured drama. There will not be a region lock, you can just make a PlayStation account in any region that you want.
It’s most likely a massive oversight and Sony knows that people make Sony accounts with whatever regions convenient to them. I played on launch day and I didn’t even notice they removed the requirements to link accounts.
Unless they enforce region locks on psn? That would be a huge mistake and it’s embarrassing lol. I was under the impression you just select it from a list of country
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There’s a whole lot of hypothetical drama about people who purchased it being unable to play, and not much actual reality.
The people posting the drama farming about it? Always brand new accounts with the one post. Everyone commenting about it? People who don’t live in those areas just hypothesizing outrage.
Steam isn’t going to offer a refund. Sony isn’t going to back down. This is annoying, but an expected shift for Sony to get more PC player base info. It was listed as a requirement on Steam before release. I linked mine day one. Took 2 minutes.
I also note none of this outrage for Xbox games which has done the same thing for years.
They do not ban people for making accounts in other regions. Ever. That’s just not a thing that happens, people do it all the time to get games early by having one in the new Zealand area. They def aren’t going to start of people make in when they can’t in their own region because of one game. There won’t be digital punishment lol that’s overdramatic
NGL, was really interested in the game and was getting ready to buy it (not a lot of available funds for new games), but this is….kinda disappointing. Like, way less interested in it now that I know I’m going to have to deal with Sony and a PSN account if I just want to play a game
There is no region lock.
Having PSN available in your region ≠ making a Sony PS account. Anyone can go make a Sony account, even those in regions where PSN is unavailable.
People are getting things quite mixed up…
I get that it’s a mild annoyance but it’s really not a big deal considering a PSN account is completely free It takes maybe 30 seconds tops to create.
I’m only worried about linking my steam account to PlayStation and then PlayStation getting hacked and through that they would (somehow) have a way into my steam account.
Which is the only account I care about in this case.
It sounds like they genuinely weren’t able to sync accounts at launch and Sony said “ok you have 3 months to fix it.” I’m not sure how you could interpret the “Grace period” in any other way based on the info they gave us in the announcement. It’s not a normal situation and it’s clear Sony is the one requiring it at this point.
Well, now we know how many shill accounts Sony has…
Never going near anything else with the Sony logo on it. Ever.
I made an account for PSN when living abroad years ago, using ‘my tag’. Moved back home, got locked from paying anything with that account. Can’t change regions, not allowed even once. Can’t add a credit card from another country than where it was created, and I don’t have a card from that country anymore.
So now I have multiple accounts and a hatred for SONY.
PSN just absolutely sucks.
this game feels less and less like an official launch and more “early access” by every single patch and announcment
Why do the region locks exist in the first place?
I don’t believe so it’s weird I’ll look into it for you though
Pokemon, we got all our games years to months later than Japan, everything was spoiled by then.
If it’s anything like device registration for Asian games, it will be a date when they do it and that’s it. If you convert before/after that date it’s good, if you don’t then your account is locked until you do.
Grace period my ass.
Sony had a good live-service game, just as they wanted, and decided to shoot themselves in the feet.
People will still (mostly) play the game, but the reputation damage won’t be undone. It’s a small hit, but so was the story with the EA, Ubisoft, and many others
I have PSN accounts in several countries. Anyone can create one, they’re 100% free, and you’ll never need it again after signing in to HD2…the hate is totally disproportionate to the issue here.
The reason Sony doesn’t “officially” support every country is to avoid headaches and nagging from countries like usa that tend to randomly ban/unban countries every couple of years.
So instead, Sony doesn’t bother setting up an official store for each region, and avoids those that are or might become problematic, and instead turns a blind eye to people just creating accounts. Plus it adds to sales, as many people will create Japanese accounts to get exclusive content/games only released there, or benefit from lower game prices/discounts across different regions.
I personally live in Syria and have had multiple psn accounts from different regions since the days of ps3, and everything works fine. The only issue I’ve faced is when companies that use their own game servers decide to ban my country (because me playing games somehow supports the regime), like diablo 4/warframe/the division 2 (even though division 1 works fine), and then I have to use a vpn. The downside is you can buy a game on psn, then find out you’re blocked only when you actually launch it.
I do not see how the hubbub for this got so big. It’s so fucking boring an issue that doesn’t matter.
This isn’t anything unexpected. It was all over the store page. You buy this and cry about it, that is 10000% on you. It doesn’t mean it isn’t shitty, but come on. It’d be a different story if it wasn’t there for you to read.
Is it me or people are trying hardest to be butthurt about this. Firstly, there’s no region lock. Of you are in PH or any other country that doesn’t have PSN account you just create one for closest region. Which is a normal practice and Sony doesn’t punish for it (they don’t check your location, you can easily create US PSN account while in EU). Secondly this is not some “hidden-in-the-EULA/TOU restriction”. This requirement was present on Steam store, game had clear warning that you have to create account on a 3rd party platform: PSN to play it.
The amount of misinformation on this topic on reddit is staggering.
A lot of gullible people here. If you think they had “technical issues” to not require a PSN account, I have a bridge to sell you. They wanted all the PC players they could get “easily” and now that the game is a success and they have people “hooked” they duck you over and start requiring a “data collection account”.
If they had required a PSN account from the beginning I bet they would not have had the same amount of PC players playing like they have now.
For correction PSN is only available in 69 countries. Steam is available in 195 countries, and by extension the game was sold in 195 countries.
Just make a PSN and make it American dude it’s not that serious
Even the region locking isn’t actually a issue though. Without a VPN, you can simply just select you are in a legal region while creating an account. Nothing stops you.
Now the real question is whether or not Sony actually cares about region hopping. Yes it’s against their ToS, but do they actually enforce it?
Has anyone ever read the details for the sales order page? It has always been required. Not their fault most gamers are apparently as illiterate and as stupid as all get out.
Redditors overreacting to a nothing burger challenge (impossible)
If it wasn’t brightly displayed like a warning on both the store page & on boot of the game then people are absolutely right to be pissed.
It doesn’t matter if it’s really easy for people to sign up with PSN, letting people play a game for months before arbitrarily blocking everyone without a specific account is incredibly scummy.
If Sony gets away with it (and it’s confirmed this was forced by Sony) it sets a dangerous precedent to the rest of the industry.
The best I’ve heard is essentially telling new players to new restrictions and old players are grandfathered into wherever they are playing now. Doesn’t mean they won’t make support hell, but some studios TRY to keep communities/clans together.
I was considering getting this on PC. But now… Nope.
Something similar is currently happening with final fantasy 14 though to a very different extent. They changed payment processors so your account location has to match the country your credit card is registered to. The problem is the game wasn’t available in all countries when it launched and there is no way to change where you live. They told people it might be an issue a year ago, warned people it would be happening a month ago, and about two weeks after the roll out(the subscription is monthly so if you prepared ahead there is no disruption) they have openly spoken about the best ways to circumvent the issue, and have assured people they are looking into it further.
So no this is not an issue that uniquely effects helldiver’s, but helldiver’s developers sure are pretending like it’s a user problem and not a service issue.
JPN PSO2 tried pushing a region lock a few times because someone would hack the game and then Sega tried to blame it on “filthy baka gaijins go home”.
(Even though there was never any proof that it was said outsiders).
Although even then we weren’t allowed to be playing in the first place,we just kinda snuck on in. Sega probably turned a blind eye usually(And even turned off the region lock eventually) probably just because they reckoned they were making a ton of extra cash off of outsiders sneaking in to play.
This isn’t just and regions