Sony recently decided to instate a requirement to create or link a PlayStation account to play the Helldivers 2 game (effective May 30) on PC, even if you already purchased the game and started playing through a Steam account. This angered players (especially those who already purchased the game), resulting in them leaving over two hundred thousand negative reviews for various reasons. Sony has reversed the decision due to the backlash.
Aside from the fact that it is not only strange, but unnecessary to require a PlayStation account to play a game on a device that is not a PlayStation, Sony opened a can of worms with the requirement because users in 177 countries are unable to access PlayStation accounts due to geo-blocking. Their decision to revoke the new policy was announced via a Tweet.
This means that existing Helldivers 2 players in that 177 countries could have been blocked from playing the game if they already purchased it. This forced Steam — a large vendor of third-party video games including delist Helldivers 2 in the geo-blocked countries before any more players could buy it.
Players have tolerated a number of awful policies from video game vendors. However, this one pushed them past their breaking point. It also doesn’t help that Sony’s PlayStation network has a history of breaches, which is problematic from both a privacy and security standpoint.
It is also annoying to be forced to create a user account for no good reason. When a company forces you to create an account to access an app which already works fine without it — there is a significant chance they’re doing it to track you and mine your data. It also means that the product or app you’re forced to log into could stop working after a while (planned obsolescence) because the game vendor can simply disable your account on their end.
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