Sony reverses position & will no longer require PSN account linking for Helldivers 2. Must take the right lessons from this fiasco.

[klomzi]

You think the makers of one of the biggest and most used digital gaming store front would make a bad PC store? Fuck, man, Steam fanboys are weird and obnoxious.

Of course. What sort of knowledge does console first company Sony have with making a good and functional PC storefront? Nothing. When PC-focused companies like CDPR (GOG), Microsoft (Win Store) and Epic Games (Fortnite, Unreal Tournament) fumbles at creating a good and functional PC storefront, how on earth is Sony gonna make it.

Making a PC storefront requires lots of manpower, time, money and resources. Things I very much doubt Sony will give towards a PC storefront.

 

[Muddasar]

They are now asking for refunds on mass after 100s of hours playtime.

Almost all getting rejected.

Tramps.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Refunds after playing the game for dozens of hours lol

Fuck these people.

 

[Muddasar]

Refunds after playing the game for dozens of hours lol

Fuck these people.

Almost all rejected.

 

[Wing84]

Of course. What sort of knowledge does console first company Sony have with making a good and functional PC storefront? Nothing. When PC-focused companies like CDPR (GOG), Microsoft (Win Store) and Epic Games (Fortnite, Unreal Tournament) fumbles at creating a good and functional PC storefront, how on earth is Sony gonna make it.

Making a PC storefront requires lots of manpower, time, money and resources. Things I very much doubt Sony will give towards a PC storefront.

1. Sony has more stores than all of those companies you listed combined
2. Sony clearly releases software on PC that function as well as any other company's software
3. Sony's PSN store is built on a multi-platform OS
4. Sony contributes to multiple OSs while maintaining the forked OS that they use for their products very well
5. Sony has released multiple fucked stores in the pass and hasn't made those stupid errors in about a decade or more

I know you're a PC Master race dude and all, but please, if you're going to state things because of your bias, bring up some current day real examples involving the entity you're attempting to discredit.

 

[Gediminas]

Refunds after playing the game for dozens of hours lol

Fuck these people.

imagine, you work on your own, have to pay taxes, but you don't for 1-2 years.

finance police sues you, jail, fines etc..

you come to court, and your argument - You didn't enforce it from day 1

man, these PCMR is fucking braindead.

 

[klomzi]

1. Sony has more stores than all of those companies you listed combined
2. Sony clearly releases software on PC that function as well as any other company's software
3. Sony's PSN store is built on a multi-platform OS
4. Sony contributes to multiple OSs while maintaining the forked OS that they use for their products very well
5. Sony has released multiple fucked stores in the pass and hasn't made those stupid errors in about a decade or more

I know you're a PC Master race dude and all, but please, if you're going to state things because of your bias, bring up some current day real examples involving the entity you're attempting to discredit.

None of these mean than you can buld a well-liked, good and fully functional PC storefront.

Btw, none of Sonys own stores are particularly liked and lacks a lot of Steams features that people like with Steam, a big feature is gifting.

If you think Sony will be able to build a good PC storefront, you are in for a rude awakening. And if they do, I will be positively suprised. The problem with all of Steams competitors, is that they straight up sucks in many different ways.

 

[Yuniac]

None of these mean than you can buld a well-liked, good and fully funvtional PC storefront.

Btw, none of Sonys own stores are particularly liked and lacks a lot of Steams features that people like with Steam, a big feature is gifting.

If you think Sny will be able to build a good PC storefront, you are in for a rude awakening. And if they do, I will be positively suprised. The problem with all of Steams competitors, is that they straight up sucks in many different ways.

You are right. In every point you have said so far but also: Steam is so well established that no other company can compete with it or blow on its feathers. That is, not without years of hard work and good behavior with their users.

Even GOG, a good-spirited store and stuff, cannot compete whatsoever with Steam but I'm glad it exists and happy for them and wish them luck.

People really think million of Steam users are going to jump ship just to play a few Sony-exclusive games on the so-called 'Sony launcher'. I think gamers who don't use PCs have no clue what's going on over there or how things work.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Lesson #2:
They need to heavily re-examine their PR policies and strategy. For too long they have basically made pronouncements instead of engaging with the customer base directly, as if giving out royal edicts that you must accept because it went straight from their boardroom to their legal department's writers. Sony aspires to be Apple, but they are far from it and their PR strategy is a large portion of why they aren't anywhere close. Customers do not appreciate being treated as wallets to be discarded or put away once the company is done wringing money from them.

Lesson #3:
They need to rein in their eagerness to milk every drop of shareholder-positive metrics. They are coming close to killing the golden goose just because they want some numbers for their next quarterlies. Learn to just accept you got a win and if you need people to link PSN accounts, you can't do such amateurish shit such as changing your TOS as soon as you implement an unpopular policy. Gaming was at its best when the suits didn't infest every nook and cranny, and Sony needs to remember that this industry isn't built by shareholders. It's built by gamers buying games.

These two hit too hard and that's basically in regards to the entire SIE brand these days. They don't have a likeable public-facing corporate personality because they don't have much to offer that way in the first place. They have no people who actually engage directly or regularly with the community or the media. Not saying they need someone who's a non-ironic cult-of-personality like Phil Spencer, but it's crazy how backwards SIE have become in this regard vs. prior years where we had mascots like Kevin Butler, or SIE executives like Adam Boyes, Jack Tretton, Shuhei Yoshida, Andrew House etc. communicate with the media frequently, or fan events like PlayStation Experience for the community.

I think SIE pulling out of so many of the big public trade shows and events (and even now most all of the digital ones save Summer Games Fest and the Video Game Awards) has a lot to do with it. And as for point #3....I've been extremely worried about this with SIE for a while. You even see this mentality take hold with some of the people in the hobby, even some fans of the brand. We have a few here who basically talk like suits rather than gamers when it comes to SIE. It's one of the reasons I don't really care much about the sales stuff anymore.

I feel like SIE has become compromised by bean counters & suits, rather than mainly being led by people passionate about innovating in gaming who just also happen to have business acumen. Knowing Hiroki Totoki is mainly a money guy and is leading SIE in the interim does not instill much confidence things will change on that front. Or, by the time they do, it'll be too late. I feel like SIE, and Sony as a whole, are forgetting the reason PlayStation has any brand value is because of gamers* who became their customers. They are the reason investors and shareholders are present in the first place when it comes to SIE, but I doubt most of their shareholders are gamers and I doubt most of them have even purchased PlayStation products.

*Oh and so that no one gets it twisted...I mean CONSOLE gamers here. Something that seems SIE have forgotten to remember themselves, sadly.

 

[Nhomnhom]

PC players coming in here trying to fool us... sure I'll take you for your word instead of looking at your actions. They pretend to like Sony now that their games are on Steam with no DRM but this isn't fooling anyone and the sales are just plain bad.

I don't doubt there is an audience for Sony GaaS on PC but the justification for AAA single players releases was never there, it's a failed experiment that Sony will do everything they can to make look good to justify their past bad decisions. It's Xbox PR spins all over again.

Now that we got the leaked data of their game sales and budgets it is more obvious than ever that all the talk about them needing to port their game was pure bullshit. If Sony port on PC are successful than Xbox releases have all been successful for the past 10 years, that is how low they are trying to set the bar, selling a few millinons when PlayStation games frequently sell as much as 10m~20m+.

I play on PC and like Steam but I don't lie to others just so that I can push an agenda of all games needing to be released on PC day 1 and AAA games being exposed to piracy. That is a path that will undoubtedly lead to less games I enjoy being made. This is very similar to how Gamepass fanboys behaved trying to gaslight everyone that Gamepass was the only way forward... look how that turned out.

Perfection, this guy got it.

 

[Johnic]

This whole thing could have been prevented with some forethought. Any one of us would have seen this as a PR clusterfuck but Sony apparently has no one there to think about stuff like this.

The discourse on this, much like anything else, swings from one extreme to the other. The truth is, both sides have valid arguments.

Yes, it was WRITTEN in the description from day one and was never removed or altered. But it wasn't enforced from day one. Furthermore, the game was still sold in regions that don't have a PSN account, forcing players to break Sony's own ToS when creating one.

It's ridiculous that no one saw this coming. Did they do any market research on this? The game should have been delayed until the issues were fixed, and this should have been enforced from day one. Simple fix.

Every other 3rd party publisher has these requirements but Sony's the only one that decided to do this AFTER the launch. That's the issue here.

 

[Nhomnhom]

This whole thing could have been prevented with some forethought. Any one of us would have seen this as a PR clusterfuck but Sony apparently has no one there to think about stuff like this.

The discourse on this, much like anything else, swings from one extreme to the other. The truth is, both sides have valid arguments.

Yes, it was WRITTEN in the description from day one and was never removed or altered. But it wasn't enforced from day one. Furthermore, the game was still sold in regions that don't have a PSN account, forcing players to break Sony's own ToS when creating one.

It's ridiculous that no one saw this coming. Did they do any market research on this? The game should have been delayed until the issues were fixed, and this should have been enforced from day one. Simple fix.

Every other 3rd party publisher has these requirements but Sony's the only one that decided to do this AFTER the launch. That's the issue here.

Sony shouldn't give a shit about PR when it comes to people that hate them due to the success of PlayStation and PlayStation games.

These people go out of their way not to buy a PlayStation and still feel entitled to these games releasing on Steam. Fuck them and fuck Sony for caring so much about PC players and what they want while not giving a single fuck about how they look to PlayStation owners.

 

[Johnic]

This is blowing up. The memes are legendary. Good luck to Sony on future PC releases.

 

[Zzero]

Sony shouldn't give a shit about PR when it comes to people that hate them due to the success of PlayStation and PlayStation games.

These people go out of their way not to buy a PlayStation and still feel entitled to these games releasing on Steam. Fuck them and fuck Sony for caring so much about PC players and what they want while not giving a single fuck about how they look to PlayStation owners.

Go out of their way to not buy a PS5? Like what, they have to mark a box on their tax forms to avoid it?

What sort of diabolical herbs are you smoking to think like that?

As to what most PC gamers think about Playstation? Absolutely nothing, hence the seething hatred of the concept of having to sign up for PSN in order to play a steam game.

 

[Johnic]

As to what most PC gamers think about Playstation? Absolutely nothing, hence the seething hatred of the concept of having to sign up for PSN in order to play a steam game.

But no hatred for MS, Ubisoft, EA and Rockstar? That's what doesn't make sense. The only difference is that Sony was dumb enough to enforce this after release, even if it was stated in the game's description from the start.

 

[Zzero]

But no hatred for MS, Ubisoft, EA and Rockstar? That's what doesn't make sense. The only difference is that Sony was dumb enough to enforce this after release, even if it was stated in the game's description from the start.

Uplay and Origin are dirty words in the PC gaming sphere, so much so that I think both have been renamed (and are still hated.) I know that I, for one, played Fenyx Rising on Switch entirely in airplane mode to avoid making a Ubicuck account. And I hated Social Club back in the day too. No idea on MS since I've literally never played one of their titles.

 

[Yuniac]

All I read is 'Likes Sony', and 'Hates Sony' Kinda useless talking to people who still think it's about liking or disliking a company, who take everything personally and think the world is out to get them.

The damage is already done on the PC market, like it or not, Sony will still port their games to PC, so they should rectify this and the only way to do it is by undoing the account linking thing. It's been one day since the announcement, and the game is now at a mostly negative, wait till you really cannot play the game next month, hell will break lose.

 

[Yuniac]

But no hatred for MS, Ubisoft, EA and Rockstar? That's what doesn't make sense. The only difference is that Sony was dumb enough to enforce this after release, even if it was stated in the game's description from the start.

What those people are refusing to understand is that people also did not like creating any other 3rd part account. EXCEPT: In those other games, it was from day 1, and none of those games were as successful and big as Helldivers 2 so naturally there will be more discord around it.

PSN availability, people have been playing just fine with no account, and maybe people are sick of creating 3rd party accounts.

 

[Yuniac]

What sort of diabolical herbs are you smoking to think like that?

They all are, it's really amazing. lol

 

[Nhomnhom]

Go out of their way to not buy a PS5? Like what, they have to mark a box on their tax forms to avoid it?

What sort of diabolical herbs are you smoking to think like that?

As to what most PC gamers think about Playstation? Absolutely nothing, hence the seething hatred of the concept of having to sign up for PSN in order to play a steam game.

Their hatred is proof they don't think about PlayStation? You don't even make sense.

People like you will only be happy when consoles are gone, everything is all digital and AAA single player games stop being made. You will get your wish.