-- " you will soon be forced to make one" How about, Noooo... that is what bank charge backs are for, when you do a bait and switch, if you can't get a refund. This is going to hit Arrowhead/helldivers or it will hit steam (and stream will go to arrowhead).
The military simulation in HD2 is so deep, they've even added the part where leadership starts threatening punishments out of nowhere because you didn't make an account for something that they just now decided was important.
@@tomino5201 why would a publisher/dev tank their own player count on purpose? i like tinfoil hats as much as the next guy but u need a kernel of logic...
@@damp2269Maybe because they know all too well that gamers have a memory power that reaches from the wall to the wallpaper? Because they made a lot of extra money selling the game in those regions, while being aware this would cause a shitstorm for sure, but that the very next moment, lots of players in the lucky regions will soon happily continue playing the game or even buy a copy of the game, because who really cares? I mean, I still have a screenshot on my HD that shows a Steam group called 'Boycott MW 3!' on the day this game was released. And now _guess_ what all the members of this group were playing?
@@damp2269the same way a company will cancel a finished movie for a tax write off. Sony's math they present to shareholders would obviously benefit from this even if they lose players
I can’t wait till Sony goes "Technically, playing Hellduvers 2 online is a PS Plus feature so we're gonna need you to pay for PS Plus on Steam". Mark my words.
I agree. No one seems to understand this point. THEY WILL start charging. Why wouldn't they? People who play on PS5 pay, so from Sony's standpoint, they are losing out on money for players playing on PC
@@skyz6708 I don't think that is a joke. There's no reason for having people sign up for PS accounts unless they plan on doing more with it like charging.
You should be well within your rights to request a full refund! If you are refused, ask your local consumer protection agency if that racket is legal! I doubt it is...
@@MaXiMoS54 and if they then ban them for using a VPN lmao? if they're happy to take the money they should provide the surface. lil bro really thought he was being smart 🤡🤡
because I dont wanna fucking log into steam to log into another fucking launcher. I deleted gta 5 from my steam account when they started that bullshit, its easier to just pirate it now.
Literally 99% of those review bombs didn't mention one thing about the product, the actual video game, the actual thing being reviewed. Does anyone really need to explain how terrible a review that is? Really?
@@Damaged7Just a tiny FYI, but 100% of reviews are subjective. If 99% find the entirely redundant friction of a 3rd party authentication unappealing, then that's their prerogative. No one owes a lengthy explanation for why they think a product is bad.
@@Damaged7A negative review that complains about the game crashing on startup doesn't really review the game itself either, but it's definitely justified.
Not defending Sony here, I hate the bastards, but we DID all sign up and agree to Sony when first booting up the game. Getting a very clear, bright, bold, yellow and large message saying "PSN account REQUIRED", so. Sony sucks, yes, but it's a little late to get mad about it. Edit; And I wasn't happy about having to make a PSN account to begin with, but I wanted to play the game, so I did. Didn't know it was skipable at the start for a while. Only people with legit grievances here are people who can't merge Steam and PSN accounts in their countries.
@@pierregravel-primeau702"Improving the game" is a shield that publishers wheel out to gaslight you and protect their data harvesting efforts. At the end of the day, they make more money off of your info than they do from you playing the game because of the lack of privacy protections. If improving the game was the goal, they could communicate with the actual players. Sony doesn't because they don't care about you or your gaming experience.
@@pierregravel-primeau702 -- "... but also improve the game" Nope, its data for R/D, ohh, and for next time they get hacked soo have more accounts that will get compromised. And recall, it's to make the people playing helldivers "more secure"
@@pierregravel-primeau702 "improving the game" everything they can do with their forced PSN can be achieved by using steam accounts... its the same. Zero benefit for players
yeah, I'm surprised that they didn't mention the accounts in the EU that can't make PSN accounts, and how their game they've been playing for months is now unplayable
@@FireFox64000000 it is. Since they didn't enforce it for the past three months. So in the eyes of most people it is a outside decision and barrier being imposed that wasn't made clear before everyone bought the game and now Sony wants to double down to reap the benefit. When clearly a good chunk dont want to do or now cant even do so.
A few things that you didn't mention that I think are quite important to the story: 1.) A short prompt was shown to some players when starting the game for the first time prompting them to link their PlayStation accounts. However you could skip the step, with wording that seemed like this was completely optional. This page also didn't show for everyone. Some players, myself included, didn't even know it was an option until now. 2.) They could have limited what regions could buy the game on steam, however they did not. This means they willfully allowed people to buy and play the game in regions that they knew would not be able to play in the future. I say willfully instead of chopping it up to them being neglectful, due to the fact that the game can STILL be purchased in those regions even after this. 3.) While the United Kingdom and Ireland are both included in the 69 countries that are supported by the PlayStation, there is an issue when creating an account for those users. When creating a PlayStation account they are required to submit either a photo of themselves or a photo of their government issued identification. This is required to verify your age on your PlayStation account. I personally wouldn't trust any company with my ID, let alone one that has had a history of data breaches (as recent as 2022). 4.) I understand that this was Sony's doing, however Arrowhead is not an innocent party here. They at no time (prior to this or now) have done anything to rectify this issue, and they got themselves into this position. This was something that they could have fought on prior to launch. They could have mentioned this at, before, or even after launch, but instead stayed quiet about it until now. Now they may not have been able to change the accessible regions for purchase on Steam, as it was published my Sony and they may have been the only ones who could do that. However they could have very well geofenced players in those regions from being able to play, and stated this as being why. Not only would this have been a warning for what was to come, but it also would have likely alleviated some of the server issues at launch. In all both Arrowhead and Sony are to blame here, but mostly Sony. While they say its for moderation and safety, it clearly isn't as we have been fine without it with the current moderation. And there is nothing safe about Sony having your data. This to me seems like Sony using Helldivers 2 to get more playing information to sell, as MOST companies do. This isn't something that is isolated, but quite common. None the less it shouldn't be tolerated.
Thats very well put actually. But it doesn't explain why these people, these grown adults, are behaving like children over this issue? Its not worth throwing a tantrum over, its really not. The smart thing to do would be to just cut all this negativity out of their lives, and go play a game they enjoy. Not organize trolling parties to kill of new players who probably have no idea this is going on, because they just want to play a game and have fun. There is no justification for becoming toxic children when people can be an adult and walk away.
@Damaged7 it's completely valid to be angry about the situation. I mean there are tens of thousands of players who, with how it stands, will lose the ability to play a game they spent money on. It doesn't personally affect me, but it's an injustice, and Sony needs to know and be told it's unacceptable. I do, however, agree that it's childish to start trolling players. Don't take your anger out on the community, direct it at Sony. Those players had no hand in this.
@@Damaged7 a lot of new players dont know that sony was hacked 10 times already and Sony is not advertising it also so, even if this will let uk/IR people get to know about this issue and it will make them think twice before letting their ID info to company that is soo breachable then this reviews etc in my opinion are justified. Games arent only about playing anymore - is more like pushing boundries to which exceed company can push it limits. If gamers allow that, they will allow more. (I hope i wrote it good, my English not the best )
I have no skin in this, but I'd think that asking people to agree to a new TOS (to create a PSN account) should qualify for the option to decline and get a refund.
I agree. The fact is that it was clearly stated on the store page that a PSN account was a requirement to play the game from day one, but the fact that the game was sold in regions where this literally isn't possible should be illegal and Sony should be held accountable for this. Plus, all the people crying out about the data privacy (which is an entirely valid issue) are ignorant, because they gave these companies access to far more information through GameGuard when they launched the game for the first time than Sony could ever get through account linking.
For sure. Any time there's a change to a EULA, TOS, or any other agreement, people should absolutely be given the option to decline and receive a refund.
@@SherrifOfNottingham It depends. While GameGuard is active, it has access to EVERYTHING on your computer, and under its default settings (which Helldivers doesn't use thankfully), it runs on boot, not just while you're playing the game. So it potentially has access to everything you do on your computer. Access your bank account? Type in your credit card number to make an online purchase? Watch a TH-cam video? GameGuard has access to all of it and could potentially record anything you do or that is on your computer if used by a bad actor. Not to downplay the security issues of Sony. Fuck Sony. But to be concerned about one and not the other is ignorance of the dangers.
@@Khotetsu you're ignorant for thinking the two are at all similar. Gameguard doesn't know my fcking home address email paypal or credit card info. they've straight out stated it doesn't collect personal Identifiable information, guess what psn account does have though
It's not review bombing... People are criticizing the changes that happened retroactively, so why can't they change their review retroactively without having it be called "Review bombing"
If PS account linking is what makes you not recommend the game, then a negative review is legitimate action. If you are leaving negative reviews to punish or force the devs to go back on a decision, then it's an abuse of the review system, as you are not actually reviewing the game.
@@gHGhej it sure is criticism, but is the Steam Review page the right place for it? It might be! If you don't recommend people buy this game because X, that's completely understandable and leaving a steam review is appropriate. But if you are leaving a negative review regardless of your opinion for the game as a whole, that sounds a bit more of an attempt to force the dev/publisher to acquiesce to your demands though review score manipulation. And I'm not a big fan of that.
@@StalkerOfTheZoneAh yes, because warning people of a horrible change made that ruins the game and makes them not recommend it is wrong. There's only one way go get a message to people up top and that's with money and reviews. Warner Bros knows this well cause they would delete any negative reviews and astroturf the steam page review sections with bot accounts recommending the game. Same happens on Amazon, and other sites that have reviews. Trick people into paying to get their money and find a way to keep them from refunding. Hell, it's practices like this that led to Steam introducing the refund policy to begin with.
It's ironic that they gave a poorly described "grace period" for account linking to give them time to handle the massive number of new players... and by now making account linking mandatory they will likely drive away a large number of those new players.
Make a choice A)Steam users are denied access at launch until server access issues are resolved and then account linking is resolved. B)Forgo the account linking and worry about it later after you fixed many of the core accessability options. Make that choice. If gamers were given that choice on launch day, ALL of them would pick B. All of them would.
All Arrowhead would have to do is disable cross play if you are on a PC and don’t create a Sony account. That way no one can cause harm on the precious Sony system. Sony sucks.
That splits the community, but I see the idea. Hopefully they'll uno reverse this decision as this is just an artificial step they are putting in. Saying that, Ubisoft with Uplay and EA accounts haven't stopped PC players from playing those games (looking at you Sims playercount). So at the end of the day most people will just continue on as normal, except for the people in countries like the Philippines that literally cannot make PSN accounts. That shit really sucks.
I was thinking this would be the most obvious solution to this problem. Only require a PSN account if people want to use cross play. But that would be too nice for Sony 😕
The fact that they have the audacity to claim it's for "security reasons", when it's actually done to artificially inflate PSN user metrics to please shareholders, and get access to more personal data to sell, is the most egrigious part about this mess.
i actually think they stalled it on purpose becasue stem users wouldnt have bought it otherwise, now they have no choice but to sign up. they can design a 3d world with aliens to shoot, online gameplay but couldnt finish a login for launch?
The best part is that the account linking feature isn't even available. So if this is supposedly for "safety" reasons why am I not able to do it right now if it's clearly that important?
No, that "need a third party account" was NOT shown when I bought it on steam. I wouldn't have bought it if it had. I never agreed to Sonys EULA and TOS when I bought the game.
So, what happens when just about every player living in the Philippines requests a refund from steam when they literally are not allowed to play the game they bought? Is Sony really going to accept eating millions in refunds from the playerbase of an entire country to force PC players to link their account?
@@HaleTheFreeVoice PSN doesn't work in their country. every single player there will have to figure out how to use a VPN, and Sony can ban them if they find out they're using a VPN because its against TOS. Again, these are customers who have ALREADY PAID Sony for their product.
There are 90 countries where PSN doesn't work by the way as I was told. I heard a lot of people in russia pay microtransactions for this game and Sony blocked them from creating PSN accaunts (They was not supposed to be able to buy the game in the first place, but whatever). I wonder what are they going to do with this...
@@IsfetSolaris I literally linked my olden JP PSN account that I haven't touched in almost a decade - but I still had to use a free VPN because the PSN linking page geolocates to the Philippines automatically regardless of account region. Upon getting past the first page in the linking process, I simply disconnected from the VPN and the game proceeded to link normally. The VPN itself isn't needed to play the game. It's literally only for that one little step.
but IN game ( 1:50 ) there was a SKIP THIS STEP button. NO WHERE did they say it was a GRACE period to play WITHOUT linking accounts. this is a security issue, i don't want Soyny to see my steam info, they get breaches every other month and don't share about it because shareholders are more important than customer safety. you only hear about the major breakouts once a year. this is a rug pull. through and through. NOT TO MENTION the GAME was allowed to sell in countries. WHERE YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED A PSN ACCOUNT. and WILL GET BANNED/ACCOUNT DELETED for using a VPN to get around that little issue.
Not here to defend Sony's stupid actions, but you do know that Helldivers uses GameGuard, which has access to every file on your computer and has been caught editing files on people's computers, right? If somebody were to exploit that, they'd have access to your internet browser's history and saved account data, as well as anything and everything else on your computer such as password managers.
Not to mention none of us can verify what Sony does/doesn't have access to with that link, and I watch enough ethical hackers to feel justifiably worried in how ramshackle that connection really is.
@@Boredom_Incarnate What about GameGuard then? It has kernel level access to your entire system while running and has been detected by people's anti-virus editing files outside of the game directory. In its default settings (that Helldivers doesn't use thankfully), it installs itself to launch on boot as a background process, allowing it to track everything you do. Sony is a big privacy issue, but it's not the only one this game has.
I am quite perplexed, why would a country not allow a playstation account yet allow steam? This is very confusing. I don't understand why that would not be allowed. What country with internet access is that restrictive?
Sorry but "they put a disclaimer up" doesn't fly. The buy button is at the top of the store. That disclaimer is two screens down. "We technically put something in the small print so it's your fault for spending money" is a terrible argument. One of the largest drivers of sales for this game is existing players convincing their friends to grab it to join in... when you're buying it to jump into a friend's game, you don't decide to read through all the small print, you just want to get into the game. What this amounts to is they changed the rules after people had enough time to play past the refund window. If you're going to blame users for not spotting a tiny notification that's not on the first screen of the store page, then would you blame people for not reading a 500 page license agreement book, or the apple terms of service?
It's half a screen down, and then another half to see the gold disclaimers. And you actually pretty much have to have the gold boxes on screen if you want to buy the Super Citizen Bundle. (yes I can drag the scroll bar just enough that the "Add to cart" button is right at the bottom of the window so that the gold buttons are just cut off, but come on, who does that?)
And rightfully so. Imagining selling a game in a bunch of countries then switching things up so they'd have to break TOS to keep playing it edit: insane that he barely even mentioned this. you can literally still, as we speak, buy the game in regions where you cannot make a PSN account and if you VPN to lie about your region they also reserve the right to delete accounts for lying about any of the details
"oh its just a bit annoying when i buy a game in one launcher, only for it to need another launcher to play" like ALL UBISOFT GAMES on Steam. It's hell.
A few things: 1. PSN isn't available everywhere (so you have to break TOS to still get one, which can get your PSN and thus HD2 account banned). 2. The store page stated 3rd party account required, and linking SUPPORTED (no mention of being forced to do so). 3. pretty sure you can't be forced to share data with a third party to use a product after you bought it when it clearly wasn't required under GDPR laws in the EU. 4.) Region locking within the EU isn't allowed if it's available in at least one EU state, and as PSN is not available in all EU countries, it would effectively violate that law.
No idea about EU regulations... Those tend to not "cross the pond," as it were. But point 1 is 100% accurate; it is not ok to sell the game in countries where people cannot play without breaking ToS. Also, I completely agree with what you're getting at with point 2! You should be allowed to just log into your PSN account without linking it to Steam.
Should mention that in the UK when you try making a PSN account, you're forced to either give them a phone number, ID or facial scan just to MAKE the bloody account. And I don't wanna give Sony that data given how many data breaches they have. XBOX doesn't do this when you make an account there. It's straightforward with no faff.
PSN isn't available in my country. I have 145 hours played, so there's no chance in hell of me getting a refund. I trusted Arrowhead and felt they were worth spending additional money on the game, so I bought the deluxe edition of the game. I will no longer to be able to play the game I've spent $60 on. That's bullshit. Especially with how, even if we magically gain access to PSN, Sony has a massive history of data breaches.
This feels like the kind of thing that will warrant Steam going back on their usual refund policies, otherwise it's probably a valid class-action lawsuit against Sony for selling the game in places where you can't actually play the game.
You can sometimes get a refund for technical problems. It's just not automatic. In this case, you should be able to, since they removed your access to the game, which is illegal according to consumer laws.
I just hope that Arrowhead is able to get Sony to listen and get rid of the account linking. This won't affect me because I am from the US and on PS5, but this will hurt the playerbase, reputation, and future of the game and the studio as a whole. The right thing to do is simple, stop the need for account linking.
If you think I’m putting my literal photo ID anywhere near a Sony server you’re out of your damn mind. ‘Ooh making your account is just a bit annoying’ No. You shouldn’t be encouraging anyone to sign up to any network that has more holes in it than a sieve.
If it's a valid reason is debatable since the requirement was on the steam page ever since it was put up. If people didn't read it's not the publisher fault. What I would say is the game shouldn't of been sold in regions where PSN accounts cannot be created or they should get exemptions so they can play.
@@bradmiles1984 Yeah I agree, Entirely valid to not want to make a psn account. But the power is entirely in your hands as the potential buyer of such a game, don't buy games that say they will require you to make a psn account if that is a problem. And yes, the 2nd part is absolutely valid as a complaint. And hopefully something that can be refunded.
@@Calnelth Don't get me wrong I understand people being upset about having to make the psn account but in the end the requirement was on the steam page so while it's unfortunate people need to stop saying they were mislead.
review bombing isn't a valid tactic if you were just too stupid not to read the requirement on the page. it said it right there from day 1. This is gamers throwing a temper tantrum because they didn't read the goddamn requirements. Review bombing is going to lead to a world where reviews are not on the product page itself; most of the time when it happens it's for something entirely unrelated to the game, maybe one of the devs has an opinion people don't like, so they review bomb, oh no something that was over powered got nerfed, review bomb, character in game is black, review bomb (they actually tried this with Alan Wake II). Reviews are for the game itself, the gameplay, technical bugs, not protesting a sony policy that helldivers is FORCED to comply with. If you want to protest sony as a company use one of their socials, email them, go outside touch some grass, grab a sign and go picket outside sony headquarters. Don't sabotage developers who have no control over this.
my biggest issue with the whole situation isn't the creation of a PSN account, it's for the countless players who are stuck in regions who CAN'T make an account because PSN isn't there. They allowed this game to be sold to 190~ regions and PSN is only available in 60~ regions. This is an extremely scummy practice. If the intention was always to be this way, why did they even allow these people to buy the game in the first place And before anyone says "Just make an account with a VPN, it isn't hard", Sony bans people who create accounts outside their area as its against their TOS.
@@Calnelthalmost all the complaints about this game are completely valid. Arrowhead has shown they don’t know how to update a live service game. The only time I’ve disagreed with a criticism was how they said they weren’t adding lbgt flags. But I can see them adding them come June
@@estebanjvidal Sometimes the publishers (aka sony) do control the steam pages. If Sony does control the steam page then yes Sony could get into some sort of trouble, but most likely theyd just throw cash at it and it'd disappear. If its the dev team then they don't really know how to set up their steam page and have kept it like that for 3 months while working with sony, leaving them vulnerable to potential trouble in those countries that can't make psn accounts.
@@Calnelth From the very beginning, the steam page had stated that a 3rd party PSN account (Tbh i didn't even know until this whole debacle) would be required for the game and even launching the game for the first time would prompt users to link a PSN account. However, due to the overwhelming popularity at the start of the game, they stated that this linking was causing more bugs and problems and made it so that this was an optional choice instead. Now, after months of the game running fine without the need to link a PSN account, this sort of thing occurs, and it of course rubs everyone the wrong way. Especially for the people who bought the game (i.e. the Philippines, Middle Eastern countries and EU countries, so don't come and say the people locked out are from less developed countries and don't have big player bases).
the minor inconvenience point is an absolutely tiny portion of the controversy you should've had a larger focus on - half the world are no longer able to play - consumers who still want to play have their data at a larger risk now - EU citizens have to get a face scan to continue playing
The "requirement" isn't even in their EULA. It's just that small banner on the steam page that is easily missable and wasn't there for the first two months of the HellDivers 2 pre-order campaign.
Its a banner thats HIGHLIGHTED and is there because GAMERS demanded it be there. Its there because GAMERS DEMANDED it be there. Then GAMERS IGNORE it, don't look at it, then whine and complain afterwards. It was there from Day 1, as requested by you the gamers.
@@Damaged7nope, I purchase games on the steam app (on my phone) and you can hit the buy button 100% without coming anywhere near the prompt that says you need a PSN account. Not only this, it’s placed in a wall of text between other highlighted bullshit and is easily missed.
@@Damaged7 because it's barely noticeable. They literally have "Notice: This game only supports Japanese interface/voice for customers in Japan." as the most visible thing on the store page. That's where the account linking info should be, it's a joke.
Do you know why that warning is there? Because gamers demanded it. Your fellow gamers demanded it be there to avoid situations like this.... take a second and think about that. Is your argument seriously that you can't scroll down on store page to learn crucial information about the product you bought? If you don't care enough to learn that information, then you don't care do you? Or is that just how lazy people are these days? They can't move their finger a cm on their mouse?
Yeah, but thats where the law hobbles you. You literally tick a box to say you've read the TOS/EULA etc... Nobody actually does, and they take advantage of that... but you've signed to say you have read it when you purchased it, even though you haven't. That's your rights dissapeared out the window right there. You'll probably find in Helldivers EULA (which you've accepted, even though you didn't actually read it) it'll mention the PlayStation account stuff.
Signing up for a PSN account means that you also have to accept Sony's terms of use, privacy policy, etc. If I don't accept those, I'm not allowed to play Helldivers anymore.
You had to accept Steam's terms of use to make a Steam account, so this is literally a non-issue. Unless you're a cheating piece of shit that is. The ACTUAL issue is that Helldivers 2 was sold in 200+ regions, and only 73 of those regions can actually create a PSN account. Not to mention that EU gamers can't make a PSN without uploading facial data or giving Sony their phone number. And Sony gets breached often enough that I understand why people don't want to link their Steam to PSN.
Many arguments are based on moral or ethical and aren't legally an issue. But..... If this was planned from the beginning how or why could they sell a product in a region that is requiring a service that is not available in that region. That may be case for those customers to get a lawsuit going.
And that lawsuit will be immediately tossed out due to the fact that it stated on steam since launch that you would need a psn account for the game, if you choose to ignore terms and conditions then the consequences are on you alone
@@Coomslayer9000 My guy, as the OP has said if the Game needed a PSN account to play the game originally from the beginning, then why sell the game on regions that can't get access to PSN in the first place? And I do not think any lawsuits will be immediately tossed out, especially in countries that PSN is not available. The least that can happen is the game being pulled out of those countries.
@@randomka-52alligatorthatis34which again leads us back to not reading requirements, the game requires both a psn account AND online capability, which means if you can’t get psn then the only way to actually buy and install the game is via steam, where it clearly states you need a psn account linked in order to play, the only other way to even buy the game in those regions would be via a physical copy, which is irrelevant because they wouldn’t be able to play it on a ps regardless because they can’t have online capability without a psn account
No mention of Sony FAQ saying that linking to PSN accounts on PC is OPTIONAL, but mentions 30 times that steam page had a small text somewhere saying it will be requirement. Stellar defence of corpo, as expected. GJ
You do understand that the highlighted and very visibile disclaimers was put there by gamer demands. Gamers demand that disclaimer be there for people like you who find the matter of the utmost importance. It was there. If you didn't read it, thats your fault. Not excusing anything Sony is doing, I"m simply pointing out that you could have avoided this had you done what you were supposed to.
Yeah the FAQ said that before when other SINGLE player games didn’t require it. Sony is well within their right to update their FAQ and as you said, the steam page says it’s required.
@@legacysquid0625 yes, they can update it. But not months AFTER they sold the game. And no, it did not say anything about single player games, it says it's not required on pc in general.
Not only is logging in after logging in annoying, I don't want ANOTHER account to keep up with, that could require sensitive information attached to. Haven't been able to play in weeks due to college, guess I'll just keep that streak up. I don't want to go make and keep up with yet another account right now. I remember seeing the popup the first time I logged in and saw that, and thought "well if I actually have to, I'll refund the game for now", and lo and behold when I pressed the button to continue (without linking or creating an account) it DID NOT require it, and nowhere did it say it was a temporary suspension of that requirement.
i agree with you on the annoying part. more than once i have passed on games that ask for an specific account. that said.... you saw the "Do not enter" sign on an open door and walked through.... you have no basis to be mad that a brick fell on your head.
Realistically, you as a consumer should be contacting your local government body expressing the need for scrutinization and security expectations when it comes to money you already spent. Their EULA does not supercede government policies.
Fun fact, actually: that little banner saying it requires a third-party account was *not* always present. It was up initially, vanished briefly, then came back shortly before the announcement dropped.
If copyright isn't enforced it's not binding. More over people aren't upset because they felt lied to, with it not being disclosed. They are mad because over 3 months it was proven it was never needed and that they are chosing to do this. They are chosing to push something that only benefits them, puts us at risk, and we should just accept that with nothing in return. Yes any individual can say this is not for me, but when you are doing something like that towards all of your customers it comes off as being antagonistic.
There's a MASSIVE argument against the page showing the third-party account on the page. I wishlisted the game before launch. That third party account was NOT on the page pre-release, and if something is wishlisted, you can buy it straight from the wishlist without going to the store page. How many people wishlisted the game and bought it straight from the wishlist instead of going to the store page?
@@Damaged7 Have you been to Steam? The best way to check for evidence is to replicate his argument. 1. Put HD2 to your wishlist. 2. Go to your wishlist. 3. Click Add to cart. 4. Click view cart & you'll be redirected to Steam's shopping cart without any mention of a 3rd party requirement. So yes OP's argument is correct. Asking for evidence without even trying to look into it is for people in denial. What's next? Are you going to blame Gaben?
@@tomino5201 I don’t think we have any evidence of it being an intentional scam. Could just as well just be a fuck up, but of course harmful regardless. Hopefully some kind of fix for the people in such regions or try asking for a refund.
It’s a PlayStation game…you pc players are complaining about nothing. What do you think ps5 players had to do when they got their first ps5? They had to make an account!
tf do you mean "annoying"? that's a full on scam. a lot of people around the world can't create a PSN account and will be locked off a game they paid for
reminds me of when microsoft bought minecraft and then forced players to make a micosoft account in order to migrate their minecraft accounts and play the game they already bought.
@@jimster1111 that is different, is a migration of server, they need your data to transfer your game session, this one is not a migration of server..PSN just want your data for no reason other then boosting up PSN sign up.
Yeah, it's all sorts of messed up. I will say that Steam called it a requirement on the store page prior to launch, but that's easily missed and doesn't justify making it a requirement after so many months of it being optional. And it's even made worse in countries that PSN isn't available. I really hope Sony walks it back, but I unfortunately wouldn't hold my breath.
This is a deal-breaker for me. I do not want Sony to have access to my data, it has a history with data breaches. Too late to get a refund so I guess the 200+ hours was a fun ride while it lasted.
I'm gonna keep playing lol, I don't particularly care if Sony has my data or not. At this point using the internet there isn't a corner which isn't entirely data safe and secure honestly.
They already have access to far more data than they can ever get from linking your Steam account through GameGuard. GameGuard has access to every file on your computer, from password managers to internet browser data. You gave them 200+ hours to gather information on every piece of your computer right down to the firmware version on your hardware. A bad actor using an exploit would have the login credentials for any account that you've ever logged into and any information you've entered while GameGuard was running (such as entering credit card info when buying something online). If you're concerned about data privacy, uninstall the game right now and find a GameGuard uninstaller to make sure it hasn't prevented itself from being uninstalled and is still running in the background on your computer, as under its default settings (which Helldivers doesn't use at least) it installs a key to launch on computer startup so that it runs even when you're not actively running the game.
@@Metranomixyou don’t care about Sony getting your data but you will when a south american guy uses your credit card and tells another guy what your address is
One nuance you failed to address is, if it was Sony's intent for all players to have a linked PSN account, then why was the game made available for purchase in countries that don't have access to Playstation services ?
From what I'm seeing this was sprang on them as well. I'm not defending what they've said in the discord, but I'd imagine with how many people have blown up that discord, I'd imagine they're stressed and overwhelmed.
Bellular I love your channel, but you also missed the point where playstations official support page literally said: Do I have to sign in to PSN to play a PlayStation game on PC? Signing in to PSN is optional when playing a PlayStation game on PC. That is also verified to be the case via the internet archive up to today, may 3rd. This isn't the same rule. This is a different rule. They can't even keep their own policies straight.
They changed the phrasing of it within the last 24 hours: 19:48 yesterday local time: Signing in to PSN is optional when playing a PlayStation game on PC. 19:32 local time (now): Some PlayStation games may require you sign in and link to an account for PSN.
Arrorhead just got a major order. Remove the Corporate scum from the planet Steam to reconnect communication to the lost Helldivers on planet PC. Can they complete this order in time before all those hell divers are lost?
Ahhh well.... just when I was gonna start my helldivers shenanigans. Guess palworld run no# 12 is ago... or perhaps it's time for terraria run no#(way to many damned runs)... I hope arrowhead doesn't get fucked over too bad by sony.
Another account is also another company that can revoke your access to the thing you bought, and with Sony specifically, it's one who has been doing so recently with other stuff.
Regardless of an account, this is a problem since day 1. The game always was online only, so they can remove access at any moment. Many people complained that this also prevented an offline mode.
The real problem is that they sold in countries where PSN is not available and VPN illegal. Plus a 3rd party account that requires more than a username and password is a no go. I would have booted and had to link I would have asked for the refund in the 2h.
Steam should require account linking before sale less potential for problems like this . They probably didn't think that a game would temporarily skip the requirement.
I got a demo or free weekend for a game once and when I installed it it started installing the Epic Game Launcher without asking for permission. There's some weird stuff out there
Community managers on Helldivers 2 discord: "It's not like this is the first or even the fourteenth mainstream game to require a third-party account that takes a couple minutes to create, but if it's a dealbreaker to have to take 120 seconds out of your day to enter an email and password and then forget about it, change your Steam review and make your displeasure known on a platform where it matters" so stop glazing Arrowhead they're not totally innocent.
It is not a review bomb. It is the consequences of Sony's actions. Calling anything a "review bomb" is being disingenuous. The whole issue is the fact that the publisher (Sony) released the game before it was ready because the account linking wasn't set up correctly. They should have delayed the game so that could be worked out. If it worked on day 1 then this would be a non-issue.
im sick of people implying that review bombing is a bad thing seeing as how its really the only recourse that people have if they have already bought the product whenever some executive at a corporation does something evil
@@KoalicusMarsupialensis I agree. To me, a 'review bomb' is just the community collectively calling out some terrible decision made by somebody in charge of the course of the game, whether it be the developer or the publisher. People have a right to voice their complaints. Just because many people do it en masse at the same time doesn't make the complaints invalid.
"Sony sucks, game is bad" yeah thats not disengenious. You know, mentioning literally nothing about the actual product thats being purchased. So legitimate, not a review bomb at all. How about this, provide me any argument that states the best option is not to simply be an adult and walk away from this video game, this toy. Explain how its better to behave like a child outside a store throwing a tantrum?
@@Damaged7 Sure. back to basics then. A group that bought product found something they didn't like about product and complained to company. This lets company know people are unhappy with product. Company then either ignores the group complaining or changes the product to keep the group happy. If group that uses the product did nothing then company would not change product. This is the basic form of the argument. it can be applied to any product you buy from a company and are unhappy about.
I was able to skip the account linking on first launch, never seen any info that it was disabled due to launch difficulties, nor did I see any announcements from SONY or ARROWHEAD that this was a temporary grace period. I just assumed it was optional, which it should be!
Guess the CEO of Arrowhead mislead us by saying X-Box was possible in the future. Imagine having to sign in to Sony to play on X-Box? Why make that mandatory on PC if you were really running the show?
I never understood the appeal of the game. I tried it and thought that the gunplay and character movement was slow and janky. I know I am in the minority, but the gameplay was the worst of any shooter I have ever played. Maybe it gets better at higher levels, but it would have to get exponentially better for it to be even ok feeling to play for me
@@la7era1u54 I can't really think of why either Probably the Cooperative but also chaos that is Helldivers Liberating other planets against robots and bugs. I love the game But we all have our different tastes in games. So it might be for many of us but not just for you and that's fine.
You could spend 2 minutes doing something to continue playing a game you enjoy. You could do that. It would in no way effect the gameplay or your enjoyment. Or you could choose to not play the game, probably be mad about it and then blame others. You should go ask your family members, people outside of gaming, what the better option is. If you won't trust people online, trust the people in yoru life.
the deciding factor is not what is written in a steam sheet , but what is written in the eula that has been signed off. As far as I know, it doesn't say anything about that.
1 thing missed out is they mention "psn account required. (Support linking to steam account)" But what's being implemented is "Psn account required. Linking to steam account is REQUIRED"
Friendly reminder that it's not 'Review Bombing' to leave legitimate criticism for a product! Reviewing Magicka because you are mad at HD2 is review bombing Reviewing MHW because you didn't like the Monster Hunter Movie is review bombing Reviewing HD2 because of a critical problem that will literally lock players out of the game is not :)
Adjustment of what they didn't bother to read the details of the steam page.....they bought it without looking that's not on the company that's on the buyer. I do think it's a dumb requirement but to suddenly give a bad review because they ignored what is clearly on the page since day 1 is dumb. The only people that should be able to complain in a review were those who bought the game in an area that doesn't allow PSN accounts because at that point it shouldn't of been on sale for steam in that reason.
@@noblej7897 Was only seemingly skippable because you didn't read the steam page that had the terms on it and showed PSN account required. I do think the message should of been ingame too.
Sure, you could say the rule was on their Steam from the beginning, but if it wasn't being enforced then that could mislead consumers. That could open you up to a lawsuit.
You're right, they should have admitted that the account linking wasn't working and denied Steam users access to the game. They should have let everyone on PS play the game while everyone on Steam waited for them to fix account linking. I"m sure everyone on Steam would have been understanding and patient right? They wouldn't have thrown a fit right?
MICHAEL, what about the Sony's tweet on April 30, 2024 about using player's biometric data to predict potential harassment and ban players accordingly using AI. Arrowhead Community Manager Spitz when replying to a player on Discord who said "Back pedal or lose your playerbase" replied with "I thought you were refunding and leaving" Sony is also one of the WORST companies for hacks and data breaches in the industry. Who in their right mind would want to have their Steam Account details on a Sony server?
So is both steam and xbox only difference with xbox is Microsoft has US cyber defense contracts so you literally become a terrorist (and even with the threat of that Microsoft got hacked last month and had emails and passwords leaked) Buy pre paid cards it's not that hard.
I stopped updating or maintaining my PSN account in 2020 after the fourth time I had to change all of my passwords as a result of yet another Sony data breach. I will not be re-activating it so they can "read my biometric data" with an AI bully hunter.
As a matter of contract law, you can’t not enforce a term of a deal and then enforce it later without the consent of the other party, a process that usually involves litigation or extensive negotiation. In tandem, sale of a product and then the taking back of said product later (PSN unavailability in many countries), is also breach, and everyone affected should join a class action instead of accepting a refund. Arrowhead is not at fault here, but Sony is in full and open breach of contract. The massive wave of negative reviews isn’t a review “bomb” how we traditionally refer to it where people get mad at a feature or the devs and “overreact.” This involves the publisher forcing an arbitrary, nonsensical, and technically unenforceable part of a deal on the player base that would result in a whole portion of the player base being actively excluded from the game. This is unacceptable, and if Sony doesn’t re-neg on this there has to be a class action. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter what the steam page says, what matters is if the terms of the agreement were enforced. Anybody saying “well, the steam page says this” I’m very glad you are able to read, but what actually matters is the application. Sony didn’t enforce this, even if it was for a good reason, and sales were made that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible as a result of this no enforcement. Review bomb it. Review bomb it into the ground. Once again a game publisher is being greedy, sly, and is willing to ruin a good thing to watch some numbers go up a little.
The thing you forgot to mention: The steam mention of 3rd party account is steam announcing that the EULA of Helldiver 2 on purchase mentions NOWHERE the need for such and account Therefore "legally" i bought a game under an agreement that i don't need a third party account and Steam is just misinformation.
People saying to not blame the Devs at all, please remember. A decision like this doesn't just happen overnight. Not with how bureaucratic Sony is. Arrowhead knew to some degree. They knew. And yet they still let people in PSN blocked countries purchase the game. The decision to require a PSN account was not Arrowhead's. But the decision to handle the situation poorly was.
I think it's impossible for Helldivers' devs not to take atleast some part of this on themselves. They basically just assisted in theft. Hundreds of thousands of people bought this game in places where they're not even able to make a PSN account. This was a tragedy.
It is not being "Review Bombed", people are just reviewing the game including the news. I have been having a great time with the game, but forcing me to link it to a PSN account on PC is just bullshit. It is technically possible to not do it, they are just forcing me to give my data to PSN and open myself to be hacked. I absolutely hate this arbitrary change. If I knew this from the get go, I might not have bought the game. Some people cannot even get PSN accounts, they are just banned from the game. REVIEWS are more than VALID.
The review is supposed to be about the game, not any personal storefront publisher politics that upset you. You're literally telling people nothiing about the game at all. You're telling people "Hey guys, gameplay isn't whats important in gaming... going after devs and publishers is". I'm sorry but to most of the world we understand this is a video game and its not worth throwing a tantrum over. We are adults, we can make a throwaway account to play a game.... we've done it many times. All of those people can decide to be adults, and go spend time playing games they like. Or they can stick around and behave like children skulking over a video game that brings them negativity. They can all make that choice.
@@Damaged7 A decision that renders a lot of the playerbase unable to play and even more of the player base in a position they don't want to be in isn't valid for a review? It's not like we're talking about something they said on Twitter or some shit this is actual gameplay affecting stuff. "Ah yes, they've decided to enforce a decision that makes me unable to play the game, but obviously that's not a valid critique on the game..." Also, people have already posted screenshots of getting banned when making accounts with VPNS, plus many countries require you to give actual Legal ID to psn to age verify so using real ID on a fake account that's going to get banned is not a great strategy...
@@Zectifin A review bomb has a very negative connotation of "not really being deserved", as in when something happens that is not affecting the product, but is somehow related and people take their frustrations by writing negative reviews. Like when some people were not happy with JK Rowling tweets so they tried review bombing hogwarts legacy. In this case, it is very much related to the product. They changed the product halfway, so people are reviewing the changed product and it has become negative.
@@Damaged7Something that prevents some of the play base and removes an option for people to play the game they have payed for is reasonable reasons to post a negative review. It literally prevents you from playing it. Also very nice of you to Gatekeep hobbies as if you have an authority to say what is or isn't childish. You may not care how companies move the goal post in their favour but others don't and they are allowed to express it. Do take a look at the "review bombings" and see that people still praise the game but also express their dislike of Sony's actions, it's not a critique on the game but rather the change of this fundamental thing.
I don't have a PSN account anymore. I had it a decade ago, back during the PS3. Don't have access to it anymore. And with Sony's track record of being hacked, I'm not making a new one. So this means I can't play the game anymore.
Or people could read the store page of the product they are purchasing. They even highlight the one sentence that says you need a 3rd party account. You are given all the information you need, i fyou choose to ignore it then thats your fault. Its right there on the side, in plain view, not hidden or burried.
@@Damaged7 Here's the thing: you had the ability to start the game and play, without this. I purchased the game despite it saying so because I had asked a friend whether or not it was needed. And if they had "technical difficulties" requiring them to issue a grace period... they didn't have the grace to inform us about that. Oh, and by the way: If, what I read (and my understanding of it) is correct, this move is against EU law, since it is a business-to-consumer commercial practice that, while factually correct (as in they stated that you need to have an account linked) is unfair (and therefor prohibited), since e.g. the main characteristic of usage can definitely deceive a consumer into buying the game, since you could play the game without an account. You even had a button to skip. (‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’) Article 6 "A commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful or in any way, including overall presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information is factually correct, in relation to one or more of the following elements, and in either case causes or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise:" So please. You were able to play, so the statement "needs 3rd party account" was wrong, even if it now turns out to be factually correct.
Opposite to your opinion it has technically not been a requirement all along, since the Sony FAQ says it isnot and since none of the end user license terms mention it. Its nice, that Steam as a third party mentions it, but its a stretch to say, the Steam info overrules the EULA or Sony itself. And of course it factually also wasnot for months.
@@mikejr7727 Sony has a poor reputation in information security, why would one give them personal details, alongside their poor approach to cross play accounts that has the possibility of holding your game account progress hostage relative to other platforms.
@@mikejr7727 April 2011: Hackers Access Personal Data of 77 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users May 2011: Personal Details on 25 Million Sony Online Entertainment Customers Stolen June 2011: Sony Pictures Website Hacked, Exposing One Million Accounts November 2014: Hackers Steal 100 Terabytes of Data from Sony Pictures August 2017: Hacker Group Accesses Sony Social Media Accounts September 2023: Sony Investigates Alleged Hack October 2023: Sony Notifies Employees of Data Breach
The issue seems most acute in the cases where they were merrily selling the game to locations where PSN accounts are not supported; but (while it would definitely take an amount of lawyer whose cost would dwarf the potential refund to raise and argue the question) there seems something distinctly estoppel or acquiescence-flavored about silently declining to enforce a right for a period of time that causes some people to rely on that state of affairs; then suddenly turning the screws. The fact that it was listed from day one as a requirement certainly puts it on sounder footing than a sudden creation of an undisclosed requirement; but there is a somewhat unpredictable thread of recognition, in civil and case law, of the fact that unexpected changes in enforcement of the deal can, sometimes, amount to altering the deal.
It went from 84% when I saw the Asmongold video to now 69% (nice). And it's deserved. Whether it was announced before released or just now, having to have a PSN account when I own the game on steam is just ridiculous and I do not wish that my ability to play a game is in the hands of Sony. Personally, I didn't see that tiny box when buying it and would have skipped it if I had known.
You dont own the game tho...its right there on the contract. The First few lines makes it clear that we are buying a lucense to access this service. Any kind of breach and they can revoke your license. People act like thats not the case for every cyber product...
@@PAUL-ESNEED not everything, man...Indie Studios NEED the money. I sometimes pirate AAA and play a few hours just to see If It's worth my money. If i like It i go and buy It. Even tho Big Corps are bad there are people working and making a living out of that, my man.
They never explicitly told us that it was only a "grace period" which will eventually expires. And if it's would eventually be required to have PSN acc, while PSN is not available to all countries, they should have made it unavailable on those countries' steam store so people in those countries wouldn't make the mistake of buying the game. People just see that the game is available on steam, assume they can just buy it and play it. They are not going to check if you need to go through any additional extra steps in order to play it.
@@Tsukimi39 You generally should. I only don't when I either don't care (because I know they sell my data anyway and am fine with it), or I implicitly trust the application (most open-source software). When installing anything I don't have experience with, I always read.
Its honestly really sad to see a great game die like this. I expect Helldivers 2 to slowly fade into irrelevance after June 4th. I for one won't be making another dive after that point unless something major comes out that somehow convinces me to stay, though I doubt this will be the case. I love this game and to have it end so abruptly is honestly pretty sad.
For people like me who live in the U.S. and can sign up for a PSN account or already have one, this is scummy, but the terms were there so that's on me for not being mindful of that. For people who live in countries that CAN'T get PSN and were sold this product, yeah F that and a half. Those people deserve a refund.
3:28 I feel like if you haven't been enforcing a rule that was going to affect a lot of your player base when there's what 150 to 200 regions and Playstation Network only works in 69 to 73 of those regions? They had the little sticker but if you weren't doing anything else? It's like LG putting forced arbitration on the cardboard box but nowhere else
Reviewing bombing is a malicious tactic used by bad actors. Many people posting negative reviews because a company made a bad decision is NOT review bombing. Its customers making their displeasure known through one of the few powers as consumers that we possess. I despise this current trend of delegitimizing negative reviews by brushing them off as "just a review bomb".
I'm a 40 year old PC user. I'm too old for this kind of shit... A pity, cause I really enjoyed the game. But after 80+ hours, I can say the money was well spent.
I'm 37 and already had a PSN account so doesn't really effect me much. I get what people are saying about if PSN isn't available but I'm fairly certain a majority of people on this site alone have agreed to have their data distributed for far less. Not to discount their criticism as invalid. A person's opinion is always valid. Just appears to be selective unless you are in a country region locked or have to provide more than reasonable information to create an account.
Sounds like you should request a refund. Also, I don't think it's legal to revoke access to the game in Sweden, where Arrowhead is based, and they should be forced to refund you. We literally sent the Pirate Party to the EU and filesharing is an officially recognized religion here. If you can't refund a game you can no longer access here, you're never getting a refund on anything live-service and it'd be confirmed that live service = rented game, for as long as they feel like. 🤔
@@theeccentricgentlemanVA even if you have a psn account thats not the issue the issue is them wanting it linked to your steam account so they can data scrape that info that would not be on your psn account like all your steam games the cc's tied to your steam account being able to use violations of their tos to destroy said steam account that is the problem oh and the fact they get damn near hacked every other month and only report on it once a year when they get caught and as a former Navy IT i would never trust them with any of my data as their security is trash thus why i requested a refund stating the bait and switch and the attempt at breech of privacy for their own greed when they have a history of poor cyber security and i will not be exposing my steam account to their back door security weaknesses
They have the right to change Terms of Service. However that action changes your use factor, like additional external requirements, they would be required to offer a refund should a consumer choose to not accept the new terms.
i never got any prompt and was not aware of the 3rd party account bs due to that, i was "buy and play" mentality and now i must comb through every game i ever buy again
I never saw this button on steam. Bought it somewhere else. Also, you have to scroll down quite some way, so you can easily buy Helldivers without ever seeing the text. Also on the playstation page, they say "psn is not necessary".
As far as I know the "3rd party account linking required" thing is a bit weird as from what I heard there isn't a seperate tag for if it is optional or if it is only for other things like an ingame skin or something. So some people might have assumed it was for optional things and not for just playing the game. I know I at least would have assumed it was ONLY for crossplay. Also for it being needed it is a bit strange since Sony also owns Bungie yet it isn't required there. Also from what I have heard in the past once you link your account you can't unlink it at all. So if down the road your PSN account gets hacked, or you get a new PSN account or just want to unlink you can't. Which means that those accounts are permanantly tied together.
PSN account is all about selling Sony's subscription services if you want to play online. They might just force you to pay for it if you want to play Helldiver 2 online later down the line.
@@tomino5201 Not even remotely true. First of nguard isn't a kernel, it's anti-cheat that works at kernel level. Second it's not even the most invasive anti-cheat by any means go play Valorant. Their anticheat requires you to reboot your whole pc if you close it out to be able to play again.
@@bradmiles1984 Valorant uses GameGuard as well, doesn't it? The default settings for GameGuard has it run on startup on your computer and prevents itself from being uninstalled if you uninstall the game, while also having access to every file on your computer. Anti-virus software has caught GameGuard editing files outside of the game directory, and it can pull data from your internet browser and other programs such as password managers.
A major issue in our society is that people are expected to agree to more legal agreements than they could practically read. When people are all using it and telling you you can use it, many people simply aren't going to pay attention to anything perceived as "the fine print".
What happens when people demand this info be presented to them upfront, before purchase, and then they ignore it and complain? What is anyone supposed to do about that? There was no "Fine Print" it was a very visible and highlighted sentence on the store page.
I'm sorry, but you are wrong about a few things. It was an OPTION to connect your PSN account. It was on their site and in the EULA for the game. Sony changed their wording to make the wording fit their narative
Review bombing is a little disingenuous dont you think? I appreciate you enjoy the game, but this is shady tactics no matter how you spin it. They should have told people that from the beginning, not wait until their refund policy is void to incorporate it. Anyone refunding/reviewing the game badly at this point is perfectly within their rights to do so
If they had the grace period obviously mentioned in a persistent banner that would've been honest and upfront and this would've be nothing burger but they didn't.
Join us at bellular.games for early access content, 20 editions of 'Loading Screen' a month and to support our team!
I didn't even know Steam warned you about this kind of things. Those little labels are barely visible on the store page.
Hey Bellular, do you ever cover rhythm games? Like mobile rhythm games?
-- " you will soon be forced to make one"
How about, Noooo... that is what bank charge backs are for, when you do a bait and switch, if you can't get a refund.
This is going to hit Arrowhead/helldivers or it will hit steam (and stream will go to arrowhead).
Good Guy Steam gave me an HD2 full refund despite having 150 hours of gameplay. I'm one of those players who lived outside of PSN coverage.
It's not review bombing !
The military simulation in HD2 is so deep, they've even added the part where leadership starts threatening punishments out of nowhere because you didn't make an account for something that they just now decided was important.
US Army moment.
Hope they incorporate this into the lore lmao
I'm confident mandatoryfunday would approve of this situation.
With plenty of "just following orders" too.
@@theimperiumofman102 You'd be surprise how common that is across the world
They sold a game in 200 regions, 73 of those regions can actually make psn accounts
well sucks for us.But maybe it was a plan grab as much money and than kick players that are not born in right coutries
@@tomino5201 sounds like a sony thing to do.
@@tomino5201 why would a publisher/dev tank their own player count on purpose? i like tinfoil hats as much as the next guy but u need a kernel of logic...
@@damp2269Maybe because they know all too well that gamers have a memory power that reaches from the wall to the wallpaper? Because they made a lot of extra money selling the game in those regions, while being aware this would cause a shitstorm for sure, but that the very next moment, lots of players in the lucky regions will soon happily continue playing the game or even buy a copy of the game, because who really cares?
I mean, I still have a screenshot on my HD that shows a Steam group called 'Boycott MW 3!' on the day this game was released. And now _guess_ what all the members of this group were playing?
@@damp2269the same way a company will cancel a finished movie for a tax write off. Sony's math they present to shareholders would obviously benefit from this even if they lose players
I can’t wait till Sony goes "Technically, playing Hellduvers 2 online is a PS Plus feature so we're gonna need you to pay for PS Plus on Steam". Mark my words.
Games for Windows Live has returned! But this time it's blue!
I agree. No one seems to understand this point. THEY WILL start charging. Why wouldn't they? People who play on PS5 pay, so from Sony's standpoint, they are losing out on money for players playing on PC
@@Wesmoen This broke me more than it should've
@@sarahbisch4251I can't tell if you're joking or not
@@skyz6708 I don't think that is a joke. There's no reason for having people sign up for PS accounts unless they plan on doing more with it like charging.
PSN isn't even available in my country. They're simply banning me from playing the game that I paid for...
You should be well within your rights to request a full refund! If you are refused, ask your local consumer protection agency if that racket is legal! I doubt it is...
Can't u just use a vpn or something lmao
@@MaXiMoS54people shouldn't have to do this. Horrible take.
@@MaXiMoS54 that can get you banned i think
@@MaXiMoS54 and if they then ban them for using a VPN lmao? if they're happy to take the money they should provide the surface. lil bro really thought he was being smart 🤡🤡
For good reasons, why should pc players give their vital steam info to a 3rd party company that gets its database breached frequently?
because I dont wanna fucking log into steam to log into another fucking launcher. I deleted gta 5 from my steam account when they started that bullshit, its easier to just pirate it now.
Vital? Calm down. It's a steam account.
Lmfao you mean like wvery other ounce of technology we own 😂 youll survive
define vital info cause i got no clue what they are actually gonna get from it
Steam is in the same predicament, heck all game providers are, why do I need to give steam my vital info when it gets breached too?
Its not reviewing bombing. Im simply connecting my account to a negative review. Its for the safety and security of all Helldivers that I do this.
Literally 99% of those review bombs didn't mention one thing about the product, the actual video game, the actual thing being reviewed. Does anyone really need to explain how terrible a review that is? Really?
Awesome reply, the nerve of Michael calling this review bombing, guess he's sucking up to try and get Pale Beyond on PSN..
@@Damaged7it’s part of the product
@@Damaged7Just a tiny FYI, but 100% of reviews are subjective. If 99% find the entirely redundant friction of a 3rd party authentication unappealing, then that's their prerogative. No one owes a lengthy explanation for why they think a product is bad.
@@Damaged7A negative review that complains about the game crashing on startup doesn't really review the game itself either, but it's definitely justified.
Sony just chose the anti-consumer route yet again.
Expect more layoffs soon.
It is more complicated than that. They want you to start another program because they want data... To sell them but also improve the game....
Not defending Sony here, I hate the bastards, but we DID all sign up and agree to Sony when first booting up the game. Getting a very clear, bright, bold, yellow and large message saying "PSN account REQUIRED", so. Sony sucks, yes, but it's a little late to get mad about it. Edit; And I wasn't happy about having to make a PSN account to begin with, but I wanted to play the game, so I did. Didn't know it was skipable at the start for a while. Only people with legit grievances here are people who can't merge Steam and PSN accounts in their countries.
@@pierregravel-primeau702"Improving the game" is a shield that publishers wheel out to gaslight you and protect their data harvesting efforts. At the end of the day, they make more money off of your info than they do from you playing the game because of the lack of privacy protections.
If improving the game was the goal, they could communicate with the actual players. Sony doesn't because they don't care about you or your gaming experience.
@@pierregravel-primeau702 -- "... but also improve the game" Nope, its data for R/D, ohh, and for next time they get hacked soo have more accounts that will get compromised.
And recall, it's to make the people playing helldivers "more secure"
@@pierregravel-primeau702 "improving the game" everything they can do with their forced PSN can be achieved by using steam accounts... its the same. Zero benefit for players
Almost like forcing a retroactive change to a game preventing people from playing after they buy is an issue
yeah, I'm surprised that they didn't mention the accounts in the EU that can't make PSN accounts, and how their game they've been playing for months is now unplayable
But it's not a retroactive change.
@@FireFox64000000 Highly debatable
@@FireFox64000000as bell said in the video, technically yes but experientially no
@@FireFox64000000 it is. Since they didn't enforce it for the past three months. So in the eyes of most people it is a outside decision and barrier being imposed that wasn't made clear before everyone bought the game and now Sony wants to double down to reap the benefit. When clearly a good chunk dont want to do or now cant even do so.
A few things that you didn't mention that I think are quite important to the story:
1.) A short prompt was shown to some players when starting the game for the first time prompting them to link their PlayStation accounts. However you could skip the step, with wording that seemed like this was completely optional. This page also didn't show for everyone. Some players, myself included, didn't even know it was an option until now.
2.) They could have limited what regions could buy the game on steam, however they did not. This means they willfully allowed people to buy and play the game in regions that they knew would not be able to play in the future. I say willfully instead of chopping it up to them being neglectful, due to the fact that the game can STILL be purchased in those regions even after this.
3.) While the United Kingdom and Ireland are both included in the 69 countries that are supported by the PlayStation, there is an issue when creating an account for those users. When creating a PlayStation account they are required to submit either a photo of themselves or a photo of their government issued identification. This is required to verify your age on your PlayStation account. I personally wouldn't trust any company with my ID, let alone one that has had a history of data breaches (as recent as 2022).
4.) I understand that this was Sony's doing, however Arrowhead is not an innocent party here. They at no time (prior to this or now) have done anything to rectify this issue, and they got themselves into this position. This was something that they could have fought on prior to launch. They could have mentioned this at, before, or even after launch, but instead stayed quiet about it until now. Now they may not have been able to change the accessible regions for purchase on Steam, as it was published my Sony and they may have been the only ones who could do that. However they could have very well geofenced players in those regions from being able to play, and stated this as being why. Not only would this have been a warning for what was to come, but it also would have likely alleviated some of the server issues at launch.
In all both Arrowhead and Sony are to blame here, but mostly Sony. While they say its for moderation and safety, it clearly isn't as we have been fine without it with the current moderation. And there is nothing safe about Sony having your data. This to me seems like Sony using Helldivers 2 to get more playing information to sell, as MOST companies do. This isn't something that is isolated, but quite common. None the less it shouldn't be tolerated.
Very nice comment, thanks for giving info about UK/ IR because little of people knows about that
Thats very well put actually. But it doesn't explain why these people, these grown adults, are behaving like children over this issue? Its not worth throwing a tantrum over, its really not. The smart thing to do would be to just cut all this negativity out of their lives, and go play a game they enjoy. Not organize trolling parties to kill of new players who probably have no idea this is going on, because they just want to play a game and have fun.
There is no justification for becoming toxic children when people can be an adult and walk away.
@Damaged7 it's completely valid to be angry about the situation. I mean there are tens of thousands of players who, with how it stands, will lose the ability to play a game they spent money on. It doesn't personally affect me, but it's an injustice, and Sony needs to know and be told it's unacceptable.
I do, however, agree that it's childish to start trolling players. Don't take your anger out on the community, direct it at Sony. Those players had no hand in this.
@@Damaged7 a lot of new players dont know that sony was hacked 10 times already and Sony is not advertising it also so, even if this will let uk/IR people get to know about this issue and it will make them think twice before letting their ID info to company that is soo breachable then this reviews etc in my opinion are justified.
Games arent only about playing anymore - is more like pushing boundries to which exceed company can push it limits. If gamers allow that, they will allow more. (I hope i wrote it good, my English not the best )
@@jastab9 It was 10 times that we know about :)
I have no skin in this, but I'd think that asking people to agree to a new TOS (to create a PSN account) should qualify for the option to decline and get a refund.
I agree. The fact is that it was clearly stated on the store page that a PSN account was a requirement to play the game from day one, but the fact that the game was sold in regions where this literally isn't possible should be illegal and Sony should be held accountable for this.
Plus, all the people crying out about the data privacy (which is an entirely valid issue) are ignorant, because they gave these companies access to far more information through GameGuard when they launched the game for the first time than Sony could ever get through account linking.
For sure. Any time there's a change to a EULA, TOS, or any other agreement, people should absolutely be given the option to decline and receive a refund.
@@Khotetsu Sony accounts in some countries require photo ID to set up a PSN... GameGuard ain't got nothing on that bro.
@@SherrifOfNottingham It depends. While GameGuard is active, it has access to EVERYTHING on your computer, and under its default settings (which Helldivers doesn't use thankfully), it runs on boot, not just while you're playing the game. So it potentially has access to everything you do on your computer. Access your bank account? Type in your credit card number to make an online purchase? Watch a TH-cam video? GameGuard has access to all of it and could potentially record anything you do or that is on your computer if used by a bad actor.
Not to downplay the security issues of Sony. Fuck Sony. But to be concerned about one and not the other is ignorance of the dangers.
@@Khotetsu you're ignorant for thinking the two are at all similar. Gameguard doesn't know my fcking home address email paypal or credit card info. they've straight out stated it doesn't collect personal Identifiable information, guess what psn account does have though
It's not review bombing... People are criticizing the changes that happened retroactively, so why can't they change their review retroactively without having it be called "Review bombing"
If PS account linking is what makes you not recommend the game, then a negative review is legitimate action. If you are leaving negative reviews to punish or force the devs to go back on a decision, then it's an abuse of the review system, as you are not actually reviewing the game.
@StalkerOfTheZone So expressing disappointed in a decision that affects the game is not criticism? 🤔
@@StalkerOfTheZone But the negative reviews are stating this, PSN account linking becoming mandatory.
@@gHGhej it sure is criticism, but is the Steam Review page the right place for it? It might be! If you don't recommend people buy this game because X, that's completely understandable and leaving a steam review is appropriate. But if you are leaving a negative review regardless of your opinion for the game as a whole, that sounds a bit more of an attempt to force the dev/publisher to acquiesce to your demands though review score manipulation. And I'm not a big fan of that.
@@StalkerOfTheZoneAh yes, because warning people of a horrible change made that ruins the game and makes them not recommend it is wrong. There's only one way go get a message to people up top and that's with money and reviews. Warner Bros knows this well cause they would delete any negative reviews and astroturf the steam page review sections with bot accounts recommending the game. Same happens on Amazon, and other sites that have reviews. Trick people into paying to get their money and find a way to keep them from refunding. Hell, it's practices like this that led to Steam introducing the refund policy to begin with.
It's ironic that they gave a poorly described "grace period" for account linking to give them time to handle the massive number of new players... and by now making account linking mandatory they will likely drive away a large number of those new players.
Make a choice
A)Steam users are denied access at launch until server access issues are resolved and then account linking is resolved.
B)Forgo the account linking and worry about it later after you fixed many of the core accessability options.
Make that choice. If gamers were given that choice on launch day, ALL of them would pick B. All of them would.
but they already made MILLIONS on them...
@@Damaged7You left out:
C: Literally just leave it the way it was. Don't fix what isn't broken.
All Arrowhead would have to do is disable cross play if you are on a PC and don’t create a Sony account. That way no one can cause harm on the precious Sony system. Sony sucks.
I mean yeaaa but that splits the community alot and alot of mybfriends have pc while iam on Playstation smfh. This is just dumb
That splits the community, but I see the idea. Hopefully they'll uno reverse this decision as this is just an artificial step they are putting in.
Saying that, Ubisoft with Uplay and EA accounts haven't stopped PC players from playing those games (looking at you Sims playercount). So at the end of the day most people will just continue on as normal, except for the people in countries like the Philippines that literally cannot make PSN accounts. That shit really sucks.
I was thinking this would be the most obvious solution to this problem. Only require a PSN account if people want to use cross play. But that would be too nice for Sony 😕
Microsoft said sucks even harder
but then how would they have your data?
The fact that they have the audacity to claim it's for "security reasons", when it's actually done to artificially inflate PSN user metrics to please shareholders, and get access to more personal data to sell, is the most egrigious part about this mess.
im tired of these terrible people running these corporations
Pretty sure we'll be much more Secure and Safe if we don't link our Steam Account with PSN lol.
i actually think they stalled it on purpose becasue stem users wouldnt have bought it otherwise, now they have no choice but to sign up. they can design a 3d world with aliens to shoot, online gameplay but couldnt finish a login for launch?
The best part is that the account linking feature isn't even available. So if this is supposedly for "safety" reasons why am I not able to do it right now if it's clearly that important?
The community manager for the game specifically mentioned it is so they can ban players.
No, that "need a third party account" was NOT shown when I bought it on steam. I wouldn't have bought it if it had.
I never agreed to Sonys EULA and TOS when I bought the game.
well, tbf, you did - its just rules stated that it was NOT needed to register psn in the first place!
these scammers changed the text!
So, what happens when just about every player living in the Philippines requests a refund from steam when they literally are not allowed to play the game they bought? Is Sony really going to accept eating millions in refunds from the playerbase of an entire country to force PC players to link their account?
They will just make a free playstation account and never use it again lol
@@HaleTheFreeVoice We can't. PSN doesn't work in our country. And yet, there was no warning of this when we purchased the game.
@@HaleTheFreeVoice PSN doesn't work in their country. every single player there will have to figure out how to use a VPN, and Sony can ban them if they find out they're using a VPN because its against TOS. Again, these are customers who have ALREADY PAID Sony for their product.
There are 90 countries where PSN doesn't work by the way as I was told. I heard a lot of people in russia pay microtransactions for this game and Sony blocked them from creating PSN accaunts (They was not supposed to be able to buy the game in the first place, but whatever). I wonder what are they going to do with this...
@@IsfetSolaris I literally linked my olden JP PSN account that I haven't touched in almost a decade - but I still had to use a free VPN because the PSN linking page geolocates to the Philippines automatically regardless of account region. Upon getting past the first page in the linking process, I simply disconnected from the VPN and the game proceeded to link normally.
The VPN itself isn't needed to play the game. It's literally only for that one little step.
but IN game ( 1:50 ) there was a SKIP THIS STEP button. NO WHERE did they say it was a GRACE period to play WITHOUT linking accounts. this is a security issue, i don't want Soyny to see my steam info, they get breaches every other month and don't share about it because shareholders are more important than customer safety. you only hear about the major breakouts once a year. this is a rug pull. through and through. NOT TO MENTION the GAME was allowed to sell in countries. WHERE YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED A PSN ACCOUNT. and WILL GET BANNED/ACCOUNT DELETED for using a VPN to get around that little issue.
Not here to defend Sony's stupid actions, but you do know that Helldivers uses GameGuard, which has access to every file on your computer and has been caught editing files on people's computers, right? If somebody were to exploit that, they'd have access to your internet browser's history and saved account data, as well as anything and everything else on your computer such as password managers.
Not to mention none of us can verify what Sony does/doesn't have access to with that link, and I watch enough ethical hackers to feel justifiably worried in how ramshackle that connection really is.
Preach brother.
@@Boredom_Incarnate What about GameGuard then? It has kernel level access to your entire system while running and has been detected by people's anti-virus editing files outside of the game directory. In its default settings (that Helldivers doesn't use thankfully), it installs itself to launch on boot as a background process, allowing it to track everything you do.
Sony is a big privacy issue, but it's not the only one this game has.
I am quite perplexed, why would a country not allow a playstation account yet allow steam? This is very confusing. I don't understand why that would not be allowed. What country with internet access is that restrictive?
Sorry but "they put a disclaimer up" doesn't fly. The buy button is at the top of the store. That disclaimer is two screens down. "We technically put something in the small print so it's your fault for spending money" is a terrible argument.
One of the largest drivers of sales for this game is existing players convincing their friends to grab it to join in... when you're buying it to jump into a friend's game, you don't decide to read through all the small print, you just want to get into the game.
What this amounts to is they changed the rules after people had enough time to play past the refund window. If you're going to blame users for not spotting a tiny notification that's not on the first screen of the store page, then would you blame people for not reading a 500 page license agreement book, or the apple terms of service?
It's half a screen down, and then another half to see the gold disclaimers. And you actually pretty much have to have the gold boxes on screen if you want to buy the Super Citizen Bundle. (yes I can drag the scroll bar just enough that the "Add to cart" button is right at the bottom of the window so that the gold buttons are just cut off, but come on, who does that?)
@@Roccondil your steam window must be significantly larger than mine, because for me its scrolling down 3 window sizes, not 2 halves
And rightfully so. Imagining selling a game in a bunch of countries then switching things up so they'd have to break TOS to keep playing it
edit: insane that he barely even mentioned this. you can literally still, as we speak, buy the game in regions where you cannot make a PSN account and if you VPN to lie about your region they also reserve the right to delete accounts for lying about any of the details
Trademark was there day 1.though.
@Tory-JJ And it was stated today it would enforced? 😅
"oh its just a bit annoying when i buy a game in one launcher, only for it to need another launcher to play" like ALL UBISOFT GAMES on Steam. It's hell.
Arrowhead employees on discord are encouraging people to break Sony's TOS to keep playing by falsifying account information. This is a clown show.
@@Tory-JJ perhaps but then why could u play the game without linking ur acc
A few things: 1. PSN isn't available everywhere (so you have to break TOS to still get one, which can get your PSN and thus HD2 account banned). 2. The store page stated 3rd party account required, and linking SUPPORTED (no mention of being forced to do so). 3. pretty sure you can't be forced to share data with a third party to use a product after you bought it when it clearly wasn't required under GDPR laws in the EU. 4.) Region locking within the EU isn't allowed if it's available in at least one EU state, and as PSN is not available in all EU countries, it would effectively violate that law.
100% accurate .. well put... Sony is literally breaking TOS and just hoping most people dont know how or that they even can refund the game..
No idea about EU regulations... Those tend to not "cross the pond," as it were. But point 1 is 100% accurate; it is not ok to sell the game in countries where people cannot play without breaking ToS. Also, I completely agree with what you're getting at with point 2! You should be allowed to just log into your PSN account without linking it to Steam.
EU has much better cons7mer laws than the US.
I don't think describing 127 regions that the game was sold in will no longer be able to access the game after this month as 'A bit bloody annoying'.
Should mention that in the UK when you try making a PSN account, you're forced to either give them a phone number, ID or facial scan just to MAKE the bloody account. And I don't wanna give Sony that data given how many data breaches they have. XBOX doesn't do this when you make an account there. It's straightforward with no faff.
That's actually nuts
@@ChimpOnComputer Thats why theapologists that try to make this sound innocent & gaslight upset players is so annoying
Wait wtf are u serious??
Use VPN
Yep it's bad
PSN isn't available in my country. I have 145 hours played, so there's no chance in hell of me getting a refund. I trusted Arrowhead and felt they were worth spending additional money on the game, so I bought the deluxe edition of the game. I will no longer to be able to play the game I've spent $60 on. That's bullshit. Especially with how, even if we magically gain access to PSN, Sony has a massive history of data breaches.
This feels like the kind of thing that will warrant Steam going back on their usual refund policies, otherwise it's probably a valid class-action lawsuit against Sony for selling the game in places where you can't actually play the game.
You can sometimes get a refund for technical problems. It's just not automatic.
In this case, you should be able to, since they removed your access to the game, which is illegal according to consumer laws.
I just hope that Arrowhead is able to get Sony to listen and get rid of the account linking. This won't affect me because I am from the US and on PS5, but this will hurt the playerbase, reputation, and future of the game and the studio as a whole. The right thing to do is simple, stop the need for account linking.
You dont need access to the service, you just need an account that exists... thats it. You don' thave to use it, it just has to exist.
Question. Have you actually tried to make a PSN account?
If you think I’m putting my literal photo ID anywhere near a Sony server you’re out of your damn mind.
‘Ooh making your account is just a bit annoying’
No. You shouldn’t be encouraging anyone to sign up to any network that has more holes in it than a sieve.
I don't think "review bombing" applies when negative reviews are left for a valid reason.
If it's a valid reason is debatable since the requirement was on the steam page ever since it was put up. If people didn't read it's not the publisher fault. What I would say is the game shouldn't of been sold in regions where PSN accounts cannot be created or they should get exemptions so they can play.
@@bradmiles1984 Yeah I agree, Entirely valid to not want to make a psn account. But the power is entirely in your hands as the potential buyer of such a game, don't buy games that say they will require you to make a psn account if that is a problem.
And yes, the 2nd part is absolutely valid as a complaint. And hopefully something that can be refunded.
@@Calnelth Don't get me wrong I understand people being upset about having to make the psn account but in the end the requirement was on the steam page so while it's unfortunate people need to stop saying they were mislead.
There is always a valid reason, but sometimes you agree with it, sometimes you don’t.
review bombing isn't a valid tactic if you were just too stupid not to read the requirement on the page. it said it right there from day 1.
This is gamers throwing a temper tantrum because they didn't read the goddamn requirements.
Review bombing is going to lead to a world where reviews are not on the product page itself; most of the time when it happens it's for something entirely unrelated to the game, maybe one of the devs has an opinion people don't like, so they review bomb, oh no something that was over powered got nerfed, review bomb, character in game is black, review bomb (they actually tried this with Alan Wake II).
Reviews are for the game itself, the gameplay, technical bugs, not protesting a sony policy that helldivers is FORCED to comply with.
If you want to protest sony as a company use one of their socials, email them, go outside touch some grass, grab a sign and go picket outside sony headquarters. Don't sabotage developers who have no control over this.
my biggest issue with the whole situation isn't the creation of a PSN account, it's for the countless players who are stuck in regions who CAN'T make an account because PSN isn't there. They allowed this game to be sold to 190~ regions and PSN is only available in 60~ regions. This is an extremely scummy practice.
If the intention was always to be this way, why did they even allow these people to buy the game in the first place
And before anyone says "Just make an account with a VPN, it isn't hard", Sony bans people who create accounts outside their area as its against their TOS.
Unlike most of the rest of the complaints, this one seems super valid. I'd try to refund it, explain what happened.
This is the most valid issue of the lot, and I think the kind of thing people should be able to file a class action against Sony for.
@@Calnelthalmost all the complaints about this game are completely valid. Arrowhead has shown they don’t know how to update a live service game. The only time I’ve disagreed with a criticism was how they said they weren’t adding lbgt flags. But I can see them adding them come June
@@estebanjvidal Sometimes the publishers (aka sony) do control the steam pages. If Sony does control the steam page then yes Sony could get into some sort of trouble, but most likely theyd just throw cash at it and it'd disappear. If its the dev team then they don't really know how to set up their steam page and have kept it like that for 3 months while working with sony, leaving them vulnerable to potential trouble in those countries that can't make psn accounts.
@@Calnelth From the very beginning, the steam page had stated that a 3rd party PSN account (Tbh i didn't even know until this whole debacle) would be required for the game and even launching the game for the first time would prompt users to link a PSN account. However, due to the overwhelming popularity at the start of the game, they stated that this linking was causing more bugs and problems and made it so that this was an optional choice instead.
Now, after months of the game running fine without the need to link a PSN account, this sort of thing occurs, and it of course rubs everyone the wrong way. Especially for the people who bought the game (i.e. the Philippines, Middle Eastern countries and EU countries, so don't come and say the people locked out are from less developed countries and don't have big player bases).
the minor inconvenience point is an absolutely tiny portion of the controversy
you should've had a larger focus on
- half the world are no longer able to play
- consumers who still want to play have their data at a larger risk now
- EU citizens have to get a face scan to continue playing
The "requirement" isn't even in their EULA. It's just that small banner on the steam page that is easily missable and wasn't there for the first two months of the HellDivers 2 pre-order campaign.
It was stated as optional for pc in their tos last week. They changed it to 'may require'. Actually their faq page still lists it as optional.
@@AppleNorris well they probably realised how many people would refund the game if they made it obviously mandatory to start with, so shady.
Its a banner thats HIGHLIGHTED and is there because GAMERS demanded it be there. Its there because GAMERS DEMANDED it be there. Then GAMERS IGNORE it, don't look at it, then whine and complain afterwards. It was there from Day 1, as requested by you the gamers.
@@Damaged7nope, I purchase games on the steam app (on my phone) and you can hit the buy button 100% without coming anywhere near the prompt that says you need a PSN account.
Not only this, it’s placed in a wall of text between other highlighted bullshit and is easily missed.
@@Damaged7 because it's barely noticeable. They literally have "Notice: This game only supports Japanese interface/voice for customers in Japan." as the most visible thing on the store page. That's where the account linking info should be, it's a joke.
Just wait till June when they required to have a PlayStation Network subscription to play the game
if they can live with 5-10k current player .. good for them
Like for ARK
I’m still wondering if it would come to Xbox.
@@snip3r416 Don't count on it. It'd probably still require a psn.
@@ryojimata3708 PSN subscription while playing on Xbox.. Now THAT is a doozie! XD
It's entirely possible to go to the store page and buy the game without scrolling down and seeing the steam warning.
Do you know why that warning is there? Because gamers demanded it. Your fellow gamers demanded it be there to avoid situations like this.... take a second and think about that.
Is your argument seriously that you can't scroll down on store page to learn crucial information about the product you bought? If you don't care enough to learn that information, then you don't care do you?
Or is that just how lazy people are these days? They can't move their finger a cm on their mouse?
@@Damaged7You probably read every ingredient that is at the back of the food that you consume don't you?
@@johnjonson6377 Don't feed the troll. That guy has been shilling for sony on every comment thread & videos about this topic.
Yeah, but thats where the law hobbles you. You literally tick a box to say you've read the TOS/EULA etc...
Nobody actually does, and they take advantage of that... but you've signed to say you have read it when you purchased it, even though you haven't. That's your rights dissapeared out the window right there. You'll probably find in Helldivers EULA (which you've accepted, even though you didn't actually read it) it'll mention the PlayStation account stuff.
Signing up for a PSN account means that you also have to accept Sony's terms of use, privacy policy, etc. If I don't accept those, I'm not allowed to play Helldivers anymore.
You still will though 😂
I mean that’s that right?
@@friedpotatoesa1083unless your a cheater there should be no reason you get banned on an empty account
@@friedpotatoesa1083Excep your steam acount is still linked to steam risking your credit card data beign leaked every other month.
You had to accept Steam's terms of use to make a Steam account, so this is literally a non-issue. Unless you're a cheating piece of shit that is. The ACTUAL issue is that Helldivers 2 was sold in 200+ regions, and only 73 of those regions can actually create a PSN account. Not to mention that EU gamers can't make a PSN without uploading facial data or giving Sony their phone number. And Sony gets breached often enough that I understand why people don't want to link their Steam to PSN.
Many arguments are based on moral or ethical and aren't legally an issue. But..... If this was planned from the beginning how or why could they sell a product in a region that is requiring a service that is not available in that region. That may be case for those customers to get a lawsuit going.
This is exactly my thought.
And that lawsuit will be immediately tossed out due to the fact that it stated on steam since launch that you would need a psn account for the game, if you choose to ignore terms and conditions then the consequences are on you alone
@@Coomslayer9000 My guy, as the OP has said if the Game needed a PSN account to play the game originally from the beginning, then why sell the game on regions that can't get access to PSN in the first place? And I do not think any lawsuits will be immediately tossed out, especially in countries that PSN is not available. The least that can happen is the game being pulled out of those countries.
@@randomka-52alligatorthatis34which again leads us back to not reading requirements, the game requires both a psn account AND online capability, which means if you can’t get psn then the only way to actually buy and install the game is via steam, where it clearly states you need a psn account linked in order to play, the only other way to even buy the game in those regions would be via a physical copy, which is irrelevant because they wouldn’t be able to play it on a ps regardless because they can’t have online capability without a psn account
Have you you that maybe those countries will be an exception? How about we wait and see what Sony will do about those countries yeah?
No mention of Sony FAQ saying that linking to PSN accounts on PC is OPTIONAL, but mentions 30 times that steam page had a small text somewhere saying it will be requirement. Stellar defence of corpo, as expected. GJ
Ooooooor... He genuinely doesn't know about this particular piece of info?
You do understand that the highlighted and very visibile disclaimers was put there by gamer demands. Gamers demand that disclaimer be there for people like you who find the matter of the utmost importance. It was there. If you didn't read it, thats your fault. Not excusing anything Sony is doing, I"m simply pointing out that you could have avoided this had you done what you were supposed to.
Yeah the FAQ said that before when other SINGLE player games didn’t require it. Sony is well within their right to update their FAQ and as you said, the steam page says it’s required.
@@legacysquid0625 yes, they can update it. But not months AFTER they sold the game. And no, it did not say anything about single player games, it says it's not required on pc in general.
Not only is logging in after logging in annoying, I don't want ANOTHER account to keep up with, that could require sensitive information attached to. Haven't been able to play in weeks due to college, guess I'll just keep that streak up. I don't want to go make and keep up with yet another account right now.
I remember seeing the popup the first time I logged in and saw that, and thought "well if I actually have to, I'll refund the game for now", and lo and behold when I pressed the button to continue (without linking or creating an account) it DID NOT require it, and nowhere did it say it was a temporary suspension of that requirement.
Just create a dummy account and forget it. You won't need to log in every time
@@stevemcstevens1279 This. It just links the account, it doesn't actually need to be logged in any time after getting linked to Steam.
i agree with you on the annoying part. more than once i have passed on games that ask for an specific account. that said.... you saw the "Do not enter" sign on an open door and walked through.... you have no basis to be mad that a brick fell on your head.
@@damp2269was I in MY HOUSE that I paid for when that happened?
@@stevemcstevens1279a dummy account that, at a minimum requires my name and address and is linked to my non-dummy Steam account??
Realistically, you as a consumer should be contacting your local government body expressing the need for scrutinization and security expectations when it comes to money you already spent. Their EULA does not supercede government policies.
I dont think the dinosaurs that are the governing body here in WV is gonna care about gamer issues.
@@beanjuice6012 They might if they get enough of them.
They'll laugh and say you should've read the whole thing when buying it.
Yea unfortunately for quite a ton of people this doesn't apply.
100% if we are United States citizens then we have no say in any of this.
@@gucciguy3408you guys don't have a gov consumer protection agency that made Apple bend the knee after enforcing illegal sales like Brazil? Too bad.
Fun fact, actually: that little banner saying it requires a third-party account was *not* always present. It was up initially, vanished briefly, then came back shortly before the announcement dropped.
its not "bombing", its a legitimate critic.
If copyright isn't enforced it's not binding.
More over people aren't upset because they felt lied to, with it not being disclosed. They are mad because over 3 months it was proven it was never needed and that they are chosing to do this. They are chosing to push something that only benefits them, puts us at risk, and we should just accept that with nothing in return.
Yes any individual can say this is not for me, but when you are doing something like that towards all of your customers it comes off as being antagonistic.
@@Cj-cv4wb That's trademark. Copyright follows different rules.
@@alabonefyIt doesn't fucking matter BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE CANNOT MAKE A PSN ACCOUNT (region lock) how fucking hard is that to understand?
@@null6209 They're just gaslighting to protect their precious console brand
It really isnt
Feels like a push from Sony to appease shareholders by forcing people to interface with PSN so they can tout their MAUs.
100%
Bingo
This guy gets it
Exactly
It was always appeasing the shareholders who wanted Destiny in its heyday profit numbers.
They never gave two cents about the lousy peasantry.
There's a MASSIVE argument against the page showing the third-party account on the page. I wishlisted the game before launch. That third party account was NOT on the page pre-release, and if something is wishlisted, you can buy it straight from the wishlist without going to the store page. How many people wishlisted the game and bought it straight from the wishlist instead of going to the store page?
Okay and where's your proof? what makes you any different from anyone else claiming something with zero evidence?
@@Damaged7 spitz's socket account
@@Damaged7 Have you been to Steam? The best way to check for evidence is to replicate his argument.
1. Put HD2 to your wishlist.
2. Go to your wishlist.
3. Click Add to cart.
4. Click view cart & you'll be redirected to Steam's shopping cart without any mention of a 3rd party requirement.
So yes OP's argument is correct. Asking for evidence without even trying to look into it is for people in denial. What's next? Are you going to blame Gaben?
@@Damaged7 Why are you going out of your way to defend sony? what is this?
People are posting legitimate criticism. They don't want to be forced into linking to a security risk 3 months post release.
Most of them even cant because os psn.This is scam tactick because they new they will not be able to play in most countries but sell them game anyway
@@tomino5201 I don’t think we have any evidence of it being an intentional scam. Could just as well just be a fuck up, but of course harmful regardless. Hopefully some kind of fix for the people in such regions or try asking for a refund.
"Sony sucks, don't buy game" explain the legitimacy in that.
@@Damaged7 It's warning potential buyers that they risk getting scammed.
It’s a PlayStation game…you pc players are complaining about nothing. What do you think ps5 players had to do when they got their first ps5? They had to make an account!
tf do you mean "annoying"? that's a full on scam. a lot of people around the world can't create a PSN account and will be locked off a game they paid for
He is from the UK. He is used to that kind of thing.
Welcome to the world of always online DRM!!! Isn't it great!?
reminds me of when microsoft bought minecraft and then forced players to make a micosoft account in order to migrate their minecraft accounts and play the game they already bought.
@@AthamAldecua Obvious attitude from people that kept get fucked by company, they accept it as a normal thing.
@@jimster1111 that is different, is a migration of server, they need your data to transfer your game session, this one is not a migration of server..PSN just want your data for no reason other then boosting up PSN sign up.
There was never any mention of a "grace period" anywhere until now, 3 months after the launch of the game
Sony literally said on their website that a PSN account is OPTIONAL when playing their games on PC
They literally changed it TODAY.
Yeah, it's all sorts of messed up. I will say that Steam called it a requirement on the store page prior to launch, but that's easily missed and doesn't justify making it a requirement after so many months of it being optional. And it's even made worse in countries that PSN isn't available. I really hope Sony walks it back, but I unfortunately wouldn't hold my breath.
@@JakShadwinthey changed it from being "optional" to "some may". That's it
Yup, so the company is breaking EU advertisement laws.
And Steam literally said on the store page that you need a 3rd party PSN account. Clearly you guys don't trust Sony, but you all trust Valve right?
This is a deal-breaker for me. I do not want Sony to have access to my data, it has a history with data breaches. Too late to get a refund so I guess the 200+ hours was a fun ride while it lasted.
It was a lot of fun. But as they say "stop while things are good".
I'm gonna keep playing lol, I don't particularly care if Sony has my data or not. At this point using the internet there isn't a corner which isn't entirely data safe and secure honestly.
@@Metranomix Mint helps to get the taste out of your mouth. You know, after you their.
They already have access to far more data than they can ever get from linking your Steam account through GameGuard. GameGuard has access to every file on your computer, from password managers to internet browser data. You gave them 200+ hours to gather information on every piece of your computer right down to the firmware version on your hardware. A bad actor using an exploit would have the login credentials for any account that you've ever logged into and any information you've entered while GameGuard was running (such as entering credit card info when buying something online).
If you're concerned about data privacy, uninstall the game right now and find a GameGuard uninstaller to make sure it hasn't prevented itself from being uninstalled and is still running in the background on your computer, as under its default settings (which Helldivers doesn't use at least) it installs a key to launch on computer startup so that it runs even when you're not actively running the game.
@@Metranomixyou don’t care about Sony getting your data but you will when a south american guy uses your credit card and tells another guy what your address is
One nuance you failed to address is, if it was Sony's intent for all players to have a linked PSN account, then why was the game made available for purchase in countries that don't have access to Playstation services ?
Community manager was attacking players for complaining in the official discord.
Yeam that CM was so toxic.
Good
Sounds about right. Do you realize yet that NONE of these "people" GAF about us?
spitz, twinbeard, and katherine all suck. Wishing they’d get fired and blacklisted from the industry.
From what I'm seeing this was sprang on them as well. I'm not defending what they've said in the discord, but I'd imagine with how many people have blown up that discord, I'd imagine they're stressed and overwhelmed.
Bellular I love your channel, but you also missed the point where playstations official support page literally said:
Do I have to sign in to PSN to play a PlayStation game on PC?
Signing in to PSN is optional when playing a PlayStation game on PC.
That is also verified to be the case via the internet archive up to today, may 3rd.
This isn't the same rule. This is a different rule. They can't even keep their own policies straight.
They changed the phrasing of it within the last 24 hours:
19:48 yesterday local time: Signing in to PSN is optional when playing a PlayStation game on PC.
19:32 local time (now): Some PlayStation games may require you sign in and link to an account for PSN.
@@JerbilKonai PC Edition of Helldivers 2 on sonys store still says i dont need to link my acc Lol, literally the store page for the game...
That thing was rewrote in the timeline
Arrorhead just got a major order. Remove the Corporate scum from the planet Steam to reconnect communication to the lost Helldivers on planet PC. Can they complete this order in time before all those hell divers are lost?
nice.
"I am altering the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further."
but dont forget, your deal means nosthing when there's no one around
First time I ever seen that video was one of the funniest days of my life.
Have a nice day
ahh what movie is the quote from?
Ahhh well.... just when I was gonna start my helldivers shenanigans. Guess palworld run no# 12 is ago... or perhaps it's time for terraria run no#(way to many damned runs)... I hope arrowhead doesn't get fucked over too bad by sony.
Another account is also another company that can revoke your access to the thing you bought, and with Sony specifically, it's one who has been doing so recently with other stuff.
Regardless of an account, this is a problem since day 1.
The game always was online only, so they can remove access at any moment. Many people complained that this also prevented an offline mode.
@@tablettablete186 yeah but now it's two of them.
@@tablettablete186I agreed to buy and play an online only game, same deal with Helldivers 1
That thankfully won't happen it's in steam's tos that games stay available. They could theoretically turn off the servers someday though.
Good thing you're an adult and in control of who makes decisions for you. YOu can decide to go play other games.
The fact that the Devs are *asking* the players to review bomb it tells you a lot
The real problem is that they sold in countries where PSN is not available and VPN illegal. Plus a 3rd party account that requires more than a username and password is a no go. I would have booted and had to link I would have asked for the refund in the 2h.
Steam should require account linking before sale less potential for problems like this . They probably didn't think that a game would temporarily skip the requirement.
THIS! There was no memo properly provided before on this BS! I'm gonna sue them to the EU regional customer protection bureau for this shite!
That's an interesting idea :)
Helldivers wouldn't have left 20k peak players if you had to log into some other launcher or account to play it.
I got a demo or free weekend for a game once and when I installed it it started installing the Epic Game Launcher without asking for permission.
There's some weird stuff out there
Community managers on Helldivers 2 discord: "It's not like this is the first or even the fourteenth mainstream game to require a third-party account that takes a couple minutes to create, but if it's a dealbreaker to have to take 120 seconds out of your day to enter an email and password and then forget about it, change your Steam review and make your displeasure known on a platform where it matters" so stop glazing Arrowhead they're not totally innocent.
This just in... gamers act like toxic children and attack devs constantly and then whine and cry when anyone dare say anything to them.
It is not a review bomb. It is the consequences of Sony's actions. Calling anything a "review bomb" is being disingenuous.
The whole issue is the fact that the publisher (Sony) released the game before it was ready because the account linking wasn't set up correctly. They should have delayed the game so that could be worked out. If it worked on day 1 then this would be a non-issue.
im sick of people implying that review bombing is a bad thing seeing as how its really the only recourse that people have if they have already bought the product whenever some executive at a corporation does something evil
It is a review bomb. Review bombing is not inherently "bad". Would depend on the reason, and those may be subjective.
@@KoalicusMarsupialensis I agree. To me, a 'review bomb' is just the community collectively calling out some terrible decision made by somebody in charge of the course of the game, whether it be the developer or the publisher. People have a right to voice their complaints. Just because many people do it en masse at the same time doesn't make the complaints invalid.
"Sony sucks, game is bad" yeah thats not disengenious. You know, mentioning literally nothing about the actual product thats being purchased. So legitimate, not a review bomb at all.
How about this, provide me any argument that states the best option is not to simply be an adult and walk away from this video game, this toy. Explain how its better to behave like a child outside a store throwing a tantrum?
@@Damaged7 Sure. back to basics then.
A group that bought product found something they didn't like about product and complained to company.
This lets company know people are unhappy with product. Company then either ignores the group complaining or changes the product to keep the group happy.
If group that uses the product did nothing then company would not change product.
This is the basic form of the argument. it can be applied to any product you buy from a company and are unhappy about.
I was able to skip the account linking on first launch, never seen any info that it was disabled due to launch difficulties, nor did I see any announcements from SONY or ARROWHEAD that this was a temporary grace period. I just assumed it was optional, which it should be!
I heard on another video covering this that the EULA people agreed to when they purchased the game didn't have this requirement mentioned at all.
Guess the CEO of Arrowhead mislead us by saying X-Box was possible in the future. Imagine having to sign in to Sony to play on X-Box? Why make that mandatory on PC if you were really running the show?
Well it was a good run while it lasted. Oh well!
Yep.
And I got the game a few days ago so I could enjoy it a bit...
I never understood the appeal of the game. I tried it and thought that the gunplay and character movement was slow and janky. I know I am in the minority, but the gameplay was the worst of any shooter I have ever played. Maybe it gets better at higher levels, but it would have to get exponentially better for it to be even ok feeling to play for me
@@la7era1u54 I can't really think of why either
Probably the Cooperative but also chaos that is Helldivers
Liberating other planets against robots and bugs.
I love the game
But we all have our different tastes in games. So it might be for many of us but not just for you and that's fine.
@@la7era1u54it's ok if you don't like the game. feel free to not play it or just uninstall it. a game for everyone is a game for no one.
You could spend 2 minutes doing something to continue playing a game you enjoy. You could do that. It would in no way effect the gameplay or your enjoyment. Or you could choose to not play the game, probably be mad about it and then blame others.
You should go ask your family members, people outside of gaming, what the better option is. If you won't trust people online, trust the people in yoru life.
the deciding factor is not what is written in a steam sheet , but what is written in the eula that has been signed off. As far as I know, it doesn't say anything about that.
1 thing missed out is they mention
"psn account required. (Support linking to steam account)"
But what's being implemented is
"Psn account required. Linking to steam account is REQUIRED"
Sony screwed the pooch, the refund apocalypse Begins for Sony/PLAYSTATION.
I hope so!
I just got mine a little bit ago
Not only that but in the EULA there is no mention of requiring PSN account requirement and then they silently changed it in regard to PC access.
Friendly reminder that it's not 'Review Bombing' to leave legitimate criticism for a product!
Reviewing Magicka because you are mad at HD2 is review bombing
Reviewing MHW because you didn't like the Monster Hunter Movie is review bombing
Reviewing HD2 because of a critical problem that will literally lock players out of the game is not :)
Agreed. It's review adjustment to reflect updated status of game.
Adjustment of what they didn't bother to read the details of the steam page.....they bought it without looking that's not on the company that's on the buyer. I do think it's a dumb requirement but to suddenly give a bad review because they ignored what is clearly on the page since day 1 is dumb. The only people that should be able to complain in a review were those who bought the game in an area that doesn't allow PSN accounts because at that point it shouldn't of been on sale for steam in that reason.
@@bradmiles1984No one ignored anything. There was no login required for PSN tou could play without it, that's what all of us bought.
@@bradmiles1984 a skippable function that seemingly was an optional part for cross play now locking me out of my 60$..
@@noblej7897 Was only seemingly skippable because you didn't read the steam page that had the terms on it and showed PSN account required. I do think the message should of been ingame too.
As an older gamer, its fun to see the younger generations learn the lessons we old gamers knew about Sony decades ago. They suck.
Ah, a veteran of the Sony New Game Experience, perhaps?
They do indeed suck, and have for decades.
There's a reason my last console was a 360, and a second-hand blu-ray-player PS3
Sure, you could say the rule was on their Steam from the beginning, but if it wasn't being enforced then that could mislead consumers. That could open you up to a lawsuit.
You're right, they should have admitted that the account linking wasn't working and denied Steam users access to the game. They should have let everyone on PS play the game while everyone on Steam waited for them to fix account linking. I"m sure everyone on Steam would have been understanding and patient right? They wouldn't have thrown a fit right?
@@Damaged7 they would, but at least the problem would be cut at the bud and people would have refunded BEFORE getting scammed 3 months in.
MICHAEL, what about the Sony's tweet on April 30, 2024 about using player's biometric data to predict potential harassment and ban players accordingly using AI.
Arrowhead Community Manager Spitz when replying to a player on Discord who said "Back pedal or lose your playerbase" replied with "I thought you were refunding and leaving"
Sony is also one of the WORST companies for hacks and data breaches in the industry.
Who in their right mind would want to have their Steam Account details on a Sony server?
So is both steam and xbox only difference with xbox is Microsoft has US cyber defense contracts so you literally become a terrorist (and even with the threat of that Microsoft got hacked last month and had emails and passwords leaked)
Buy pre paid cards it's not that hard.
I stopped updating or maintaining my PSN account in 2020 after the fourth time I had to change all of my passwords as a result of yet another Sony data breach. I will not be re-activating it so they can "read my biometric data" with an AI bully hunter.
I understand and share the sentiment, but dog stop using the same password for all services 🤣
Someome better call the bully hunter. 😏
As a matter of contract law, you can’t not enforce a term of a deal and then enforce it later without the consent of the other party, a process that usually involves litigation or extensive negotiation. In tandem, sale of a product and then the taking back of said product later (PSN unavailability in many countries), is also breach, and everyone affected should join a class action instead of accepting a refund. Arrowhead is not at fault here, but Sony is in full and open breach of contract. The massive wave of negative reviews isn’t a review “bomb” how we traditionally refer to it where people get mad at a feature or the devs and “overreact.” This involves the publisher forcing an arbitrary, nonsensical, and technically unenforceable part of a deal on the player base that would result in a whole portion of the player base being actively excluded from the game. This is unacceptable, and if Sony doesn’t re-neg on this there has to be a class action. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter what the steam page says, what matters is if the terms of the agreement were enforced. Anybody saying “well, the steam page says this” I’m very glad you are able to read, but what actually matters is the application. Sony didn’t enforce this, even if it was for a good reason, and sales were made that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible as a result of this no enforcement. Review bomb it. Review bomb it into the ground. Once again a game publisher is being greedy, sly, and is willing to ruin a good thing to watch some numbers go up a little.
The thing you forgot to mention:
The steam mention of 3rd party account is steam announcing that
the EULA of Helldiver 2 on purchase mentions NOWHERE the need for such and account
Therefore "legally" i bought a game under an agreement that i don't need a third party account and Steam is just misinformation.
And this isn't about "Security" this is about "PSN subscribers" and Stock value.
People saying to not blame the Devs at all, please remember. A decision like this doesn't just happen overnight. Not with how bureaucratic Sony is.
Arrowhead knew to some degree. They knew. And yet they still let people in PSN blocked countries purchase the game. The decision to require a PSN account was not Arrowhead's. But the decision to handle the situation poorly was.
I think it's impossible for Helldivers' devs not to take atleast some part of this on themselves. They basically just assisted in theft. Hundreds of thousands of people bought this game in places where they're not even able to make a PSN account. This was a tragedy.
It is not being "Review Bombed", people are just reviewing the game including the news. I have been having a great time with the game, but forcing me to link it to a PSN account on PC is just bullshit. It is technically possible to not do it, they are just forcing me to give my data to PSN and open myself to be hacked. I absolutely hate this arbitrary change. If I knew this from the get go, I might not have bought the game. Some people cannot even get PSN accounts, they are just banned from the game. REVIEWS are more than VALID.
The review is supposed to be about the game, not any personal storefront publisher politics that upset you. You're literally telling people nothiing about the game at all. You're telling people "Hey guys, gameplay isn't whats important in gaming... going after devs and publishers is".
I'm sorry but to most of the world we understand this is a video game and its not worth throwing a tantrum over. We are adults, we can make a throwaway account to play a game.... we've done it many times.
All of those people can decide to be adults, and go spend time playing games they like. Or they can stick around and behave like children skulking over a video game that brings them negativity. They can all make that choice.
@@Damaged7
A decision that renders a lot of the playerbase unable to play and even more of the player base in a position they don't want to be in isn't valid for a review? It's not like we're talking about something they said on Twitter or some shit this is actual gameplay affecting stuff.
"Ah yes, they've decided to enforce a decision that makes me unable to play the game, but obviously that's not a valid critique on the game..."
Also, people have already posted screenshots of getting banned when making accounts with VPNS, plus many countries require you to give actual Legal ID to psn to age verify so using real ID on a fake account that's going to get banned is not a great strategy...
thats a review bomb
@@Zectifin A review bomb has a very negative connotation of "not really being deserved", as in when something happens that is not affecting the product, but is somehow related and people take their frustrations by writing negative reviews.
Like when some people were not happy with JK Rowling tweets so they tried review bombing hogwarts legacy.
In this case, it is very much related to the product. They changed the product halfway, so people are reviewing the changed product and it has become negative.
@@Damaged7Something that prevents some of the play base and removes an option for people to play the game they have payed for is reasonable reasons to post a negative review. It literally prevents you from playing it. Also very nice of you to Gatekeep hobbies as if you have an authority to say what is or isn't childish. You may not care how companies move the goal post in their favour but others don't and they are allowed to express it. Do take a look at the "review bombings" and see that people still praise the game but also express their dislike of Sony's actions, it's not a critique on the game but rather the change of this fundamental thing.
40 minutes since the video came out, the amount of negative reviews is already double of what is shown at 5:08, at over 14 thousand.
Don't forget to update this story Michael! They reverted this this morning!
Helldivers 2 hurt itself in confusion.
Sony*, and its pretty common
Sony did this aarowhead didnt
@@Swaggmire215 You think they didn't know? They're in on it and fine with it
@@c4caffeen134 you think a development company has any control over what their publisher forces them to do?
@@toobig7150they both hurt themselves. Helldivers shouldn’t have to deal with this japanese nonsense
I don't have a PSN account anymore. I had it a decade ago, back during the PS3. Don't have access to it anymore. And with Sony's track record of being hacked, I'm not making a new one. So this means I can't play the game anymore.
afaik your account should be stored. if you have the email account you can recover it.
The clarity of 3rd party obviously needs to be updated. Maybe a prompt mid screen pre-purchase. This will change some things.
Or people could read the store page of the product they are purchasing. They even highlight the one sentence that says you need a 3rd party account. You are given all the information you need, i fyou choose to ignore it then thats your fault. Its right there on the side, in plain view, not hidden or burried.
@@Damaged7 Here's the thing: you had the ability to start the game and play, without this.
I purchased the game despite it saying so because I had asked a friend whether or not it was needed.
And if they had "technical difficulties" requiring them to issue a grace period... they didn't have the grace to inform us about that.
Oh, and by the way:
If, what I read (and my understanding of it) is correct, this move is against EU law, since it is a business-to-consumer commercial practice that, while factually correct (as in they stated that you need to have an account linked) is unfair (and therefor prohibited), since e.g. the main characteristic of usage can definitely deceive a consumer into buying the game, since you could play the game without an account. You even had a button to skip.
(‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’) Article 6
"A commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful or in any way, including overall presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information is factually correct, in relation to one or more of the following elements, and in either case causes or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise:"
So please. You were able to play, so the statement "needs 3rd party account" was wrong, even if it now turns out to be factually correct.
Opposite to your opinion it has technically not been a requirement all along, since the Sony FAQ says it isnot and since none of the end user license terms mention it.
Its nice, that Steam as a third party mentions it, but its a stretch to say, the Steam info overrules the EULA or Sony itself.
And of course it factually also wasnot for months.
So sad, i have almost 200 hours played ... messed up that the sabotage their own success
I don't get the hate, it's 5 minutes on a screen and you never look at it again. It's not some malware or anything
@@mikejr7727 Sony's account network gets hacked all the time, what are you smoking?
@@mikejr7727 Sony has a poor reputation in information security, why would one give them personal details, alongside their poor approach to cross play accounts that has the possibility of holding your game account progress hostage relative to other platforms.
@@mikejr7727 April 2011: Hackers Access Personal Data of 77 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users
May 2011: Personal Details on 25 Million Sony Online Entertainment Customers Stolen
June 2011: Sony Pictures Website Hacked, Exposing One Million Accounts
November 2014: Hackers Steal 100 Terabytes of Data from Sony Pictures
August 2017: Hacker Group Accesses Sony Social Media Accounts
September 2023: Sony Investigates Alleged Hack
October 2023: Sony Notifies Employees of Data Breach
@@mikejr7727 its for some countries dont have PSN
The issue seems most acute in the cases where they were merrily selling the game to locations where PSN accounts are not supported; but (while it would definitely take an amount of lawyer whose cost would dwarf the potential refund to raise and argue the question) there seems something distinctly estoppel or acquiescence-flavored about silently declining to enforce a right for a period of time that causes some people to rely on that state of affairs; then suddenly turning the screws.
The fact that it was listed from day one as a requirement certainly puts it on sounder footing than a sudden creation of an undisclosed requirement; but there is a somewhat unpredictable thread of recognition, in civil and case law, of the fact that unexpected changes in enforcement of the deal can, sometimes, amount to altering the deal.
It went from 84% when I saw the Asmongold video to now 69% (nice). And it's deserved. Whether it was announced before released or just now, having to have a PSN account when I own the game on steam is just ridiculous and I do not wish that my ability to play a game is in the hands of Sony.
Personally, I didn't see that tiny box when buying it and would have skipped it if I had known.
You dont own the game tho...its right there on the contract. The First few lines makes it clear that we are buying a lucense to access this service. Any kind of breach and they can revoke your license.
People act like thats not the case for every cyber product...
@@giovaniconte1860 Pirate everything.
@@PAUL-ESNEED You can't pirate live service products...
@@PAUL-ESNEED not everything, man...Indie Studios NEED the money. I sometimes pirate AAA and play a few hours just to see If It's worth my money. If i like It i go and buy It. Even tho Big Corps are bad there are people working and making a living out of that, my man.
@@bradmiles1984 ... IF you say so. The question isn't if it's possible but if there is enough people for the effort to make sense.
They never explicitly told us that it was only a "grace period" which will eventually expires. And if it's would eventually be required to have PSN acc, while PSN is not available to all countries, they should have made it unavailable on those countries' steam store so people in those countries wouldn't make the mistake of buying the game. People just see that the game is available on steam, assume they can just buy it and play it. They are not going to check if you need to go through any additional extra steps in order to play it.
While it is scummy of Sony, I can't really feel any better for people that don't read what they are buying.
@@Skarwind I bet you read through every ToS you agree to, too.
@@Tsukimi39 You generally should. I only don't when I either don't care (because I know they sell my data anyway and am fine with it), or I implicitly trust the application (most open-source software).
When installing anything I don't have experience with, I always read.
@@arthurbonds7200 no you dont
@@honeybadger6275 Whatever you say, man.
Its honestly really sad to see a great game die like this. I expect Helldivers 2 to slowly fade into irrelevance after June 4th. I for one won't be making another dive after that point unless something major comes out that somehow convinces me to stay, though I doubt this will be the case. I love this game and to have it end so abruptly is honestly pretty sad.
For people like me who live in the U.S. and can sign up for a PSN account or already have one, this is scummy, but the terms were there so that's on me for not being mindful of that.
For people who live in countries that CAN'T get PSN and were sold this product, yeah F that and a half. Those people deserve a refund.
"why are so many development studios doing bad/dying"
Arrowhead, Sony and Battlestate Games:
Lets us show you why.
It’s probably not Arrowhead’s fault
3:28 I feel like if you haven't been enforcing a rule that was going to affect a lot of your player base when there's what 150 to 200 regions and Playstation Network only works in 69 to 73 of those regions? They had the little sticker but if you weren't doing anything else? It's like LG putting forced arbitration on the cardboard box but nowhere else
Reviewing bombing is a malicious tactic used by bad actors.
Many people posting negative reviews because a company made a bad decision is NOT review bombing. Its customers making their displeasure known through one of the few powers as consumers that we possess.
I despise this current trend of delegitimizing negative reviews by brushing them off as "just a review bomb".
Exactly. Players who bought the game are changing their opinion of the game due to changes in the game. Thats just a review...
I'm a 40 year old PC user. I'm too old for this kind of shit...
A pity, cause I really enjoyed the game. But after 80+ hours, I can say the money was well spent.
Same age, 217 hours here, just 2 days ago i had a 24 hour binge on the game. I aint gonna sign up for some spyware just to play a Game.
I'm 37 and already had a PSN account so doesn't really effect me much. I get what people are saying about if PSN isn't available but I'm fairly certain a majority of people on this site alone have agreed to have their data distributed for far less.
Not to discount their criticism as invalid. A person's opinion is always valid. Just appears to be selective unless you are in a country region locked or have to provide more than reasonable information to create an account.
Sounds like you should request a refund.
Also, I don't think it's legal to revoke access to the game in Sweden, where Arrowhead is based, and they should be forced to refund you.
We literally sent the Pirate Party to the EU and filesharing is an officially recognized religion here. If you can't refund a game you can no longer access here, you're never getting a refund on anything live-service and it'd be confirmed that live service = rented game, for as long as they feel like. 🤔
@@theeccentricgentlemanVA Its against my Religion to sign on to Console Trash.
@@theeccentricgentlemanVA even if you have a psn account thats not the issue the issue is them wanting it linked to your steam account so they can data scrape that info that would not be on your psn account like all your steam games the cc's tied to your steam account being able to use violations of their tos to destroy said steam account that is the problem oh and the fact they get damn near hacked every other month and only report on it once a year when they get caught and as a former Navy IT i would never trust them with any of my data as their security is trash thus why i requested a refund stating the bait and switch and the attempt at breech of privacy for their own greed when they have a history of poor cyber security and i will not be exposing my steam account to their back door security weaknesses
They have the right to change Terms of Service. However that action changes your use factor, like additional external requirements, they would be required to offer a refund should a consumer choose to not accept the new terms.
i never got any prompt and was not aware of the 3rd party account bs due to that, i was "buy and play" mentality and now i must comb through every game i ever buy again
I never saw this button on steam. Bought it somewhere else. Also, you have to scroll down quite some way, so you can easily buy Helldivers without ever seeing the text.
Also on the playstation page, they say "psn is not necessary".
As far as I know the "3rd party account linking required" thing is a bit weird as from what I heard there isn't a seperate tag for if it is optional or if it is only for other things like an ingame skin or something.
So some people might have assumed it was for optional things and not for just playing the game. I know I at least would have assumed it was ONLY for crossplay.
Also for it being needed it is a bit strange since Sony also owns Bungie yet it isn't required there. Also from what I have heard in the past once you link your account you can't unlink it at all. So if down the road your PSN account gets hacked, or you get a new PSN account or just want to unlink you can't. Which means that those accounts are permanantly tied together.
PSN account is all about selling Sony's subscription services if you want to play online. They might just force you to pay for it if you want to play Helldiver 2 online later down the line.
Dont worry they only want full access to your pc because Helldivers 2 has most invasive kernel
@@tomino5201 Not even remotely true. First of nguard isn't a kernel, it's anti-cheat that works at kernel level. Second it's not even the most invasive anti-cheat by any means go play Valorant. Their anticheat requires you to reboot your whole pc if you close it out to be able to play again.
@@bradmiles1984 Valorant uses GameGuard as well, doesn't it? The default settings for GameGuard has it run on startup on your computer and prevents itself from being uninstalled if you uninstall the game, while also having access to every file on your computer. Anti-virus software has caught GameGuard editing files outside of the game directory, and it can pull data from your internet browser and other programs such as password managers.
A major issue in our society is that people are expected to agree to more legal agreements than they could practically read. When people are all using it and telling you you can use it, many people simply aren't going to pay attention to anything perceived as "the fine print".
What happens when people demand this info be presented to them upfront, before purchase, and then they ignore it and complain? What is anyone supposed to do about that?
There was no "Fine Print" it was a very visible and highlighted sentence on the store page.
@@Damaged7 It was highlighted with the word "optional."
I'm sorry, but you are wrong about a few things. It was an OPTION to connect your PSN account. It was on their site and in the EULA for the game. Sony changed their wording to make the wording fit their narative
I wonder if "disabling" PS Account linking on launch was done intentionally, because they knew it would harm the sales?
well don't wonder, it's almost certainly true...
Well you can do that once... If they push this change I will never buy again a playstation game or the console.
@@b4doNYx if you have a PC that runs HD2 do yourself a favour and don't buy a console anyway.
@@gameclips5734 Tbh, I wanted to buy a PS5 for exclusives. But if they push this, there is no way.
Review bombing is a little disingenuous dont you think? I appreciate you enjoy the game, but this is shady tactics no matter how you spin it. They should have told people that from the beginning, not wait until their refund policy is void to incorporate it. Anyone refunding/reviewing the game badly at this point is perfectly within their rights to do so
Clickbait...
If they had the grace period obviously mentioned in a persistent banner that would've been honest and upfront and this would've be nothing burger but they didn't.