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Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

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Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#161

Post by kbolino »

onli wrote: post #151
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A game is just a game. There is nothing vital to it. It's the easiest thing in the world to boycott. And yet, players consistently fail to make the editors pay for their bad behaviors. EA is still craping on their clients. Blizzards fails forward. Loot boxes, DRM, crippling anti-cheat mechanisms, buggy games with expensive DLC and micro payments are everywhere. Sony even infected their customers with a rootkit once.…

That's not how this market works. There is no homogenous group of gamers that can act together. Each year there is a new cohort of 11 years old that knows nothing of past publisher behaviour and wants the latest EA game for their birthday. For FIFA with the lootboxes etc there is the added factor that people buying those are for a big part a distinct group to other gamers, there are many guys that only play FIFA or t…

For certain genres and certain games, no amount of negative reviews seems to have any effect on their popularity. I've seen many cases where, on Steam at least, the reviews for a game can be mostly negative, or mixed at best, yet the number of reviews keeps going up like crazy. Meanwhile some very positive and occasionally overwhelmingly positive games can have fewer total reviews a year after release than some poorly reviewed games get in a day.

There's also still an "early access" stigma even though must major publishers are basically treating "full" release day as an open beta test now.

All of this to say that careful consumers can only affect a small proportion of the games industry's revenue. It's enough to keep indie games and their small studios alive but so far it has had near zero effect on the AAAs. I suspect the layoffs we're seeing across the industry reflect a contraction in the spending of the majority segment but a lot of AAAs seem to be doubling down on targeting that same segment.

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#162

Post by remram »

Uvix wrote: post #116
pi_mai wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HQ location means nothing. It's still being controlled by Tokyo. If Anything, SE will be the sacrificial lamb that will be used to be sent to the slaughter house. They did this with the mobile division in Sweden. Blame, cut and relocate.

If it’s being controlled by Tokyo, why do they keep censoring Japanese games but not Western ones?

Why not? Regardless of the conversation above I don't understand this argument.

Toyota sells car with the driving wheel on the left in the USA. Does that make them less of a Japanese company?

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#163

Post by VyseofArcadia »

s_dev wrote: post #55
unpopularopp wrote: post #3

I hope one day the EU will go after Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. If iOS is a walled garden then consoles are prison.

I would make the case the consoles aren't essential for day to day life. They simply aren't general computing devices but have a very specific purpose. They've broaded somewhat to include more media features but few people are securing jobs or submitting government applications on their consoles. It's the fact that modern living simply requires a phone is why the EU is so upset with Apple and Google putting up their…

> I would make the case the consoles aren't essential for day to day life.

Doesn't matter. If I truly own the hardware, I should be able to run my own software.

Toasters also aren't essential to day to day life. Toaster manufacturers aren't putting sophisticated cryptographic locks on their products to keep me from toasting my own bread.

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#164

Post by shkkmo »

gambiting wrote: post #141
twixfel wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it irrelevant if it's coming from Sony itself?

Because the consumer is presented with correct info on the product page by the party actually selling the product - Valve. It's the same when buying a car - the information presented to you at the dealership takes precedence over whatever the manufacturer's website says, because the legal assumption is that you are basing your purchase decision on what is in front of you when buying the car by the party actually sell…

> you will need a Steam account to redeem your voucher code.

This is an official page where Sony themselves sell the game via providing voucher codes for steam. You can buy the game here without ever visiting the steam page. This clearly qualifies as false advertising.

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#165

Post by shkkmo »

gambiting wrote: post #122
Caligatio wrote: post #2

As a Helldivers 2 PC player who also owns a PS5, this new requirement doesn't bother me personally. However, adding a requirement (it was previously optional) is boneheaded, maybe illegal. It must be terrible to be Arrowhead; they have to sit by and watch while their player base implodes because of a Sony edict.

It was clearly advertised on the steam page, but also on launch you had a full screen banner that said you MUST sign in with a PSN account to play this game. It's just that until now you could click cancel and the game would still launch. So no, nothing was "added".

Sony was/is selling steam codes on their own store with a QA that clearly explains that PSN accounts are not required for PS games on PC

> https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/buy-games/helldivers-2-...

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#167

Post by shkkmo »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #91
Caligatio wrote: post #2

As a Helldivers 2 PC player who also owns a PS5, this new requirement doesn't bother me personally. However, adding a requirement (it was previously optional) is boneheaded, maybe illegal. It must be terrible to be Arrowhead; they have to sit by and watch while their player base implodes because of a Sony edict.

> It must be terrible to be Arrowhead; they have to sit by and watch while their player base implodes because of a Sony edict. Or, you know, don't make agreements that will upset your player base? I'm sure they never were forced to do anything Sony says, except if they entered into a business agreement with Sony, which again, is their own choice, and the developer knew about these requirements from the beginning, but…

Not only this, but I am not convinced that Arrowhead are entirely on the up and up about blaming Sony. I've seen too many places where the Sony messaging is pretty clear about accounts not being required. It seems very strange that Sony decides to make the policy change with this game without updating the policy.

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#168

Post by flohofwoe »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #107
flohofwoe wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A multiplayer game that's very successful on Steam - but published by Sony - suddenly has a requirement to have both a Steam and PSN account in order to log into the game - a couple of months after the game was released. As a PC gamer I would be pissed too tbh (on the other hand, it's the same bullshit that Ubisoft pulls for their games released on Steam).

Does the account cost money also?

AFAIK no, but I bet there's a lot of details in the fine print that allow Sony to turn your account details and behaviour while logged in into money.

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#169

Post by shkkmo »

viraptor wrote: post #74
greenish_shores wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are prison, and it has nothing to do with either regulation or using the laissez-faire approach. You are being sold a computer which is controlled by someone else, even after the sale takes place. That's essentially it. Maybe it would even require no additional regulation, just interpretation of current regulation (the essential basics of civil law, that is) which would make a contract of sale of such device inv…

> You are being sold a computer which is controlled by someone else, even after the sale takes place. Sure, but you are in no way forced or pushed to do that. You only do it if you really want to play their exclusive games. It's a completely free choice in a way that choosing a smartphone isn't (due to various apps being close to required for modern life) Don't buy the console. Or buy it and something else as well. I…

> Sure, but you are in no way forced or pushed to do that. You only do it if you really want to play their exclusive games.

Personally, I think exclusivity deals need to be banned. The are an inherently anti-competitive practice that does nothing to help consumers.

Given that Sony is historically extremely bad about allowing any crossplay, your argument that exclusive games are the only reason people are pushed into buying a PS is false.

Gaming is part of many people's social lives and Sony deliberately exploits this to maintain market dominance.

Insisting that consumer purchasing decisions are the only or best way to deal with monopolies ignores history and reality.

Re: Helldivers 2 Removed from Purchase on Steam in over 150 Countries

#170

Post by flohofwoe »

Turskarama wrote: post #153
wokwokwok wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, they want this to be a PlayStation exclusive because it boosts ps5 sales and everyone wants to have the “hits” only on their platform. they just can’t easily get away with it. Suuurrree, there are rumours about Xbox ( https://insider-gaming.com/sony-helldivers-2-on-xbox/ ) but I’m gonna go out a limb here and say there’s sweet duck all chance in hell of that happening now.

If they wanted it to be a PlayStation exclusive they never would have launched it on PC to begin with.

Helldivers 2 seems to be a bit of a surprise hit, that might have influenced some post-launch decisions.
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