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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

#221

Post by ro_bit »

goosedragons wrote: post #97
sunaurus wrote: post #16

I've always found it ridiculous that Sony is allowed to sell their consoles and games in my county without allowing me to create a PSN account. They even sell the digital PS5, which REQUIRES a PSN account to get any games. And then, even if you break their TOS and create an account in another country, you're still constantly inconvenienced - you can't pay for games using your local payment method, for example, and a…

Is it actually Sony selling their games or consoles in your country or is it 3rd party sellers who import them from elsewhere because there's demand? It is still shitty and annoying that stuff is geoblocked, be it games, movies, books, etc. But the two are pretty different.

I'm not sure about the actual hardware, but physical copies of helldivers 2 are on sale in the Philippines, where you can't make a PSN account. You can find them on Playstation's website which makes me think they are authorized copies https://www.playstation.com/en-ph/games/helldivers-2/

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

#222

Post by ro_bit »

piafraus wrote: post #202
tietjens wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economics of games are complex. I don’t understand why Arrowhead should take the blame here.

Why shouldn't they? Arrowhead are literally saying that requirement was always there, it was just temporary not enforced/supported. It's not Sony that suddenly introduced that new requirement. Arrowhead were the ones having this delayed-change-of-contract. Arrowhead allowed their game to be sold in countries where you will not be able to play.

> Arrowhead allowed their game to be sold in countries where you will not be able to play.

This is the thing that I'm not sure of and that I think the question of whether to blame Arrowhead depends on. Who authorized selling it in non PSN countries in the first place? Is that Arrowhead's responsibility as a studio, or Sony's responsibility as a publisher?

Considering you can find locations to buy the physical game on Playstation's official website, even in unsupported countries, I'm leaning towards the latter

(https://www.playstation.com/en-ph/games/helldivers-2/)

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

#223

Post by onli »

remram wrote: post #220
onli wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to say: This is avoidable. Ofc one can not give Windows to a child anymore, but there is Linux. For games on Android, of course one can't install games from the Play Store anymore, but there is F-Droid. And for regular PC games, there is still a big selection that works without or with very little micro transactions. And besides, the kids system should not be capable to make any purchases no matter where they cl…

Proprietary/popular games on Linux come with the same monetization strategy on every platform. You want to play Fortnite, you get the Fortnite ads/loot boxes/nudges even on Linux (plus you'll get banned by anti-cheat quick).

Linux is not the recommended choice for the game selection, it's so that the OS is not already a hostile place with ads and spammy news. The games themselves have still to be filtered, as I wrote.

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

#224

Post by temp84858696945 »

gambiting wrote: post #124
bun_terminator wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

true in legal terms. But it was hidden and the reason given for the change was a blatant lie. They were deceiving users until they could no longer refund. Something like that is often called a scam or fraud

>>But it was hidden When you start the game, you literally get a full screen banner that says a PSN account is required to play and you must sign in. It's just that until now you could click cancel and the game would still launch. How can anyone call it "hidden" is literally beyond me. It's not hidden on page 527 of the EULA or something - it's literally said explicitly on a full screen banner shown to every player w…

Not all players got this banner, especially players from countries where they cannot sign up for PSN accounts.

They never should have allowed sales in countries where people cannot legally sign up for a PSN account. Especially when they allowed those players to play for months and are now "banning" them, preventing them from playing the game they paid for.

In addition, literally the only place where this requirement was stated was the steam sale page - the EULA had no mention of the PSN account, Sony's webpage explicitly stated you did not require an account to play playstation games on PC.

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

#225

Post by temp84858696945 »

SXX wrote: post #113
Laaas wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The somewhat bigger issue is that PSN doesn’t support all countries that Steam does apparently. In the end I suspect affected players will get a refund. It isn’t as big a deal as the gamers are making it seem.

This is a big deal because PSN not even available in all EU countries. E.g there is no PSN in: Andorra, Estonia, Latvia. In Ukraine for example you can only register PSN account if you own PlayStation.

Also, they legally cannot sell the game in some EU countries and not others, due to EU single market rules.

So yah, they are kinda fucked if the EU comes after them legally.

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

#226

Post by rkuykendall-com »

anonymousab wrote: post #209
kohbo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't waste your time or money because of a minor inconvenience?

If you are in the majority of the countries in the world, it's not a minor inconvenience; the game straight up will not work for you, because PSN is not supported in your country. The devs have explicitly warned those users to not create an account in a different region to get around this, as it is an explicit ToS violation.

If every country was the same size that would impact half of players, but they aren't.

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

#227

Post by swat535 »

surgical_fire wrote: post #52
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 Videogame consoles are typically not marketed as general purpose computers. Out of the box, the only thing I can do on my Nintendo Switch is play videogames.

How is a general purpose computer defined? In any case this argument is moot, the point is that once you purchase something, it's yours and no vendor locks and restrictions should be put on it. You are limiting my choices as a consumer by not letting me access multiple stores or modify the hardware.

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

#228

Post by Degorath »

JohnMakin wrote: post #56

“Players shocked pikachu sony does something annoying.” any older users here may remember the SOE (sony online entertainment) days. They’d do evil stuff that would make this look like a rookie move.

The problem here is also that it's not just annoying, some EU member states are not supported for PSN accounts and according the TOS you can get your PSN account banned if you sign up with the wrong country!

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

#229

Post by twixfel »

gambiting wrote: post #215
bluefirebrand wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony's FAQ previously (on May 3) stated that a PSN account is optional for playing games on PC On May 4, the day after this shitstorm happened, the FAQ was updated to say that some games on PC may require a PSN account This was rolled out in absolutely amateurish fashion from start to end. Sony should absolutely be taking heat for this, and no one should be going to bat for them over it.

Again, I only bought this game on Steam and 1) the Steam page made it very clear the PSN is required 2) the game makes it extremely clear with a full screen banner that says you MUST sign in to play. Honestly, if you bought the game on Steam then Sony's FAQ is irrelevant. If you bought it from Sony then I guess there is some case there.

So I guess it's not a great idea to make broad sweeping claims based off your own personal experience.

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

#230

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

flohofwoe wrote: post #168
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or secretly install a rootkit onto your machine
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