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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

#91

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 made the requirement optional as they didn't get the technical details right at launch to require PSN.

It must great to be Arrowhead, where players seemingly blame the publisher like the developer has no responsibility over their own game.

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

#92

When I saw marketing material that looked like a carbon copy of Destiny I knew what to expect The game that plays you, too

Modern video games are scary like that.

They arent designed for your fun necessarily, but rather addictive mechanism that keep you coming back.

Obviously dopamine from slot machine mechanisms and winning. Oxytocin from online gaming... These companies know how to make addiction.

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

#93
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Japanese stereotyping would be a little more credible if Sony Entertainment's headquarters hadn't moved to California years ago...

The company was founded by Americans, too, and throughout its history it's almost always had strong ties to the US.

Are you talking about Sony or Sony Entertainment? Either way, Sony is very much a Japanese founded company.

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

#94
post #32

Can someone explain the logic behind not supporting all countries by default? What does Sony have to lose by letting people in tiny countries buy their games?

Probably the complexity of differing laws of each country.

Helldivers 2 on ps5 requires at least a paid psn membership. In order to do that, a payment needs to be on file.

This is just purely a guess, but I suppose Sony doesn’t have the appropriate licenses to operate in those countries and thus cannot take payment.

They could take payment via ps gift cards but that user would have have to fraudulently claim they are located in another country and buy ps gift cards from that country to get the credits.

Depending on country, user may pay more or less than what it would retail in user country.

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

#95
post #86

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.

Arrowhead has sold out before with e.g. Magicka, so I'm sure they're somewhat used to it by now. You're not a developer that signs with a publisher like Sony without knowing the risks.

What happened with magicka?

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

#96

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.

> Videogame consoles are typically not marketed as general purpose computers.

Video game consoles have been crippled so that it would be misleading to market them as general purpose computers.

However, the videogame industry in its entirety was dead-lifted from its premature grave by one "Nintendo Family Computer".

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

#97

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.

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

#98
post #32

Can someone explain the logic behind not supporting all countries by default? What does Sony have to lose by letting people in tiny countries buy their games?

It sounds to me like they care more about people using a PSN account rather than just selling games. I can't imagine they the tracking data they get from accounts is more profitable than an actual sale. Perhaps they're convinced that forcing people to create accounts somehow leads to more future sales?

It’s likely one of the elements of requiring a PSN account.

Also apparently in some countries, Sony will verify the age and identity of users by having them upload a govt id and add selfie.

I don’t remember this step in USA based accounts though. So ymmv

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

#99
I’m very happy to hear this.

Too many good games have had their player bases gimped by the rise of stupid “one hit wonder” games like palworld or helldivers 2.

The Finals is somehow struggling to maintain a decent player base despite being objectively one of the freshest and best game releases in a decade. I can’t get my friends to play it because they’re too busy memeing about space bugs on a mediocre shooter.

Glad to see that these games time and time again shoot themselves in the foot. Good riddance!

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

#100
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to buy from MSs, Sony's or Nintendo's store to play a game on their consoles. There was no way for iOS except Apple's App store.

...unless you have an "all digital" console like the Xbox S.

You can still get codes for digital Xbox games at retail. Digital games are available at places like Amazon too.
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