Sony really managed to erase one of their best-selling games in less than 3 days, for literally no potential gain at all. All risk, no reward: what a fuckin’ business strategy
Suits only think in green, and assume “consumers” do only that: consume.
I’ve been waiting 20 years for people to realize it, and that’s only because I’m young compared to others who have realized what capitalism is: Institutionalized greed.
At best, they made it a minor inconvenience to make a second account to play the game on PC.
At worst, they are planning to charge for access to PSN titles (IE PS+), even if they aren’t being played on a PlayStation, in the future.
At worst, they are planning to charge for access to PSN titles (IE PS+), even if they aren’t being played on a PlayStation, in the future.
I highly doubt that has ever been seriously considered by Sony. Even they know that PC games HATE paying for online and won’t ever do it on PC
Everyone knows what PC gamers hate at this point; publishers still screw us all the time for monetary gain and subscriptions are the new hot thing to screw people over to make money right now. I wouldn’t discount it as a possibility.
Especially if we allow “changing the deal” to become an acceptable business practice
Sony thinks they’ll sell consoles when they make Helldivers 3 a PlayStation 6 exclusive. “Hey, you’ve already made the PSN account; why not?”
Capitalism is the 1980s drug pusher your DARE officer warned you about
Of course Helldivers 3 will be an exclusive during at least the first years. They might then release it on PC and earn even more money. No one is buying a PS6 or whatever just because they made a free account.
I mean, Palworld suffered from the exact opposite problem, where the game received basically no post-launch content. So once players burned through the main game, there was very little reason to keep playing.
This just goes to show that support needs to both exist and be something players agree with.
Space Engineers also desperately needs some kind of goal.
I was doing 6 hour sessions on that game no problem until I got to the moon, at which point the game suddenly felt so pointless, and my ship hasn’t moved.
Have they dropped it or it’s taking a while to get more content?
I’m not opposed to trying it one day, once it has some dev time behind. Right now I heard end game isn’t there yet.
They’re slowly building it up, patching bugs and recently (in the last 30 days?) released a few new pals
I’ve been tracking continued interest partially based on when updates are dropped and the interest in those updates.
It’s been pretty consistent tbh
Nah im just going back to Helldivers 1
Since January it’s been a requirement and has been listed on the steam store page
Although, there was some issues a couple days after launch and they paused the mandatory linking. They are just now reimplenting it after fixing the issue it seems.
Sony’s website said that PSN account linking would be optional, and they only changed the website to saying it’s required yesterday (May 3rd)
I played it without psn account so my experience is different from what you say. If in the first 2 hours I would have walked into this as a hard block I would have stopped and refunded.
Same is true for people unable to make a psn account but cannot because their country is not supported.
So while they indicated a 3rd party account it was not a hard requirement. If they would have shown all users a message clearly explaining that a psn account linking will be a hard requirement at some point… so better already do it… they might have had a better chance… but for me I disabled cross play in the first week also because the playstation players where insufferable mostly and it caused issues during gameplay.
I’m glad people are pushing back against this. All the unnecessary account creating has gotten out of hand.
Steam being a class act as usual.
Me remembering all those origin fan boys going on and on how steam customer service sucks without taking that sliver of a second to ask why they constantly had to use EAs customer services all the time.
I fear that there will never be another company like Steam
- Doesn’t make unnecessary changes to their UI
- Private, without public shareholders
- Has virtually no PR; community does it for them
- Takes the side of the people over publishers
- Has a sound refund policy
I’m afraid when Gabe dies, the culture of “does nothing but still wins” will die along with him.
Steam is a prime example of how long a product/service can actually last when you’re not constantly changing the product/service. Funny how when you don’t change a product and keep service great, it doesn’t seem to go through enshitiffication. What are the odds…?
It is worth it to refund it to send the message. We have seen what happens with ubisoft when they just stop supporting a game. What is stopping Sony from discontinuing matchmaking down the line after forcing a psn account, thats in addition to the regional restrictions and the fact they leak like a sieve.
Helldivers 3 could come out and they decide to just stop access to 2.
Money is the only thing these execs care about. Its worth tanking a game so they get the message.
Honestly it was 8 years between 1 and 2 so I’m not really expecting much in the way of sequels, but who knows.
I complained to the boards abouts The Crew getting pulled the plug.
Ubisoft removed my access to the game.I don’t trust Sony since they shut down gravity rush 2
I don’t trust them since the rootkit they installed, without my consent, on my computer when playing a music CD decades ago!
Damn I didn’t know about that one.
It goes really deep, worth the read.
They offered a tool to remove the rootkit that just silently installed another one.
Now that’s just filthy
What is stopping Sony from discontinuing matchmaking down the line after forcing a psn account
That’s definitly unfair when companies stop supporting multiplayer without even allowing community servers. And I could see Sony pulling shit like that.
But don’t you think matchmaking already depends on Sony, regardless of this PSN account question?
PSN has been around for 30 years, there’s no reason not to have one unless you’re an Xbox baby or just a real fucking crybaby. This was announced when the game launched, it was also announced that it was being temporarily disabled, and yet people still bought it. It says on the Steam store page a PSN account is required, are you all just that fucking stupid?
God damn I’m so fucking sick of this crybaby outrage culture.
there’s no reason not to have one unless you’re an Xbox baby or just a real fucking crybaby.
Or in one of the many countries where psn isn’t available. Thought we already went over this shit.
I’ve looked at the list of places where PSN is supported. 73 countries covering the major markets in most of the world, and it’s not in places where local laws and regulations, or the cost of doing business, or just the political climate make it unfeasible.
Guess what? I don’t give a shit. So you can’t play Helldivers in Haiti or Afghanistan, guess what, it’s a video game and you’ve got bigger fucking problems.
This is big, I think I’ll try to refund my copy now too. I was just thinking it would be a wash, and that I’d kinda gotten my 50 hours of fun, and just wouldn’t play anymore.
Considering the same. They’ve managed to “balance” all the weapons so none of them are fun anymore. They’re all kinda the same.
They’re balancing weapons while not fixing the critical underlying bugs that make them completely pointless. New upgrade that makes fire deal more damage? Balance patch reducing fire damage by 15%? too bad neither matters, because the fire DoT effect doesn’t work unless you are the host.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony is mandating the 1 warbond per month as well, which Arrowhead has mentioned is part of what’s hamstringing them on fixing core issues. It’s a real shame that corporate is willing to do this to their golden goose (which is their 7th best selling game ever?) just to make their line go up a little harder.
I just submitted mine. Fuck Sony accounts
Yeah I’m having similar thoughts, haven’t played in two weeks because I was busy, most my friends have moved on anyway
Might as well do it then. Worst case scenario, it’ll be on sale by the next time you might want to play it
I got mine off fanatical and they’re not budging, telling me to reach out to the devs lol. So I quoted the devs on their discord saying to pursue refunds and that I’d opened a chargeback XD
Fanatical and all of the discount sites are basically “you bought it, you own it, no refunds.” That’s part of why they offer discounts, it’s kind of a risk you take.
https://support.fanatical.com/hc/en-us/articles/201027572-Can-I-get-a-refund-cancel-my-order
Issuing a chargeback for a product that was delivered could land you in court even if it works. More realistically will result in Fanatical permanently banning your account.
Never buy a game on these sites if you are at all uncertain about it. There is no refund and the key has been exposed.
From that article they say they will issue refunds if there is a technical issue with the game. Thus, if you live in a country where PSN is not available, you could go that route. “I’m trying to sign up for multiplayer but I can’t because my country is not listed. Therefore multiplayer is broken and I want a refund, because this is a technical issue; a part of the game isn’t working.”
May be worth a shot…
Perhaps when the change is actually implemented tomorrow for new users or the beginning of next month for existing users.
Missed that part, but you’re right… They might make an exception but I wouldn’t count on it.
Yup totally fair, and yeah I’ve been blacklisted from a couple other stores by opening chargebacks in cases where it was necessary (not receiving the product, receiving a different product, the company refuses to refund or expects me to pay return shipping when they send me the wrong product), and in those cases I was totally ok never buying from them again anyway lol. I’ve been completely honest with my bank and provided all the documentation, eulas, and communications, and I seriously doubt anyone will spend the court fees over $40-60 to take me to court. All the same, I completely agree about not buying from these sites if you’re uncertain about things like this
Yeah, the court thing was more a general thing… I doubt they’d actually do it.
All the same, I completely agree about not buying from these sites if you’re uncertain about things like this
💯 I look at them as a gamble/only buy things I’m SURE I want.
I’ve tried to refund twice in the past 2 days with no luck. Would love to know what option people are selecting and what message they are including to steam to get it
Where do you live? Sprinkling in some consumer law may help
I live in France, so I would be covered by EU consumer laws. Not something I’m familiar with at all but definitely something that could help
Quote the right to have the advertised service delivered and that substantial changes can’t be forced without a right for the buyer to refuse and cancel
https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/shopping-internet/guarantees-and-warranties.html
See the points on conformity
Not legal advice (I don’t even live in Europe), but this might be helpful: https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/doing-business-eu/contract-rules/digital-contracts/digital-contract-rules_en
Can’t wait to see the complaints when they rebuy the game and their progress is gone.
They’d be stupid to delete progress… that just sounds like it’s a way to guarantee that nobody returns instead of trying to lure them back.
…but then again, I suppose we’ve learned that business decisions aren’t their strong suit 🤷♂️
My original comment was more about a hypothetical scenario, based on previous incidents. Now seeing the response my comment got.
I hope they do.
There’s nothing I love more than seeing G*mers throw temper tantrums like the little babies they are.
You know you can use the word ‘gamer’ on the Internet? Why would you come into this thread and wish other people to be unhappy about a hobby they like?
Because in 2024, it’s not important whether you have fun or not, the important thing to focus on is that nobody else has any fun.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=g*mer
Because I need to explain jokes to G@mers
No, I don’t think so, you just need to make a joke?
G@mers don’t need help in being jokes.
Hows the boot taste?
Well I never gave Arrowhead my money so I wouldn’t know. You’d have to tell me.
Ooooh, so its a kink thing, you do it in your free time then? Apologies then, I didnt mean to kink shame
I ain’t the one defending a company that agreed to these terms and then didn’t tell anyone.
What does this comment even mean? Are you not the one saying you hope gamers receive retaliation for requesting a refund for a company pulling a bait and switch on them?
What previous incident? I never heard of someone’s progress getting wiped like that.
Why in the hell would they save progress for a player that has refunded the game? You’d have to be delusional to assume that.
Literally the opposite. Why would they ever do that? You are underestimating how easy it is to do nothing, game progress is beyond negligible in terms of storage space. And deleting it would reduce any chance of returning customers.
Look at it from sony’s PoV, if they did delete saves and then the community becomes less upset next year, why would they want to preemptively prevent people for giving them another chance?
Not only would it be a terrible business and PR move, there is just no precedent for this type of thing. Do MMO’s delete your characters once you unsub? Or do they just sit tight and wait for you to come back?
I know FFXIV saves your data. You’re welcome back anytime with your account
Not if you refunded the purchase price of the game. Letting your payment lapse isn’t the same thing….
A subscription-based game is completely different than a one-time purchase that you’ve refunded.
I knew you would say that, but seriously, stop and think about how its literally the same situation. There is no reason that Sony would delete data from a customer that might potentially give them money.
Especially when the data is probably just a handful of MB.
The only way it makes sense is if Sony gets vindictive and opts for scorched earth. It doesn’t make business sense but this is the second time within 6 months Sony have tried taking away content from paying customers by one means or another. They clearly aren’t very good at business these days.
I like how you completely ignored how your entire point of view makes no sense and chose to pick apart an analogy that is perfectly appropriate for the situation
You must be pretty young, just keep enjoying your days.
Stay in school and maybe you’ll find out multi-billion dollar companies manage millions of dollars in inventory and data using one analyst manually fixing incomprehensibly large Excel sheets lmao
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Here’s a source: literally this scenario - they didn’t delete progress.
Congrats, you’re the moron!
Because 5 MB of data is absolutely nothing in the grand scale of things, and it’s not worth wasting a salaried developer’s time to set up automations for purging data from users who refunded on third-party storefronts.
You might be amazed at the stupid tasks that I, a salaried developer, have been given.
In the gaming industry, or elsewhere? The latter wouldn’t surprise me with micromanglement, but AAA game dev studios are notoriously bad for never having enough time to hit deadlines let alone doing things on top of that.
You keep assuming rational decisions though
