After nearly two years of PlayStation 5 exclusivity, God of War Ragnarök has finally released for the PC.
But in proving that Sony has learned nothing from their previous Helldivers 2 controversy, the game’s arrival on Steam has been marred by the fact that it requires players to sign into a PlayStation Network (PSN) account in order to play it.
For those unaware, PSN is a digital service allowing players to access Sony features online, download video games, and use cloud saves. Sony uses PSN to combine its console and PC ecosystems, but unfortunately, the service is not available in over 100 countries, thus rendering God of War Ragnarök‘s nine realms locked away from a large number of potential players.
The PSN account requirement is not a new frustration for PC players who want to get their hands on PlayStation titles., as seen most notably with Helldivers 2.
When the Sony-produced game launched earlier this year, it did so without a PSN login requirement, as a result seeing massive success and breaking records for concurrent player numbers.
However, when Sony implemented a PSN login requirement for PC users a few months later, it caused a sharp decline in the game’s player base, particularly in regions where PSN is not supported.
Realizing they lost a huge chunk of a multi-player shooter player base, Arrowhead Studios, the developer behind Helldivers 2, and Sony eventually decided to remove the mandatory login requirement for the game, in doing so restoring some goodwill to both of them among the community.
Adding insult to injury, while PSN plays a critical role in facilitating the functionality of multiplayer games, Ragnarök is not only a single-player game, but receives such validation checks on PC from the Steam platform. As such, not only is the PSN requirement redundant, but it does nothing for the player but lock the game’s upgraded performance and visuals behind an arbitrary login.
As a result of this unnecessary requirement, Ragnarök has already faced review bombing on Steam, with players unhappy that they are locked out from experiencing one of Sony’s most celebrated titles..
All in all, while it’s a welcome move to have Sony allowing PC ports of their exclusive games, requiring players to login to PSN play them feels like nothing more than the latest move in a grudge match between themselves and the PC platform’s main operating system provider, Windows, with players being used as nothing more than pawns.
Until Sony not only addresses the PSN requirement for God of War Ragnarök but its existence all together, it’s likely the community will continue to criticize Sony’s strategy of forcing players to interact with their own PlayStation ecosystem.