Sony Repeats Helldivers 2 Controversy With God of War Ragnarok on PC
PSN continues to haunt the PC player base.
It hasn’t even been a month since Helldivers 2 got out of its turbulent patch due to a controversial decision by Sony. Not only did the controversy hurt everything that Arrowhead had managed to build since its hit was launched, but it also left many PC players wondering where they stood.
Well, one might think that the gaming behemoth would’ve taken the backlash from the community into account and avoided controversies like these for future releases, but it turns out that despite the negative player feedback, God of War Ragnarok will be accompanied by the same issue once it launches on PC.
Helldivers 2 May Have Survived, but Sony Is Adamant About Its PSN Requirement
A few days ago, during State of Play, it was revealed that God of War Ragnarok will be transcending its PlayStation exclusivity and will be heading to PC on September 19. That was great news for PC players, considering that their journey with Kratos and Atreus could continue and they’d get to witness the Norse mythology-based spectacle reach a conclusion.
But every silver lining has a dark cloud, as it was also confirmed that despite it being a single-player experience, PC players will need to create a PSN account and link it to their Steam one to play the Santa Monica title.
Just like with the recently overcome Helldivers 2 controversy, the PC community isn’t fond of the seemingly unnecessary condition that Sony’s trying to enforce on the players. One frustrated gamer mentioned that while it may have made sense for the account linking to be made mandatory for live-service titles like Arrowhead’s, it feels more pointless for single-player games such as God of War Ragnarok.
Naturally, there is also growing skepticism that Sony may once again backtrack on its decision and try something similar for the Helldivers sequel.
God of War Ragnarok Is Not Even Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam in Various Countries
One of the major repercussions of Sony’s account-linking decision was that due to the unavailability of the PSN service in numerous countries, Helldivers 2 got delisted from those regions’ Steam platforms, and to no one’s surprise, the God of War sequel is also not available everywhere for pre-purchase.
Which means that a huge chunk of the potential player base for God of War Ragnarok is unable to acquire the game through the official means, making it feel quite alienated.
PC players who actually look forward to getting PlayStation-exclusive experiences on their platform are now less optimistic about Sony making its titles multiplatform because not everyone will get to play the game even if they want to.
It would not be too surprising if Sony follows the same backtracking approach as it recently did with Helldivers 2, considering how God of War is quite a high-profile title, but it seems much less likely in the current situation.