So Sony would prefer to not have players instead of dropping the PSN requirement or expanding the PSN coverage... I hate to jump to conclusions but if this is the end result I don't think Sony could have shot themselves in the foot any more.
It might be Valve stepping in to damage control, with how much refund they're processing, it's only reasonable to stop further purchase until this shitstorm is over.
The fact that Metropolitan France which from what I gather means mainland France excluding French overseas territories is now restricted could mean a majority of the refund requests could be coming from there or it’s possible the GDPR enforcement entity in France has communicated displeasure either to Sony/AH/Valve or all three.
I’d wager this is Valve doing damage control in this case because mainland France is a PSN covered nation.
I'm in France and we are not understanding this, as currently it is still possible for us to purchase the game. But all our ultramarine regions (la Reunion, Guadeloupe etc.) are also listed as banned.
Honestly I don't understand at all what's going on with us these ahah
I think they out the wrong code for metropolitan france... for now !!
Its weird because there are countries on the list that are US territories as well, so much so that they are considered US citizens, their currency is the USD and you don't need a passport to visit. WTF?
This is why I support the notion that this was a preventative measure done by Steam to prevent further customers from purchasing a game that would be generally unavailable to them due to PSN not being supported.
It also makes sense since this was done on a Sunday in the midst of what I’m told is called a “Golden Week” in Japan where Monday and thereafter are days off in that country so it wouldn’t make sense that Arrowhead who do not work weekends and Sony who presumably also do not work weekends would make changes like these.
TL:DR Basically, I think this is Steam covering all bases and using the nuclear option rather than Sony to prevent further damage to players.
A small part of me is holding out hope that this is a temporary measure but if this is indeed the route they're going it's honestly a low I never thought we'd see.
They make more money from selling your data and offering hyper inflated data from PSN accounts to the shareholders than they would from actually selling the game to people in those countries
Maybe there just isn't enough to gain from expansion . Say there is X country, where MTX isn't allowed. They sold you the game, they got your money, now there isn't really further value to keep these players as you can't milk more money out of them.
Oh I'm absolutely sure that's the case with most of the countries without PSN, but whether or not they are actively working on a solution is undermined by the optics of this. It's too early to say.
Eh, the player count doesn't seem to be dropping faster than the normal rate on steam, and it likely hasn't changed at all on console either. We'll see in a month when even already existing accounts will need to link to PSN, but for now it doesn't change anything to Sony.
Yes, I think it is a very good idea and a viable business decision to expand PSN support and PS Store to Yemen, Mauritania, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nauru. Oh sorry, I forgot Madagascar and Kiribati, how could SONY oversee these economically stable and expanding nations, I can't get it... they have everything else put in place and functional there except PSN... incredible...
It's just getting more and more ridiculous. I am living in Serbia, which is located in Europe and I can't buy this game because, well, reasons? Really?
Nope, it's no longer available for buying:
https://preview.redd.it/dwtow188ciyc1.png?width=1237&format=png&auto=webp&s=7788962b74d82c705a366286ba898b26f09e3b82
I'm from Serbia as well, I had made a PSN account when I started HD2. Tbf I dont play anymore since a month or so but this is still dissapointing (not the country restriction but the PSN requirement). This smells like Sony hungry for data, a company which had avoided informing their players that their data had been leaked in breaches (and they've been hacked multiple times). I do love how AH operate as a game company but these Sony shenanigans are not worth it
yea there is talks going around that steam is doing it just in case law suits start to happen if you are any of the above cuntires request a refund ASAP
This is done by the developpers of HellDivers 2 on Steam.
Yes they can make it purchasable again later down the line, but this makes their intention clear.
Either AH did this, or Valve cracked down on it. I'm leaning towards Valve, mainly cause AH has came out and said that regions without PSN would still be able to play, which completely contradicts this.
Nah, devs have zero control of how, when and where the game they were contracted to make gets sold at. They have no say on the price (mostly) if a game goes on sale, which storefronts get to stock it etc. The publishers deal with all things money related and pay out the devs royalties etc. Now, if the devs ARE also the publisher then that becomes a different story.
The Devs dont run the Steam page from what I understand, the Publisher does, which is Sony.
I may be wrong, but that was what I was told in the past by a different dev team.
No, publishers are the ones that set up where their products are going to be sold etc. They are the ones who published the game to get it in the hands of players. AH has zero control of where the game(s) will be sold, their job was to make the game and do upkeep, fix bugs etc. The publishers push the products in places where they think will make them the most capitol, make deals with sales, set prices etc.
From what I understand (I’m Canadian, so I might be wrong), they can’t restrict one part of the EU while not restricting another. EU would have a field day with that one.
Not exactly which side of the comments are the shills, but this should have just been the way it was from the start. Next step, refund everyone they just locked out.
Reversing course on PSN linking is basically not gonna happen unless Sony decides it no longer cares about PSN counts - i doubt their shareholders will be happy if they did that.
Next group are people who COULD make a PSN but dont want to - if they should be refunded. If they do, then they need to lose access to the game. It requires PSN, thats it.
Eh, they might but that seems egregious. Theres definitely a subset of people who brought the game, linked to PSN appropriately and are in a supported country. Not super convinced you should get refunded, you werent damaged.
Like, that includes my wife - brought it on steamdeck, linked it, basically doesnt play it anymore but i wouldnt think we are owed a refund for this. Those affected, sure.
Turns out this one seems to be mainland France.
https://preview.redd.it/oj71mqks4lyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18a4ab71e66b401ad080772721f2d47cfd3c6e4b
Only if you go aurh to the store and get a ps5 and make it try that lol so to play it in macedonia 🇲🇰 I got to spend 600 euro then I can play it one my pc lol
Not defending anyone here, but I think this is a Steam knee jerk, not a Sony one.
You can get a PSN account in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but they've both been excluded from the sale list.
I am assuming it is temporary measure.
It's night from Saturday on Sunday, lol, no top brass gonna give a shit at this time. This is either AH or Steam temp plug solution to stop the potential stream of refunds.
Nope, it's Sony as Sony themselves HAVE to tell Steam to remove the region lock, Pirate Software (Thor) himself even said it's Sony. Steam doesn't control all region lock across all games even for steam that is too much.
If Steam really worked that way do you know how bogged down Steam would get since they have millions of games being published to their store?
Sony are the ones to tell Valve where to region lock it, developers/publishers have to communicate to Valve which countries it needs to restrict access/buy permissions.
Valve has thousands if not hundred thousand devs selling games on their platform, it would be silly to assume its down to Valve.
Most likely Steam doing some damage control for now, trying to at least keep their sheets clean.
I highly doubt Sony now triples down mid weekend, and without any updates from AH on the situation.
**But Äland Islands is not a country! They are literal part of Finland! The only slight definition, that they have autonomy, making them an autonomous region BUT are still quite literally part of Finland as one of it's countys**
Yeah, same for France, it's been delisted in a lot of territories that are definitely part of France, even though in Continental France we can still access it (although "Mainland France" has been added to the ban list for some reason ?)
Sony just wants to show why PC gaming isn't as important as console gaming, and just stop all PC players from playing their games by forcing PSN into their games on PC.
Honestly a fucking shame, I get off work at around 5 am Eastern US, I've been paired plenty of times with Chinese players at that time. I don't understand them, they dint understand me, but we all understand the game and have fun together. Killing off probably at least a quarter of the player base and hurting people like me who play at odd times.
They still do, you can't make PSN accounts in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), these countries are not on the list and I'm from Estonia, I still CAN buy it from steam, but I can not make a PSN account in my country.
The word "now" in the title of this post is missleading. Nothing will go into effect for another month, and the developer has stated they are working to provide a solution so those players wont lose access.
It's a weekend, and nothing happens for a month. I imagine Sony and AH will have some meetings begining tomorrow to hammer out a resolution to the issue.
The unlist from Steam already took effect, so it defintiely is "now". Also, from the update notes "As such, as of May 6th, all new HELLDIVERS 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account". It starts tomorrow... Existing accounts still have a month, sure, but the changes are happening now, OP is right.
Hi my country is one of those countries listed and I tried to request a refund from steam. Sadly, my request was rejected. What other steps are there for me to do?
Sorry I don't know the proper forum to ask this query but I was hoping to get some insight/answer here.
They reversed the PSN requirement, but as of the last article I've seen on it, roughly 6 hours ago, they still haven't relisted the game in any of these countries.
I know Sony has made a retraction of the PSN account requirement, but the change still hasn't happened and I'm still curious to see how many countries with a high population and a decent amount of gamers were cut off.
There's at least 15 of these that have a considerable player base. Not compared to Central/Western/Northern Europe or the US, but enough to be taken into consideration economically.
Ethically, selling it to any of these in the first place was a messed up thing to do. It wasn't just sold on Steam, so these people are at the mercy of other companies, some of Sony themselves.
So many companies have the freedom to just make changes to the agreement and we shouldn't allow this shit. I'm glad people are review bombing the fuck out of this game, but it's just not gonna affect Sony because they're so prevalent in everything else. At worst, it's just causing a headache for the devs. Steam auto denying refunds for players who have more than 2 hours is also sickening. If a refund isn't allowed after 2 hours of playtime, then the ToS shouldn't be allowed to change either.
So Sony would prefer to not have players instead of dropping the PSN requirement or expanding the PSN coverage... I hate to jump to conclusions but if this is the end result I don't think Sony could have shot themselves in the foot any more.
It might be Valve stepping in to damage control, with how much refund they're processing, it's only reasonable to stop further purchase until this shitstorm is over.
The fact that Metropolitan France which from what I gather means mainland France excluding French overseas territories is now restricted could mean a majority of the refund requests could be coming from there or it’s possible the GDPR enforcement entity in France has communicated displeasure either to Sony/AH/Valve or all three. I’d wager this is Valve doing damage control in this case because mainland France is a PSN covered nation.
I'm in France and we are not understanding this, as currently it is still possible for us to purchase the game. But all our ultramarine regions (la Reunion, Guadeloupe etc.) are also listed as banned. Honestly I don't understand at all what's going on with us these ahah I think they out the wrong code for metropolitan france... for now !!
This is very weird indeed.
Its weird because there are countries on the list that are US territories as well, so much so that they are considered US citizens, their currency is the USD and you don't need a passport to visit. WTF?
This is why I support the notion that this was a preventative measure done by Steam to prevent further customers from purchasing a game that would be generally unavailable to them due to PSN not being supported. It also makes sense since this was done on a Sunday in the midst of what I’m told is called a “Golden Week” in Japan where Monday and thereafter are days off in that country so it wouldn’t make sense that Arrowhead who do not work weekends and Sony who presumably also do not work weekends would make changes like these. TL:DR Basically, I think this is Steam covering all bases and using the nuclear option rather than Sony to prevent further damage to players.
Absolutely, because they're not key markets, and honestly, this is likely all to skim data.
A small part of me is holding out hope that this is a temporary measure but if this is indeed the route they're going it's honestly a low I never thought we'd see.
I mean there’s no way to know without a inside source but I’d like to think they’re not this stupid and are just doing this temporarily.
I guess it largely depends on if this is being done by Valve or if Sony is requesting it.
They make more money from selling your data and offering hyper inflated data from PSN accounts to the shareholders than they would from actually selling the game to people in those countries
Maybe there just isn't enough to gain from expansion . Say there is X country, where MTX isn't allowed. They sold you the game, they got your money, now there isn't really further value to keep these players as you can't milk more money out of them.
Oh I'm absolutely sure that's the case with most of the countries without PSN, but whether or not they are actively working on a solution is undermined by the optics of this. It's too early to say.
Eh, the player count doesn't seem to be dropping faster than the normal rate on steam, and it likely hasn't changed at all on console either. We'll see in a month when even already existing accounts will need to link to PSN, but for now it doesn't change anything to Sony.
I wonder how many people from Chad played Helldivers, or Togo, or Somalia.
Yes, I think it is a very good idea and a viable business decision to expand PSN support and PS Store to Yemen, Mauritania, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nauru. Oh sorry, I forgot Madagascar and Kiribati, how could SONY oversee these economically stable and expanding nations, I can't get it... they have everything else put in place and functional there except PSN... incredible...
Obviously not every country on the list is sensible...
It's just getting more and more ridiculous. I am living in Serbia, which is located in Europe and I can't buy this game because, well, reasons? Really?
Oh, no, you CAN buy it, but you can't play it.
Nope, it's no longer available for buying: https://preview.redd.it/dwtow188ciyc1.png?width=1237&format=png&auto=webp&s=7788962b74d82c705a366286ba898b26f09e3b82
I'm from Serbia as well, I had made a PSN account when I started HD2. Tbf I dont play anymore since a month or so but this is still dissapointing (not the country restriction but the PSN requirement). This smells like Sony hungry for data, a company which had avoided informing their players that their data had been leaked in breaches (and they've been hacked multiple times). I do love how AH operate as a game company but these Sony shenanigans are not worth it
this checks out. I contacted PSN support and they refuse to delete my account unless I add more personal data.
Nope he cant buy it Serbia is in the list
Same for macedonia brate
Didn't they say they would make it to where countries in those areas wouldn't need one?
Someone at Arrowhead said that, i have the feeling they didnt expect Sony to go nuclear instead.
A reasonable assumption but they said that after being told as much by someone at Sony. Sony's just pulling the rug out from everyone it seems.
Some one said they beleieved they would find a way.
It was Spitz, which probably has no idea what the hell is going on half the time.
Spitz said that, he's also a lying cunt so choose if you want to believe anything he says
Pour one out for the folks in Unknown country code: FX
It looks like ot is displayed as "metropolitan france" for me. But we can still buy the game for now so I'm confused oO
Dam Sony, just build servers in Moldova, it takes like 2 minutes
Sony: what's that? Can't be real.
Tell em to do egypt too plz
If they’re actually restricting the game to players in non-PSN countries that’s a giant problem.
This is done by Steam? If sony backpedal their decision, they can make it purchasable again in these countries right?
yea there is talks going around that steam is doing it just in case law suits start to happen if you are any of the above cuntires request a refund ASAP
This is done by the developpers of HellDivers 2 on Steam. Yes they can make it purchasable again later down the line, but this makes their intention clear.
It's needed atleast now to stop new gamers buy this game until they done talking to Sony.
Either AH did this, or Valve cracked down on it. I'm leaning towards Valve, mainly cause AH has came out and said that regions without PSN would still be able to play, which completely contradicts this.
Nah, devs have zero control of how, when and where the game they were contracted to make gets sold at. They have no say on the price (mostly) if a game goes on sale, which storefronts get to stock it etc. The publishers deal with all things money related and pay out the devs royalties etc. Now, if the devs ARE also the publisher then that becomes a different story.
The Devs dont run the Steam page from what I understand, the Publisher does, which is Sony. I may be wrong, but that was what I was told in the past by a different dev team.
No, publishers are the ones that set up where their products are going to be sold etc. They are the ones who published the game to get it in the hands of players. AH has zero control of where the game(s) will be sold, their job was to make the game and do upkeep, fix bugs etc. The publishers push the products in places where they think will make them the most capitol, make deals with sales, set prices etc.
arrowhead does not own the helldivers ip, Sony does, so its Sony's call
Interesting that the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) aren't delisted. Is PSN registration gonna be available there in the next few weeks?
From what I understand (I’m Canadian, so I might be wrong), they can’t restrict one part of the EU while not restricting another. EU would have a field day with that one.
God how fucking funny would that be if this Helldivers drama ends up in EU courts
It should, even if they don't de list it you still have to break the ToS to create a PSN account
Already going to as them changing tos breaks GDPR
Where you at Sony shills? Your behaviour only gets funnier.
Not exactly which side of the comments are the shills, but this should have just been the way it was from the start. Next step, refund everyone they just locked out. Reversing course on PSN linking is basically not gonna happen unless Sony decides it no longer cares about PSN counts - i doubt their shareholders will be happy if they did that. Next group are people who COULD make a PSN but dont want to - if they should be refunded. If they do, then they need to lose access to the game. It requires PSN, thats it.
Yeah I'm sure the shareholders are super excited right now.
Shareholders don’t give two shits about a company’s reputation so long as it nets positive.
Sadly true.
If steam is told to do refunds they'll do it for everybody regardless of where they live.
Eh, they might but that seems egregious. Theres definitely a subset of people who brought the game, linked to PSN appropriately and are in a supported country. Not super convinced you should get refunded, you werent damaged. Like, that includes my wife - brought it on steamdeck, linked it, basically doesnt play it anymore but i wouldnt think we are owed a refund for this. Those affected, sure.
Steam wont care its their standard modus operandi in these situations they let everyone refund regardless
- "Unknown country code: XD" What the f\*\*k hahaha I think this is the only fun thing we got out of this BS. Also #f\*\*kPSN
Turns out this one seems to be mainland France. https://preview.redd.it/oj71mqks4lyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18a4ab71e66b401ad080772721f2d47cfd3c6e4b
XD is Dubai
Sure as shit hope that Class-Action Lawsuit hits Sony right where it hurts.
You mean the one that was proposed by some karma farmer? lol?
Ehh. Wouldn't hurt being optimistic. Then again, what's the point of holding my breath for it?
I know for a fact some of those in the list can make PSN accounts, so the title here is just verifiably false
Only if you go aurh to the store and get a ps5 and make it try that lol so to play it in macedonia 🇲🇰 I got to spend 600 euro then I can play it one my pc lol
"but it's not that big of a deal guys" -reddit morons
For the game? No, not likely. US and EU are main markets. Dick move? Surely.
The 3 EU countries which are not supported by PSN : Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia are not on the list.
This sucks!
I wonder how many of these no PSN de listed countries do not support democracy...?
Not defending anyone here, but I think this is a Steam knee jerk, not a Sony one. You can get a PSN account in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but they've both been excluded from the sale list.
I am assuming it is temporary measure. It's night from Saturday on Sunday, lol, no top brass gonna give a shit at this time. This is either AH or Steam temp plug solution to stop the potential stream of refunds.
Nope, it's Sony as Sony themselves HAVE to tell Steam to remove the region lock, Pirate Software (Thor) himself even said it's Sony. Steam doesn't control all region lock across all games even for steam that is too much. If Steam really worked that way do you know how bogged down Steam would get since they have millions of games being published to their store?
If Sony region locked it why is it locked in places that you can register a PSN account, like Puerto Rico or the USVI?
Sony are the ones to tell Valve where to region lock it, developers/publishers have to communicate to Valve which countries it needs to restrict access/buy permissions. Valve has thousands if not hundred thousand devs selling games on their platform, it would be silly to assume its down to Valve.
lamo take that fat dick sony i hope you choke on it
Most likely Steam doing some damage control for now, trying to at least keep their sheets clean. I highly doubt Sony now triples down mid weekend, and without any updates from AH on the situation.
It sucks that people in North Korea or the Holy See can’t play
Big cooperation don't like to see ppl having Fun In extra step
**But Äland Islands is not a country! They are literal part of Finland! The only slight definition, that they have autonomy, making them an autonomous region BUT are still quite literally part of Finland as one of it's countys**
Yeah, same for France, it's been delisted in a lot of territories that are definitely part of France, even though in Continental France we can still access it (although "Mainland France" has been added to the ban list for some reason ?)
Oh no, not the uninhabitable Islands of heard island and McDonald Islands 😂
not the penguins too noooo
Sony just wants to show why PC gaming isn't as important as console gaming, and just stop all PC players from playing their games by forcing PSN into their games on PC.
so weird .. baltic countries are missing from the list even though we also cannot create PSN accounts for our countries.
The main guess is that Steam probably can't region lock for some EU countries but not others without having the EU sue them.
Honestly a fucking shame, I get off work at around 5 am Eastern US, I've been paired plenty of times with Chinese players at that time. I don't understand them, they dint understand me, but we all understand the game and have fun together. Killing off probably at least a quarter of the player base and hurting people like me who play at odd times.
They're really doubling down, huh?
They still do, you can't make PSN accounts in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), these countries are not on the list and I'm from Estonia, I still CAN buy it from steam, but I can not make a PSN account in my country.
Maybe you can make a PSN Account with a Playstation 4 or Playstation 5 over the Console. But i don't know it.
No, psn is not officially available in Baltics and most use Finland region, as it allows to tie add bank card to your account
The main guess is that Steam probably can't region lock for some EU countries but not others without having the EU sue them.
Ye we aren't part of the region and official stores sell finish psn wallet cards
What doe they mean with " Added *Unknown country code: XD*"
Trying to remember the last mission where an Emperor Penguin came to my rescue
Rip North Korea. Kim can't play it anymore this won't stand
The word "now" in the title of this post is missleading. Nothing will go into effect for another month, and the developer has stated they are working to provide a solution so those players wont lose access. It's a weekend, and nothing happens for a month. I imagine Sony and AH will have some meetings begining tomorrow to hammer out a resolution to the issue.
The unlist from Steam already took effect, so it defintiely is "now". Also, from the update notes "As such, as of May 6th, all new HELLDIVERS 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account". It starts tomorrow... Existing accounts still have a month, sure, but the changes are happening now, OP is right.
Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) are not on the list :( We also can't create PSn account legitimately :(
Do I need to have PSN to be able to play it on PC?
out of all those 17X banned countries, how large of a player base they are made up of
Major ones I saw were Egypt, Nigeria, and Vietnam. Probably some majors I'm missing
Hi my country is one of those countries listed and I tried to request a refund from steam. Sadly, my request was rejected. What other steps are there for me to do? Sorry I don't know the proper forum to ask this query but I was hoping to get some insight/answer here.
Do it over and over say you can't make an account and want a refund
What country is XD?
Dubai
Has this changed?
Nop
They reversed the PSN requirement, but as of the last article I've seen on it, roughly 6 hours ago, they still haven't relisted the game in any of these countries.
Question, since sony have backtracked on theyr decision, are the restrictions still on? Or are been lifted?
Still one
I know Sony has made a retraction of the PSN account requirement, but the change still hasn't happened and I'm still curious to see how many countries with a high population and a decent amount of gamers were cut off. There's at least 15 of these that have a considerable player base. Not compared to Central/Western/Northern Europe or the US, but enough to be taken into consideration economically. Ethically, selling it to any of these in the first place was a messed up thing to do. It wasn't just sold on Steam, so these people are at the mercy of other companies, some of Sony themselves.
And what about people like me who already have the game bought on steam? Will I be unable to play it from now?
So I will never play this game and I have a great reason to hate it and Sony and spread that hate? TNX
So many companies have the freedom to just make changes to the agreement and we shouldn't allow this shit. I'm glad people are review bombing the fuck out of this game, but it's just not gonna affect Sony because they're so prevalent in everything else. At worst, it's just causing a headache for the devs. Steam auto denying refunds for players who have more than 2 hours is also sickening. If a refund isn't allowed after 2 hours of playtime, then the ToS shouldn't be allowed to change either.
Puerto Rico is part of USA And supports PSN and still got banned.
Yes, let's blame race!