Since the beginning of the year, Helldiverse 2 made a huge hit. The cooperative shooter has enjoyed immense success, especially on PC. This is one of the only PlayStation games to have had the right to released on Steam at the same time as on PS5 which ensured it had a colossal player base. Although they have been won over so far, news has just broken and it annoys them to no end.
Indeed, PlayStation will soon make creation of accounts required even for playing on PC. Before that, users on Steam could simply launch the game through their library and jump straight into a mission without further ado. Now it will be necessary create a PlayStation Network accountthen link it once on the game’s home page. In a blog post, Arrowhead studio confirms:
“Due to technical issues with the launch of HELLDIVERS 2, we have allowed the requirements for linking Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. This grace period will now expire.”
Now or…now
The very fact that the studio dares to call these many months a “grace period” proves that the absence of this obligation made things easier for players and justifies their current irritation. This major change will make it more difficult to get started with the game, at least for the first time, by adding steps that are unfortunately not really necessary for all Steam users.
PC gamers are rarely on multiple platforms, so they have no use for a PSN account other than this one manipulation. The worst thing for players is that creating accounts will become mandatory imminently. From May 5, new players will have to go through this box, while existing players can wait until June 4 at the latest.
Reminder
Attention, A PlayStation Network account is not a PlayStation Plus account. PSN is completely free while PS Plus is a subscription service only useful on consoles. You do not have no need for a PS Plus account to play online on PC.
What is PlayStation’s goal?
The reasons for this modification of the conditions of use are mentioned by the studio. Arrowhead cites security reasons in particular. In the rest of the post, we can read:
“Account linking plays a vital role in protecting our players and maintaining the safety and security values of PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our primary way of protecting players from grievance and abuse by allowing players who engage in this type of behavior to be banned. It also makes it easier for banned players to appeal.”
Despite the studio’s good faith, these justifications tend to sound like those of Apple, which has long closed its ecosystem also for security reasons. If this is entirely probable, the company also has to gain in terms of controlling its players, their statistics, but also in monitoring their progress in order to cause a greater conversion rate. After all, PlayStation counts on its consoles to grow its sales figures and designed its entire ecosystem on this platform before getting started with the PC.
At the moment it is unclear whether this will apply to all the PlayStation games that will be released on Steam. But it’s a safe bet that it will. PlayStation is not the only company to use this type of practice, which has become very widespread in games Ubisoft, Warner Bros or even EA. An account per publisher is now required to access all of the game’s functions, and even its basic content. A trend that does not please players.
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