What's your thoughts on Sony pushing PSN down on PC gamers' throats?

Sony lost me many years ago when they decided it was appropriate to include a PC rootkit on an audio CD. This only lends weight to that decision.

For me feels someone is chasing a KPI on PSN users that, quite frankly, gives no one but Sony executives satisfaction on bigger number = better number. Steam on that sense made the correct decision to give back the money on people that cannot play a game anymore because of a future requirement (as mentioned by op, not everywhere psn exists). But for me, even if psn is available, you should be able to refuse to further engage on a game based on a future requirement like this and get the money back (same applies if for instance a game all of a sudden has something like denuvo).

So my take away of this is: please, get rid of kpis, it's about time we learn to get away from hard metrics that can be cheated

My take: 🏴‍☠️

Sony is testing the waters with trying to console-ify/enshittify PC gaming, for now it's making a PSN account and living in an "approved" country, next it's going to be paying online subscription services to play PSN games. My thoughts are game developers and consumers should avoid Sony like the plague (and request refunds / class legal action in cases like Helldivers 2 where it was introduced after the fact), there are better publishers; and if you can afford it, self-publishing.

I doubt they'll stop. Sony realized that having a lot of people on your platform already inflates its value just by itself. With their pivot to PC gaming, it makes sense that they'd be heavy-handed about it. I for one will not join them.

Make it a carrot, not a stick. I signed in with me gog account for cyberpunk 2077 just fine because I wanted a jacket and it was 100% optional

I'm so sick of companies doing things to maximize numbers rather than for the sake of making the best experiences. Capitalism doesn't work, our data is worth more than our loyalty now.

I have a psn account, I own a Playstation.

I don't like the slow march towards all our activities being constantly monitored by someone.

I won't be buying any pc versions of Sony games and adding my psn account to it.

Especially with PSN being a paid service and I'm sure their goal is to charge for access and all pc games will become subscription ontop

While I can create a PSN account in my country, I won't. I just won't purchase anymore Sony games and be done with it.

They already joined EA, Take-Two and Ubisoft on my Steam ignore list.

Same as I've been saying for 25 years:

Fuck Sony, and fuck their anti-consumer practices.

Think about it: even if you can get a psn account and play without a problem, this is being done to exploit and commoditize you.

Fuck Sony.

With all the very valid talking points that float around the Internet and here, the most important one is how sloppy Sony's data security has been throughout the years. The breaches during the last decade simply stripped every piece of trust from me. That's why I'm not a fan of PSN, even if you could argue it's just "yet another account".

But unless near everybody refuses to buy these PC games and cut into the sales of Sony through boycott, I don't see Sony stopping it.

Common anti-consumer move by huge companies against the consumers who made them rich. What's new?

My thoughts on this is that people, regardless of financial status, should just skip buying a PS5 and for a lower price just get a refurbished Steam Deck from Valve for cheaper. Also to straight up avoid buying PlayStation titles on PC in order to send a message that this toxic behavior is unacceptable.

I wouldn't care so much if they weren't pushing so hard. The fact they are willing to go through all of this to force it makes me suspicious.

No PlayStation (last one I owned was the first one, though I did play on some shared/friends' devices for PS2 and 3). No PSN account. Voting with my wallet and not buying any of their shit.

Makes sense as a requirement for online play.

I even understand region-locking all digital PC titles to regions where they already sell digital console titles. (Global consumer care, legal, and tech support is a complex beast.)

Requirement for single player is unnecessary though.

I can’t think of any good technical or business reason for it. Just shoehorning an extra potential marketing channel that doesn’t really need to exist if they just use the PC-based channels that are already available without extra friction.

My thought is it's bullshit. My reaction is to not purchase or play any games from them and not sign up for an account. I'll be alright.

I respectfully think you're an idiot if you buy psn games on steam with the current situation, respectfully.

Thank you for all the respectful comments. I complained about this on r/Steam on Reddit, thinking they'd discuss the issue like grown ups. All I got though was shit comments after shit comments, the likes of "cry about it" and "whomp whomp", someone even dismissed my rant as a "tantrum"!

Last pennies Sony got from me were for Horizon: Zero Dawn, on steam. At the rate they're going, they won't get another out of me, maybe ever.

Fuck Sony! I will always pirate their games

At first I was happy that sony finally ported games to PC, but I never though they would force PSN to the PC gaming community...

I would have paid for every game they would have ported, to encourage crossplatform release.

With PSN in mind, I will probably just pirate their game and call it a day. 🖕

Yeah I was fine with online only requiring it, but now they've lost me. Forcing it on single player games has made me reverse the decision on online multiplayer games as well. So even though I had every intention of picking up God of war Ragnarok at full price on PC, I'm gonna pass.

It's kinda stupid to not have psn available to everywhere and then force your shit down on people's throat, and then shocked that piracy is on the rise. This is what Valve is against but here we are.

Well Sony can do whatever they wish but that doesn't mean I have to do what they want. Normally ignore any Sony related games nowadays.

I have a PSN account through owning a PS3/4. I don't have anything against using it on the consoles since you'd need it to use their online services through there. On Steam however it seems like it's just a means to track you and I'm not willing to do that lest it gives Sony the idea to start its own platform like Origin or Uplay/Connect.

It's bullshit but I get a feeling that gamers in general are going to take it like usual for their hit of dopamine.

I don't buy games from big studios. I don't have this problem.

If no one bought games from big studios, this problem wouldn't exist.

Go play games that were made by less than ten people. Go play games that don't have microtransactions. Go play games where no one involved has a business degree. Go eat a vegetable and brush your teeth. Do things that are good for you.

Honestly this behaviour comes off as some way to enact a loss leading strategy. Thing is, I can't figure out what they would be trying to sell here?

Like making everyone use an account for Sony games does not lessen the blow of potentially paying for online, or using a hypothetical PC Sony store, or buying a PS5. It honestly feels like they're just incredibly out of touch and don't understand what the hell they're doing.

I'm honestly against all the other launchers too, but at the very least I'm able to make an account without inputting false location info, as well as actually buy their games! But with Playstation it's a special case; Sony is the only gaming company that refuse to provide PSN in many countries for some fucking reason!

I'm more upset by the strategy of putting the first game of a series on PC but not the followup games. I'm not getting Rebirth on the PS5 when I got the first one with my save file on PC even though I have a PS5 and it's very doubtful anyone already on PC without a PS5 is gonna go out and buy a PS5 just for a sequel or two.

Will the games still run on linux?

It is their prerogative. They (and Arrowhead) fucked up with Helldivers by removing and then retroactively requiring it. By the time I got the game though it was already required for new players again.

If it means we can cross play to their console I'm fine with it (a feature I wanted). For a single player game it's annoying but as long as it costs nothing I don't care anymore.

I do feel strongly that we need some consumer protections though - and this extends beyond games alone. Any server shutdown (authentication or gameplay affecting) should have a mandatory removal of the requirement or opening of the server to self host. But I digress...

I have no interest in their games, so meh

I think honestly they might be looking to have their own platform on PC one day to not paying the platform fee.

if they keep using steam backend for part of their PC framework, they will pay a lot more in the end, compare to invest now take some flames and properly push for their account backend on PC WHILE have steam's market place/distribution work for them.

Don't get me wrong, Sony already have the capability to server digital contents to all the PS5s, but it's a closed system and no worry about hacking etc as much compare to PC.

The PS5 doesn't have a web browser. What CPU+GPU Sony makes you pay for the PS5? Well, if your PS5 is turn on and you want to check a web page, you'd better take a cheap android phone out (heck, a old blackberry would do) so you can check the website you want to... because your PS5 can't.

Sony, simply, live in another universe... they still have pockets to buy game studios and bribe exclusive in our dimension, but they simply don't actually exist in our reality. That's all I can think about Sony and their commercial practice: they take money from our reality (fewer and fewer each year), but they have no idea why.

No wonder indie games are getting more popular each year

I don’t care about it, they can sell to whom they want

Meh, more money I get to spend elsewhere which is exactly what they care about.

From their perspective it just makes business sense. They're already developing these games for their proprietary platform, putting them on PCs for other platforms is just extra money, forcing them into the PSN network make sense. They don't care if they're leaving money on the table, it's just extra money that they weren't making before.

You missed the main issue my friend, it's not about having a launcher or an account, it's the way their doing it.

And here, I'm contemplating the PSVR2 as rumors of a PC adapter.

I don't particularly care...

It sucks for people that live in countries that Sony doesn't sell to ... but also Sony just doesn't sell to those countries.

Ultimately they made people use an account, something that's long been extremely standard behavior.

I think people are overreacting, particularly those that are in a situation where it's just "create a free account with your throw away email address."

I don't like this requirement, but I can understand that this is their product and they can do that. The real problem is that I can't even buy these games as Sony isn't selling them in my country. What is more hilarious is that I can get Ghosts of Tsushima or God of War for PS5 on a physical disk, but I can't buy them on Steam. Sony even has official stores where they sell PS5 in some of these countries, including mine. That looks incredibly strange. I wonder what Sony is trying to achieve. Apparently, they think that the end justifies the means. I guess we'll find out soon enough. I'd bet on an independent PC store.

Rockstar, EA, Ubisoft, Epic, Blizzard and probably some more all make you use their launcher/account as well. Sony doing it is no different. Doesn’t make it the nice thing to do but it’s the sad reality of PC gaming. The price of flexibility is having to deal with tons of accounts (or piracy).

I think it's a stupid hill to die on. You have EA, Ubisoft, Epic, gog, steam, and even 2k and GTA accounts but this is where you draw the line? Come on, that's just stupid. I would also point out that those also have games that not only require the associated account but also the associated launcher and for single player games.

I get that there are people that can't purchase the games due to region restrictions on psn accounts, but this is quite possibly the most hypocritical and idiotic circle jerk I've ever seen in PC gaming.

More sick of outrage bait title gore where everything is either a slam or a "forced down throat" personally. But it is annoying.

I honestly could give a shit. You think games don't report telematics internally back to devs? Who share them with publishers anyways?

Valve has so much telematicd data on you it's insane. Same with other companies. Sony just isn't good at burying the lead.

At the end of the day it's the same as a GOG Account, an Epic Login, or a Ubisoft Account. They all exist and we lost this fight when we allowed giant super publishers to merge and control distribution, and when no alternative to steam has ever got off the ground.

Say what you will about Epic, but it is by f as R the closest anything is to breaking Valve's iron grip, and it's still a distant second place also ran.

So yea, Sony requires a login. I wish they didn't, but literally everything does besides GOG. They all use Denuvo and DRM and lock the exe to the client. Sony doing it to run their leaderboards at least makes some sense.