It’s been a roller coaster of a week for Sony Interactive Entertainment, all thanks to the unforced error made with Helldivers 2. Out of the blue, the company, through developer Arrowhead, decided that all PC players would need to create a PlayStation Network account and link it to their Steam account if they want to continue playing.
PSN account-linking has been an option since the launch of the game, but suddenly making it a requirement rubbed people the wrong way, not least because many simply cannot create a PSN account, as the service is not available where they live. Sony was so committed to the move, it had to pull the game off sale from more than 170 countries where PSN is not available.
Needless to say, the backlash has been massive, sending the game’s Steam review score tumbling and causing an overwhelmingly negative response everywhere. While many players were rightly fuming, some turned their attention to the other major Sony PC release on the horizon: Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut.
Ghost of Tsushima’s long-awaited launch on PC is only a few days away, dropping on May 17 across Steam and the Epic Games Store. This is all well and good, until you remember that Tsushima is Sony’s first PC game to implement the PlayStation overlay directly into the game, effectively turning your PC into a PS5. This lets you earn Trophies, and it is required for the game’s Legends online mode, which supports cross-play with PS4/5.
Seemingly spooked by the Helldivers 2 backlash, players started wondering whether the same PSN account linking policy would also affect Tsushima, especially since this is a primarily single-player game. In response to fans, developer Sucker Punch clarified on Twitter that while you will need to link your Steam and PSN accounts to play Legends online mode (and access the fancy new overlay), the single-player mode has no such requirement.
Requiring PSN account linking to play Legends is understandable, especially given the online mode’s support for cross-play. At the very least, this is being made clear ahead of release, and not months after players bought the game.
The good news continues, too, because the Helldivers 2 situation that caused all this drama appears to have been resolved. Earlier today, Sony walked back the PSN account linking requirement for Helldivers 2, so hopefully this will teach the publisher to have a little more tact in the future.
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut launches May 16 on PC.