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Helldivers 2 will soon require all Steam players to sign in with a PlayStation Network account

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Are we talking about playing the game on Sony’s platform or a PC? One of the reasons people are happy to play on PC is the fact they don’t need to buy a PlayStation or an Xbox.

Again, it’s perfectly fine to support what Sony is doing from a business perspective while opposing it from a consumer perspective.

As a consumer at some point you have to acknowledge that what you are partaking in is a business. Some things are terrible and we should hate it. But this? Is it really THAT bad?
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
As a consumer at some point you have to acknowledge that what you are partaking in is a business.
Absolutely agree, which is why this game is not F2P but costs money. What Sony could do is charge extra and allow you not to make a PSN account, but that will not pass for strategy reasons. Plus imagine the embarrassment if that MTX would be popular.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
Code:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231207163847/https://store.steampowered.com/app/553850/HELLDIVERS_2/
Requires 3rd-Party Account: PlayStation Network
December 2023.
January 2024
Well shit. Their it is...
Was it their when Sony decided to remove it?

However I can still see from the view point of why people are pissed.
Your data is getting sold whilst having no hand jobs for it.
 

Gudji

Member
Awkward Season 4 GIF by The Office
 

Mr Moose

Member
Well shit. Their it is...
Was it their when Sony decided to remove it?

However I can still see from the view point of why people are pissed.
Your data is getting sold whilst having no hand jobs for it.
It's always had it on the page (or at least since late last year, doesn't seem it was there mid-2023), but was apparently disabled in the game after launch. Not sure what kind of issues they were having with it.
 

Three

Member
Because GFWL required to have a Microsoft account which linked to other Microsoft services which to this day still work. FH5 didn't introduce this, GFWL did and there were a myriad of games that had this requirement so why would you expect FH5 to get review bombed when for one, it was there from the game's launch, and for two, dozens of games before it had the requirement. This meant most players already had an Xbox/Microsoft account anyway.
But GFWL didn't require a MS account, it was a separate account and was never linked to steam. It never had any integration with steam for anything (crossplay, trophy /achievements) . The initial third party account link to a MS account on Steam was I believe not a GFWL game, it was Minecraft (could be wrong, certainly wasn't a GFWL game though) which obviously didn't get review bombed. This would be like saying people should have got used to an SEN account from all the Sony PC games in the past. Not really.
Third-party accounts or launchers make no difference. The problem is the same; signing up for yet another service that may or may not be intrusive and players just aren't down with that. I've had a PSN account since 2007 so I don't really care but if I didn't, I'd get annoyed by having to sign up for another account. Steam, GOG, Ubisoft Connect, EA Play, Xbox Live, Battle.net, Epic, WOW, Square Enix, and I'm probably forgetting a few more. People just don't have patience for this, especially when it wasn't enforced but now is.
Yeah, annoyance I can understand throwing a fit here and review bombing I can't especially while happily playing other games you signed up to an account for no problem. It probably takes more time to review bomb and complain here than it does just creating an account much like they have for their other games.

Very similar situations happened with Borderlands 2 and Rocket League, that also retroactively began enforcing third party accounts followed by subsequent insatisfaction and review bombing.
That one's easy,

PC gamers when a MS game needs a MS account: 👍
PC gamers when an Epic game needs an Epic account: 🤬

We know how much Steam users love Epic. Epic added those. Guess what other game got bought and retroactively began enforcing a MS account? Minecraft. Nothing happened though. Those games didn’t even have the "Third party account required" warning when purchasing. Now this is some huge deal.
 
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lifa-cobex

Member
It's always had it on the page (or at least since late last year, doesn't seem it was there mid-2023), but was apparently disabled in the game after launch. Not sure what kind of issues they were having with it.
I can imagine that's where the argument would stem from.
Like you've posted. It's their on the page but you can't remove it and then re-introduce it later on without any warnings.

As I said. I purchased it a week or so after and I didn't see any prompts about it.

PC players are defensive about their economy.
They have a right to be too imo. They've been fucked over too many times in the past.
 

omegasc

Member
All I can really think off are the 100+ countries the game is sold in that don't have an official psn service available to sign up to
Just create a US account, or any other supported country. Unless you can't link accounts for different countries, it's a non-issue.
 

Three

Member
MS literally lost a entire storefront despite it containing most of the releases at the time, that's how much people hate them. Try again.
Nobody is talking about their store, we're talking about account linking on a steam game. So because MS failed with their own store account linking on other stores was considered OK? What a take. I guess for it to be OK something playstation must simply fail elsewhere, what logic, amazing.

Besides when they added Minecraft MS account linking retroactively their bad store had already failed a long time ago.
 
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ManaByte

Banned
Here's some talking points for the Sony defence squad.



The very least it should allow cross-progression. I refunded the Steam version because it's useless to link if you have two separate Helldivers on PC and console. That's the bare minimum requirement of a cross-platform GaaS.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Nobody is talking about their store, we're talking about account linking on a steam game. So because MS failed with their own store account linking on other stores was considered OK? What a take. I guess for it to be OK something playstation must simply fail, what logic, amazing.
They had an upwards progression from "MS games can only be bought on MS store" -> "You can get MS games on steam with a MS account". Helldivers 2 evolved backwards, which obviously creates more backlash. How many times do i have to say this, and how many times will you keep ignoring it?

And if you want more examples, look up Doom Eternal and Bethesda Account.
Besides when they added Minecraft MS account linking their bad store had already failed a long time ago.
Minecraft isn't even on Steam.
 

winjer

Member
Some you can disable if I remember correctly, like EA and Ubisoft ones. For Steam you just set to manual.

That is not how to control the Steam helper service.
Run MSconfig. Then pick the Services tab. Disable the "Steam Client Service"
Restart Windows. Now try to run Steam and see the error it gives.
 

FunkMiller

Member
PC gamers: this is dumb and unnecessary

This is surely the key point, isn't it? Whether it's a hassle to create a PSN account or not (it's not really) it's still completely unnecessary, and is only happening to help Sony.

Why are so many gamers okay with giving a pass to stuff that only benefits the games companies, and not gamers?
 
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People love crying over bullshit. Literally takes 2 minutes to create a free PSN account and you don't even have to use your main email, a burner email account will do.

I swear gamers are a bunch of fucking crybabies. EA, Ubisoft, MS all required me to make accounts when I bought their games on Steam. I didn't cry, I took 2 minutes to make the accounts and kept on gaming. The people crying over the info being stolen are on some bullshit. You don't need to link a real email or bank account to a PSN. You don't even need to use your real name or address. This outrage is just plain stupid lol.
 
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BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
It was your thread that told us we needed one on here.

If it was there at launch like everyone thought initially it would be way less of an annoyance. I have a PSN profile and don’t really care so long as I only have to login once, but I can also see why people are miffed.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
That is not how to control the Steam helper service.
Run MSconfig. Then pick the Services tab. Disable the "Steam Client Service"
Restart Windows. Now try to run Steam and see the error it gives.
Run services.msc -> set "Steam Client Service" to "Manual".

But GFWL didn't require a MS account
It did if you wanted to play online. I created one for Gears of War.
 
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panda-zebra

Member
This is surely the key point, isn't it? Whether it's a hassle to create a PSN account or not (it's not really) it's still completely unnecessary, and is only happening to help Sony.
Not sure it's only to help Sony.

Players on PC have been cheating and calling in stratagems that don't exist from maybe as far back as the week the game came out, ruining things for everyone else. In-game friends management has also been iffy since launch week with people stuck in friends or unable to be added. If making the game work the way it was advertised to from before launch all the way through to today helps combat the cheaters and make friends actually work as it should, it's better for everyone. It's not just about some statto at Sony wanting MOAR MAUs.
 

winjer

Member
That services tabs isn't for managing startup programs. If you disable it all you're doing is blocking the service from ever running - which will obviously prevent steam from working.

You have to do as rodrigolfp rodrigolfp said (i believe there's the option on steam settings as well) if you want to prevent it from running on startup.

MSConfig doesn't disable programs or services from ever running.
It's a form of managing what programs and services startup with Windows.


Let me quote Microsoft:

MSConfig is a good, versatile tool for managing the startup process on your computer.
Third Tab manages the Startup services.

Image


You can check the services you want to run at startup and uncheck the ones you don't.

If you want to see only third-party services, installed by your applications, check the box which says "Hide all Microsoft services".
 

Jinzo Prime

Member
This is going to slow the sales and overall momentum of the game. If it wasn't for the kernel level anti-cheat, I would have bought it already. This move just makes it even less likely I'll bother.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
MSConfig doesn't disable programs or services from ever running.
It's a form of managing what programs and services startup with Windows.
MSconfig only can disable some startup programs. Services.msc gives you more control over services and some startup programs. There you can set programs to "Manual" that allows programs like Steam Client Service only run when you run Steam.
 
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