Sony’s controversial PlayStation Network requirement for its PC games is once again in the spotlight after the company delisted the original Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam and the Epic Games Store and added the PSN requirement to the upcoming single-player remaster.
Nah, they said sorry, they didn't do anything different. They still restricted the purchase regions of the game to those that can get PSN. I expect a return of the PSN requirement for Helldivers 2 eventually.
WHY TF IS HORIZON ZERO DAWN GETTING AN REMASTER!?!?!
WHAT IS THE POINT?
What stupid idiot thought this was a good idea????
And that bloody price tag!
€50 for accessibility features and slightly better performance? Why... Why is this a successful way to make money? ...
I... I'm sad now.
Sadly, based on reviews for the game on GOG, while the game is technically DRM-free (in that it doesn't Emily any of the traditional DRM like Denuvo), it still requests either full or limited data collection.
It requests it but doesn't require it. True, you need to select "limited" or "full" but you could just disable the network or firewall it. I run it in a container without networking on linux mint and it works perfectly.
Problem is, the games are fun.
Had a hell of a time with the second game, and unleashed the 100%er in me
Edit:
The games are genuinely high quality, with interesting and constantly evolving mechanics and often good stories.
That's not something you see in big titles anymore.
I don't see how they could capitalize on this specific bullshit other than to just keep on keeping on and not joining Sony in requiring a new login for a service you, as a PC player, might not even give a shit about.
Unless they can get away with porting Bloodborne to PC or something... 🤔
They're competing with PC now and simultaneously trying to turn this into a vector to convert people to PS5. It won't work, but the fact that there are PC versions at all show how they can't just do what they want with impunity.
It'll be interesting to see what Sony will do considering they're not going to pull PC players to PS and PC ports open to door to piracy which is definitely going to increase with the PSN shit. I doubt the PSN data is so valuable they're just going to let people pirate their games. Either they're going to pull out the PC market to prevent piracy or they're going to get rid of the PSN for PC. The latter makes too much sense so it's probably going to be the former.
Sony has sold double the consoles this generation (60 vs 30 million I think). And the Series S is very unpopular with devs, increasing the complexity of developing games for Xbox to get just half the PS market.
Game Pass is popular, but it’s just one stream of revenue, and a lot people are only using it on PC. Sony is selling consoles, 70 EUR games, and in addition their own subscriptions.
I understand MS’s strategy, and maybe this was the best they could have done for this gen, but Sony and Nintendo is dominating console gaming, with MS lagging far behind.