Not long ago, I wrote about how Sony was squandering player goodwill with the Helldivers 2 debacle. The game publisher announced it would require Helldivers 2 players on PC to link their PSN accounts to Steam in order to keep playing the game. The only problem?
A lot of PC gamers either didn’t want to create a PSN account since they don’t own a PlayStation, or simply couldn’t because they lived in one of 177 different countries where that’s simply not possible. Sony ended up backtracking on the decision after enough bad press—and hundreds of thousands of negative Steam user reviews—forced their hand.
But the damage is done, and the good will has already been lost. One of the best PlayStation 4 games ever made, Ghost Of Tsushima, lands on Steam today and already the negative user reviews are in. From what I’ve perused so far, none of the negative reviews have anything to do with the gameplay or the game’s performance on Steam.
Instead, the negative reviews all focus on the PSN requirement. In the case of Ghost Of Tsushima, this was much better advertised. Helldivers 2 waived the requirement for several months before Sony made the announcement, which is largely why it was met with such enormous backlash. Ghost Of Tsushima makes it clear from the outset. It also makes it clear that the requirement is only for the multiplayer co-op portion of the game and the PlayStation overlay, which means you can play the entire single-player campaign—the vast bulk of the game—without a PSN account linked to your Steam account.
My hunch here is that had there never been a Helldivers 2 PSN controversy, and all the bad press that engendered, Ghost Of Tsushima’s PSN requirement would have flown mostly under the radar. Sony made this bed for themselves and now every one of their Steam releases that has multiplayer components will be hit with lots of negative reviews that focus solely on that.
It’s unfortunate timing. The game drops on Steam at the exact same time Ubisoft revealed the first Japanese Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. That game is already embroiled in controversy over one of its main protagonists, Yasuke, and Sony could have easily capitalized on that by making a big deal out of the Ghost Of Tsushima Steam launch. Instead, both games are bogged down in their very own controversies. And this is why we can’t have nice things.
Side-note: I don’t see any official reviews up for the game out on any gaming websites or YouTube, which makes me wonder if review codes were even sent out at all. That’s somewhat worrisome. I’ll have to take it for a spin and see what’s what.
