The Last of Us Part II requires a PSN account to play on PC, making it unplayable in over 100 countries
.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp&w=780&resize=780,470&ssl=1 "The Last of Us Part II requires a PSN account to play on PC, making it unplayable in over 100 countries")
Got a nugget or two in your morning coffee? Okay, here’s one. Sony says you’ll need to link to a PlayStation Network account to play The Last of Us Part II on PC. Video Games Chronicle reported on the requestSure enough, the Steam page for the third-person Fungus Fighter “Remastered Edition” includes a footnote in the game description confirming this in simple terms: “PlayStation Network account required.” For many this is just a minor annoyance, for others it more likely means the game simply won’t be available in your country. Sony’s reasons for enforcing this requirement remain unclear.
The requirement to require a PSN account to play certain games on PC has caused controversy after Sony attempted to impose the requirement on Hellraiser 2 players, who were so annoyed that the game was banned on Steam Comment bombed. In this case, the decision was overturned.
Sony has since implemented forced account linking in an irregular manner. Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t need it, but God of War Ragnarock does. Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t mandate this, but attempts to sweeten the deal by offering bonus cosmetics for players who link their Steam and PSN accounts. Now it seems Sony is confident that The Last of Us Part II Remastered is big enough to elicit nothing but annoyed exclamations when it comes to the request.
One of the biggest reasons why this forced account smoothing annoys people is that it means the game won’t be available in certain countries where PSN can’t operate for legal or business reasons. Insider Gaming has compiled a list of countries without PSN. In Europe alone, the list includes the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Moldova, Georgia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. If you live in one of these places without PSN, you basically can’t play the affected games. This is despite the fact that many games are single-player.
As for the reason behind it, well. Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki recently addressed the requirement during an investor call, saying that completing account linking “is so that anyone can safely enjoy games” (VG247 reported). But it’s hard to explain it. The more likely reason comes down to digital rights management – they want players online so they can check if the game is a legal copy. This has become such a dogmatic part of their legal and technical processes that it now requires cutting off the entire market. Excluding entire countries from possible sales just to enforce DRM policies seems like a foolish strategy, but businesses are cash beasts and don’t necessarily value certain country sales figures (projected or actual of).
All in all, this is another example of corporate interests making everyone worse off, thanks to arcane legalities and unseen business arithmetic. For more news and information, please continue reading our website. I promise some of the lumps are actually good.
