this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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Helldivers 2

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 58 points 6 months ago (18 children)

So let's see if I've got the situation surrounded here:

Helldivers 2 = popular game built by a mid-sized studio under parent company Sony Fuckwits International. Well liked game, lots of people playing and enjoying it having purchased it on Steam for PC.

Sony Fuckwits International decides after loads of copies have been sold on Steam that a Playstation account is now required, including for copies of the game sold in regions where Playstation accounts aren't allowed.

Helldivers 2 sees a catastrophic drop in reviews, Valve starts issuing refunds outside their normal refund range, and Sony Fuckwits International spends an entire week getting cornholed by the gaming press. The CEO of the smaller studio makes some press releases sounding just as upset as the gamers, almost saying "Things were going so great until ultimate retardation descended from on high."

The backlash was apparently going to effect investor returns this quarter so they have reversed the decision. This is what it takes to keep companies like Sony in check.

This is the sort of thing that should make everyone everywhere really think twice about ordering that shiny new PS6 when it comes out in what? 1 or 2 years?

I've been seeing a lot of this stuff in the gaming news lately. Helldivers 2 has been a big one, I think Kerbal Space Program 2 has outright died, like the parent company fired the team who were making it? And I'm a little nervous about Coffee Stain Studios, the latest update video from Satisfactory's community manager Snutt contained some noise about parent companies and restructuring that had that distinct smell of yacht polish and trafficked children that always follows upper management bullshittery.

[–] atocci@kbin.social 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

The only thing I would say isn't 100% correct here is that the decision to require a Playstation account was made 6 months before the game launched, not after. Technical issues prevented the game from launching with the requirement actually implemented though, and from the abruptness of the original announcement, I would guess that the developers are the ones who actually had their "grace period" from Sony to get it implemented expire.

[–] krampus@ani.social -4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

if that were so, why go through the trouble of translating the game to Russian / Chinese? no psn there. Incompetant greed, thru n thru.

[–] Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Lots of people have primary languages that don't align with where they live, actually

[–] krampus@ani.social 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I could appreciate your point if they didn't region lock the localizations. Try downloading the japanese I'll wait.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Japanese is region locked because of something to do with licensing around the VAs I believe, like they'd have had to pay a lot more to distribute it internationally

Also, Russian and Chinese aren't region locked, so their point is still completely valid

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