The Helldivers 2 PSN debacle might be over, but a similar requirement is restricting access to Ghost of Tsushima's PC port in over 170 territories.
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut is due to launch on PC next week, on May 16, though the open-world samurai romp has been removed from Steam in almost 180 countries worldwide because the game's online co-op mode requires players to link to an active PlayStation Network account, which is impossible in many countries due to lacking PSN access.
SteamDB shows that 'purchase restricted countries' were added to Ghost of Tsushima’s listings earlier this week with many affected players reporting that Steam has automatically refunded their purchase of the game.
Developer Sucker Punch previously tried to clarify its account-linking plans, explaining that a "PSN account is required for Legends online multiplayer mode and to use PlayStation overlay." No PSN account-linking is required to jump into the game's singleplayer portion though, as is the case with other PlayStation-published PC ports.
When Helldivers 2 announced that a PSN account would be mandatory months after launch, enraged players protested with over 200,000 negative reviews hitting the game's storefront page. Complaints stemmed from data harvesting worries, an unclear "grace period," and the fact that the game was pulled from over 170 countries where it had previously been available. Sony eventually backed down and scrapped the mandate.
The publisher seems to be doing a better job at communicating Ghost of Tsushima's requirements, but locking out global players to boost PSN account numbers is still not ideal. Sony's PC efforts might be continuing with an "imminent" God of War: Ragnarok port announcement, so we'll see what the future looks like for their multiplatform push.
Helldivers 2 was just pulled from Steam in three more countries without PSN access.
