The dust hasn't even settled on the Helldivers 2 debacle, which saw Sony reverse course on its widely panned PSN requirement to play the game, and already the PS5 maker is in hot water yet again. Steam, Epic, and Green Man Gaming are reportedly canceling and auto-refunding preorders of Sony's PC port of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, set to release on May 16, for buyers who live in over 170 countries without PSN access, Eurogamer reports.
This particularly comes as a surprise given the disclaimer the game's developer gave last week after Helldivers 2 was abruptly delisted on Steam in 177 countries where the PlayStation Network isn't available. Ghost of Tsushima only requires PSN account linking for its Legends multiplayer mode; "it is not required to play the singleplayer game," Sucker Punch Productions went out of its way to say in a recent X post. Online storefronts like Steam, Green Man Gaming, and Epic Games Store each had similar disclaimers.
With that in mind, you'd think players who didn't care about multiplayer modes and solely wanted to experience the single-player campaign (i.e. the bulk of the game) could still play. But in reality, that's not the case. Over the weekend, Steam delisted Ghost of Tsushima in the same 177 countries where players cannot legally sign up for PSN. Those who had already preordered Ghost of Tsushima on PC began receiving automatic refunds.
Per The Verge, the Steam team is sending the following message to players who are being refunded: "You are receiving a refund for a game you pre-purchased - Ghost of Tsushima. The publisher of this game is now requiring a secondary account to play portions of this game - and this account cannot be created from your country."
There's been no official word from Sony, Steam, or Sucker Punch itself about the automatic refunds, but the game's subreddit is being flooded with complaints from players who pre-ordered the game only to find that their order was canceled. It's unclear whether the storefronts are delisting the game and issuing refunds on their own or if Sony is instructing them to do so.
Sony's rollout of mandatory PSN linking has been nothing short of disastrous. But this case seems significantly more cut and dry than what happened with Helldivers 2 — and it underlines Sony's growing pains as it shifts to porting more of its title to PC.
One aspect Sony didn't seem to anticipate is that Steam, and by extension, Helldivers 2 on PC, were available in more countries than PSN. So Sony's mandate to link to a PSN account, which came out three months after the game's release, meant that players in non-PSN-supported regions could get locked out of a game they had paid for and been playing. Following widespread backlash and review bombing, Sony walked back the change. Despite that, Helldivers 2 remains delisted on Steam in 177 countries where players cannot legally sign up for PSN.
Sony's previous PC ports like God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn were single-player only, so linking a PSN account wasn't required. Given that Ghost of Tsushima has a multiplayer mode, it's likely Sony is trying to get ahead of the issue before we see a repeat of what happened with Helldivers 2. At the same time, Sony announced the PC port of Ghost of Tsushima back in March. It's undeniably frustrating for players to learn a game they've had preordered for months is now no longer available in their country for reasons beyond their control. And within a week of its release, no less.
