Like most PlayStation first-party games, God of War Ragnarök requires a PSN account. A fact that we've known about since the State of Play earlier this year, alongside a short blog post that mentions this in italics at the bottom of the page. But just because it hasn't come as a surprise doesn't mean that players are happy with this outcome.
God of War: Ragnarök is currently at a "mixed" review status on Steam, thanks to some players review bombing the game. "PSN requirement is ridiculous," one review says. "It's a shame. I'm a big fan of the God of War series, but I'm not on board with this ransom approach."
Although some are willing to look the other way, that is, if Sony adheres to a short set of demands: "Sony has managed to really piss off pc gamers with this one. They need to do something to make amends with the pc community. First, they need to backtrack on this PSN thing—then, they can announce Bloodborne for pc. If they do this, we'll forgive them. Now, where did I put that copium?"
The biggest gripe most opponents of PSN accounts have, and the argument that they run with, is that this requirement can block a chunk of players from accessing the game. If your country doesn't have PSN available, then you won't be able to play any of these PC ports. "Man, it really sucks to live in a country that was able to buy these games and then just slowly get that stripped away," one player says. "All while being told, 'Well, it's not X's fault, it's Ys,' like at the end of the day, I can't legally play the game. It doesn't really matter whose fault it is."
This issue has even driven some to attempt to mod their way out of needing a PSN account, albeit pretty unsuccessfully. There are a few mods that claim to allow users to bypass signing into a PSN account, but this certainly isn't a long-term solution. A lot of the comments point out that the success rate is patchy, and the future doesn't look too bright: "Judging by how quickly Sony is patching the game to fix certain vulnerabilities, you've got a lot of work ahead of you to keep this mod up to date. But hey, we're all rooting for you to make it. To hell with the PSN account requirement."
History often repeats itself, but this storyline is a tad overused. Similar problems occurred in Helldivers 2 as Sony introduced a PSN requirement after the game was released, meaning that some players who had already purchased it and even played it were stripped of access if they lived in countries with no PSN access. This resulted in swarms of players running to review bomb Helldivers 2 on Steam, after which Arrowhead enacted a lengthy cleanup mission to claw its way back into players' good books.
It was the same story with Ghost of Tsushima's PC port, even though you only really needed a PSN account if you wanted to play multiplayer. But unless you're someone directly affected by a lack of PSN access in your country, then signing into a PSN account or linking the accounts isn't an end-of-the-world scenario.
To be fair, a lot of players are very aware of this, and a growing number of God of War: Ragnarök's Steam reviews reflect an appreciation of the game or actually bring up genuine complaints like technical issues leading to it crashing. And if you look at Steam's Top Sellers, you'll see God of War: Ragnarök sitting at number nine, so there's clearly a shedload of people who aren't having issues with PSN accounts at all.
