Sony finally surrenders: PSN accounts will be 'optional' for games on Steam, but they'll give you free stuff if you sign up

www.pcgamer.com Sony finally surrenders: PSN accounts will be 'optional' for games on Steam including Spider-Man 2 and The Last of Us Part 2, but they'll give you free stuff if you sign up

The stick didn't work out super well, so now it's time for the carrot.

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Great, now when will they restore the games for the rest of the world? They've been removed on Steam since forcing PS accounts.
- I've lost track, is Helldiver's 2 still PSN optional but still unavailable in non-PSN regions?
  
  As I understand it, there's not currently a PSN restriction on Helldivers 2. Valve themselves blocked it because Sony was making no promises that it would continue to be a legal and playable purchase in outside countries.
  I would guess Sony may still have to convince Valve to increase the game's availability. To sell a product that will remain usable, Valve needs a better commitment/promise than "We'we so sowwy consumews, we pwomise we won't do it again." Probably some kind of contract.
  
  To my understanding that's not valves responsibility (i dont have a source). It wouldnt make sense for valve to be required to make those changes themselves, the publisher would be responsible for making those edits.
  I could only imagine all the problems if Valve accidentally restricted/allowed certain regions and got constant sued over it.
  
  To try to explain this better, imagine this:
  You're browsing Steam. You find "ULTIMATE Inchworm Arena", a strange but fun-looking online multiplayer arena. You buy it, and download it. The game then says "Welcome to Inchworm Arena! To certify yourself for online play, you must provide One MoistCoin, a cryptocurrency obtainable only in the Republic of Kongo!" None of this was clear from the Steam store page. The developer support response is less than helpful.
  Would you continue protesting the developers, or would you blame Valve for presenting this obvious worthless scam game as an offering on Steam? By putting it on their store, Steam asserts some level of responsibility that the game in question is actually playable, and doesn't contain critical bugs; like failing to start up, or having a user license agreement that its lawyers did not think through.
  When this happened for Helldivers, it was Valve that restricted their access because Sony didn't even know what they were doing on the PC store, and hadn't thought through that players had no legal avenue to play in some countries. Valve does not want to be put through more cases of user customer support complaining to them, and wants to ensure certain behavior from their game vendors to ensure that doesn't happen.
  
  It shouldn’t be, but here’s the thing. Valve isn’t distributing games out of the goodness of their own heart. They don’t want to have to process refunds for every person who buys it and realizes they aren’t allowed to play it. That’s just a waste of time and money for them. And Sony hasn’t invested in a launcher and store of their own on PC, so they’ve got no choice but to obey whatever conditions Valve puts on the sale of their games, unless they want to pause until they get a storefront up.
  
  that's not valves responsibility (i dont have a source)
  Hehehe
  
  Valve does not limit you in where your game is sold, the publisher of the game has to set this and the publisher for Helldivers 2 is PlayStation Publishing LLC.
  
  Valve absolutely limits the sale of people’s games.
  Usually, this would come in the case of “Hey, this game doesn’t work, we’re taking it out of sale everywhere.” But with Helldivers 2 being so popular and high profile, that wouldn’t have been a good look for Valve. Instead, they limited the zone of sale to prevent customer support complaints.
  Sony was limiting where you could legally sign up for PSN and thus play the game, not where you could buy it off Steam. That was a conflict of their own mismanagement and inexperience selling on PCs. Had they been smarter, they would have restricted regions to begin with and there might have been less outcry, but poor planning caused Valve’s parental slap.

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