Is a PSN account ACTUALLY required? ANSWER: Kind of!

[CheeseBoar]

FINAL EDIT, PROBABLY: I kind of found an answer to my own question! You can check it out in the comment I left here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2322010/discussions/0/4843147760499825346/?ctp=9#c4843147950368848211

TL,DR: You do need to log into a PlayStation account, but only a single time. After that, you can log out and stay logged out, and the game will still work.

Here's the original post in its entirety:

I'm looking for a definitive answer on this, because I've heard so many conflicting answers already. I came across this stream:

https://www.youtube.com/live/5BQSPmhQJnY?si=9YH19N5q86mhbje7

...and he clearly isn't logged into a PlayStation account, as you can see on the title screen (where it says "Sign Into PlayStation"), but he's able to play. Other people have said that they get a pop-up saying that a PSN account must be linked to Steam, or the game can't be played.

EDIT: So, it's becoming pretty clear that the PlayStation account requirement is seemingly *completely random.* Some people are forced to log in or get booted to the desktop, and others can just play without ever having had a PlayStation account to begin with. I thought this was a regional thing, but it seems to be differing even for people in the same region.

EDIT 2: I've come to the conclusion that a PlayStation account is absolutely required, there's no way around it. *Linking* the accounts is optional, but the game won't let you even get to the title screen until you've logged into a PlayStation account either via this game or another one.

EDIT 3: Okay, so... I just manually logged out of my PlayStation account using the PlayStation overlay accessed from within the game, and I can still play, even if I exit the game and start it again, online or offline. Even after exiting the game and starting it again, I was able to play without logging in, when yesterday, I was blocked from playing until I logged in again after a restart.

[kartelusm]

Escrito originalmente por Longy999:

And I got the mod files downloaded and put in place within 2 minutes. Not missing out on anything, enjoying the game and no worries about data breaches either

if it has to come to this, might as well not spend the money on a single player game. I mean, one way or another you're introducing 3rd party stuff, be it an exe or a process injecting dll.
The difference here is that the high seas version also solves all the problems for ~120 countries that can't buy the game at all.

Escrito originalmente por Boogaloo:

Protect your account with 2FA you goon.

2FA, while objectively safer, is by no means a 100% protection. You would be surprised at the number of people getting their 2FA protected accounts hacked every day.

[vanetz]

To all the tryhards (with an "R") asking "wHaTs wRoNg WiTh tHaT?" - I can't even see the game's store page, because even though I live in Europe and can go to the store right now and buy a brand new PlayStation 5 PRO for a measly 879 euros - I CAN NOT CREATE A PSN ACCOUNT BECAUSE MY COUNTRY IS NOT IN "THE LIST"

Also pretty sure that PSN bypass mod was removed by the mod's author because it was so popular, he got spooked that Sony was gonna come for him (and he's right)

God I hate the state of videogame industry right now

[AstroAss]

Escrito originalmente por SoloMan:

OMG they will get your email address and name.....nothing anyone can't get anywhere else, what have you got worth stealing? You looking at dodgy sites that we can use to blackmail you with? You have a steam account, its the same info

Ok, genius...
In the UK and Ireland you need to "verify your age" when creating a PSN account. Which means you need to either use some BS app to "scan your face" (whatever that means) or send a 3rd party service your PASSPORT. That's a bit more than a name and email for some of us, wouldn't you say?

We done, or do you need more reasons why people dislike PSN? (almost 200 countries barred where previously they could buy the first GoW and Horizon games, the data leaks, it being a terrible thing for PC and game preservation, data mining to bolster stupid PSN user numbers for shareholders, etc)

And that "what have you got worth stealing" remark is just extremely wrong and stupid on so many levels that my comment would just end up heavily censored here, so I'll let you imagine what I think of it for yourself. People like you are just rage-inducing, how can one be so uneducated and oversimplify everything is beyond me.

[Average Cox Gaming]

Escrito originalmente por SoloMan:

I'm not a sony fanboy but I am a non-♥♥♥♥♥♥ argument boy, it takes 4mins at the max to create an account, if you can't be bothered with that then you miss out on this great game....easy maths for me, apparently you guys have an issue with 4mins of time and sharing data that you already have shared via steam

Yea, it's solely the principle for me. I don't want to play it that bad. If it was a multiplayer only game, sure. It's single player and offline.

[Anthem]

Going to throw my two cents in here.
I initially opened and played the game and got a 'would you like to link your account'. I said no, and it worked fine.
After seeing something about other Sony games with PSN logins potentially allowing you through, I had a look at my other games and saw that Returnal was linked. I unlinked Returnal and opened God of War Ragnarok.
Lo and behold, I was asked to link my PSN account and it would not allow me to continue until I linked it again.

[Anthem]

I relinked Returnal and GOW;R allowed me back to the title screen and to continue.

[CheeseBoar]

Yeah, I think logging in or out of one PlayStation game affects all of them. The same thing happened to me when I logged into the multiplayer portion of Ghost of Tsushima to test all of this.

[^;..;^ | ViralOmega]

PSN bypass mod https://www.nexusmods.com/godofwarragnarok/mods/51?tab=description

[KarlThorsten89]

The correct phrasing is "Terms of Surrender." Sony does NOT offer "Service" of any kind.

[CheeseBoar]

Escrito originalmente por ^..^ | ViralOmega:

PSN bypass mod https://www.nexusmods.com/godofwarragnarok/mods/51?tab=description

Yeah, the mod exists, and it's good that it does; I'm actually curious to know if it works with every PlayStation game, since it's modifying the PlayStation SDK and not the game itself. But it's still nice to know how this stuff actually works.