Why is a PSN account required for a singleplayer game?

[Chizzit]

I was looking into the remaster some, as I played the original many years ago and liked it as I am thinking of playing the second game at some point, and saw PSN was a requirement.

Why?

[deepcapture]

Publicado originalmente por Ordisoftware:

Publicado originalmente por deepcapture:

The only thing that slightly concerns me about the PSN thing is that if they release future multiplayer games on PC, this might enable them to paywall multiplayer like they do on playstation.

As a neuroatypical due to deafness caused by villains, I am unable to know if this is sarcasm or ignorance, or worse.

It's exactly as it reads... Or did they stop hiding MP behind PS Plus subs?

[Tyrant Slayer]

its to increase the player count and show the investors that PlayStation is still strong despite the console market slowly dying

[Sedgendary]

Publicado originalmente por deepcapture:

Publicado originalmente por Ordisoftware:

As a neuroatypical due to deafness caused by villains, I am unable to know if this is sarcasm or ignorance, or worse.

It's exactly as it reads... Or did they stop hiding MP behind PS Plus subs?

Considering Microsoft doesn't restrict MP behind GamePass I highly doubt PS will be the first to do so

[zpc]

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

its to increase the player count and show the investors that PlayStation is still strong despite

^ This. It has no value for the customer (as in those who pay money for the product) and should be avoided. As in not buy products which force you to do stuff like that.

[Tyrant Slayer]

Publicado originalmente por zpc:

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

its to increase the player count and show the investors that PlayStation is still strong despite

^ This. It has no value for the customer (as in those who pay money for the product) and should be avoided. As in not buy products which force you to do stuff like that.

And in the process alienating the countries without PSN

[Veotax]

Publicado originalmente por Sedgendary:

Publicado originalmente por deepcapture:

It's exactly as it reads... Or did they stop hiding MP behind PS Plus subs?

Considering Microsoft doesn't restrict MP behind GamePass I highly doubt PS will be the first to do so

Microsoft already tried to. The original Games for Windows Live for Windows Vista required a paid Xbox Live subscription to play games like Halo 2 and Shadowrun online. It didn't go very well and was eventually dropped.
Games for Windows Live was a disaster in general and was dropped after a while.

Wouldn't put it past either Microsoft or Sony trying it again if they thought they could get away with it. They probably couldn't though, can only get away with it on console since there's no choice for the user.

[Mav99]

Publicado originalmente por Ordisoftware:

Steam files checking is on demand, not on launch. I don't know if the PSN overlay checks the checksums when launching the game, but it seems theoretically implicit to me in light of the comments of a Sony boss.

Sorry to say that, but you come across as a bit naive, believing the nonsense said by some Sony boss without questioning it at all. You posted a link to that a while back and I read it. Everything he claimed in that interview was nothing but PR speech, conjuring up an explanation for the unpopular PSN requirement to soothe the outrage while still hiding the real reasons behind it.

Checking file integrity on the fly doesn't happen and it wouldn't make much sense either. Legitimate copies don't need it, illegal copies would have it removed. There is just NO PROTECTION there whatsoever, no matter what that Sony boss claimed.

Once again, the only form of "protection" that PSN can offer is to control access to online games and ban toxic users. By blocking offending users it might help to keep the online environment a little bit safer. Nothing more.

But again, the main purpose of PSN is to bring users into the Sony "world" and to provide data like user habits, what games they play, how long they play, and so on.

Publicado originalmente por Ordisoftware:

The fact of requiring a PSN account is as you say, a de facto guarantee of solvency: QED.

That makes no sense whatsoever. A legitimate copy would have already been paid for, long before PSN get's even installed.

Publicado originalmente por Ordisoftware:

Think about it: why would a big company deprive itself of revenue by saying it's to protect its customers?

Because they believe the value of "binding" users and the data they collect outweighs the potential loss of revenue...

To give you some other examples on how trustworthy big companies are:
Remember Diablo 3? At launch Blizzard claimed it was always-online because it required the servers to run as PCs couldn't handle it all on their own.
Then a while later, they released the Console versions. And - surprise - they could be played offline, proving that previous claims about servers being a necessity where nothing but lies.
The only reasons for the always-on requirement where copy protection and protecting the integrity of the auction house. Blizzard hoped to make money through cash transactions there. But it failed and the auction house was later removed but unfortunately the annoying always-on requirement remained.

EA/Maxis did something similar with Sim City, claiming the simulation was so complex it couldn't run without cloud services. Within the first week a mod appeared that disabled the server connection, proving that this was nothing but a lie as well. The simulation was laughable from the start and it took many patches in short succession to fix the shortcomings of traffic, NPCs and other issues. Another patch later added an official offline mode... proving again that the initial claims where mostly lies.

So much for the believability of big companies and their bosses...

[longjohn119]

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

its to increase the player count and show the investors that PlayStation is still strong despite the console market slowly dying

That has zero to do with it because Sony doesn't even list player numbers in their (mandatory) investor guidance reports, all they include are the dollar figures PSN brings in and since in this case no revenue is increased then it doesn't even show up.

Once again gamers' ignorance of how investing works is showing with disinformation like this. Sony's quarterly investor guidance reports are freely available just like every other publicly traded American corporation.

[Tyrant Slayer]

Publicado originalmente por longjohn119:

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

its to increase the player count and show the investors that PlayStation is still strong despite the console market slowly dying

That has zero to do with it because Sony doesn't even list player numbers in their (mandatory) investor guidance reports, all they include are the dollar figures PSN brings in and since in this case no revenue is increased then it doesn't even show up.

Once again gamers' ignorance of how investing works is showing with disinformation like this. Sony's quarterly investor guidance reports are freely available just like every other publicly traded American corporation.

ok then, how would you explain it? because it is obvious theyre doing it to boost numbers for investors, and for single player games too? PSN is not profitable and its losing customers. i may not know much about investing but the PSN requirement does boost that number slightly. and Sony is Japanese, not American

[Mav99]

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

ok then, how would you explain it?

Maybe they just want to know more about their PC users? Planning PC strategies?
Or maybe the rumors that they plan their own launcher are true? Testing the waters, establishing a user-base? Or they really do need it for investors, internally.
Who knows....

[jlntvoigt]

Thank you for asking, I'm new to Steam and do not know what that meant when I saw it as a notice for the Horizons game. I thought that having Steam avoided anything to do with game consoles and their accounts. Does this mean I now have to go and setup a PlayStation account? I feel that defeats the purpose of having Steam. Aside from not buying those type of games, is there another solution?

[longjohn119]

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

Publicado originalmente por longjohn119:

That has zero to do with it because Sony doesn't even list player numbers in their (mandatory) investor guidance reports, all they include are the dollar figures PSN brings in and since in this case no revenue is increased then it doesn't even show up.

Once again gamers' ignorance of how investing works is showing with disinformation like this. Sony's quarterly investor guidance reports are freely available just like every other publicly traded American corporation.

ok then, how would you explain it? because it is obvious theyre doing it to boost numbers for investors, and for single player games too? PSN is not profitable and its losing customers. i may not know much about investing but the PSN requirement does boost that number slightly. and Sony is Japanese, not American

No it is NOT OBVIOUS because the investors don't see those numbers and they don't really care anyway. All an investor cares about are the dollars figures and getting a return on their investment.

The reason Sony is doing this is because they are setting the stage to roll PC into the PlayStation ecosystem just like Microsoft has done with Game Pass. In dollar numbers PC out sells Playstation so by bringing the PC into the PlayStation ecosystem they could double their sales and double the number of people paying money. THAT is what investors care about, more money

[Sedgendary]

Publicado originalmente por longjohn119:

Publicado originalmente por Tyrant Slayer:

ok then, how would you explain it? because it is obvious theyre doing it to boost numbers for investors, and for single player games too? PSN is not profitable and its losing customers. i may not know much about investing but the PSN requirement does boost that number slightly. and Sony is Japanese, not American

No it is NOT OBVIOUS because the investors don't see those numbers and they don't really care anyway. All an investor cares about are the dollars figures and getting a return on their investment.

The reason Sony is doing this is because they are setting the stage to roll PC into the PlayStation ecosystem just like Microsoft has done with Game Pass. In dollar numbers PC out sells Playstation so by bringing the PC into the PlayStation ecosystem they could double their sales and double the number of people paying money. THAT is what investors care about, more money

If that was their motivation then adding a restriction like PSN doesn't make sense as it needlessly restricts that potential market.

[deepcapture]

Publicado originalmente por Sedgendary:

Publicado originalmente por longjohn119:

No it is NOT OBVIOUS because the investors don't see those numbers and they don't really care anyway. All an investor cares about are the dollars figures and getting a return on their investment.

The reason Sony is doing this is because they are setting the stage to roll PC into the PlayStation ecosystem just like Microsoft has done with Game Pass. In dollar numbers PC out sells Playstation so by bringing the PC into the PlayStation ecosystem they could double their sales and double the number of people paying money. THAT is what investors care about, more money

If that was their motivation then adding a restriction like PSN doesn't make sense as it needlessly restricts that potential market.

You are able to play without logging in to PSN, though, so it's not really a restriction. It's there on the menu and the game encourages you to join or login but it's not required.
I'm no big fan of 3rd party accounts, but I've seen far, far worse.

[Sedgendary]

Publicado originalmente por deepcapture:

Publicado originalmente por Sedgendary:

If that was their motivation then adding a restriction like PSN doesn't make sense as it needlessly restricts that potential market.

You are able to play without logging in to PSN, though, so it's not really a restriction. It's there on the menu and the game encourages you to join or login but it's not required.
I'm no big fan of 3rd party accounts, but I've seen far, far worse.

Store page says PSN account is required and fairly sure you have to log into it in the remastered version. Didn't bother me as I already had a PSN account from when I had a PS3 but PSN is not available in all countries so yes it is a restriction and that notice is not on Spiderman which has an optional PSN log in and specifies it is needed for the multiplayer on Ghost of Tsushima