How is this legal?

[Sasha Mason]

Creating PSN accounts isn't possible in all countries.
The game didn't require one to play since launch.
People in those countries will effectively be banned out of the game they bought with this change.

How is this legal?

[EM-10]

That's the neat part, in several countries, it's not. Sony, the publisher, could have excluded Helldivers 2 from being purchased in countries (this game is not available in your country) where the Playstation Network does not function, such as The Philippines, Egypt, and The Baltic States. However, instead of doing that, Sony allowed the game to be sold in those countries. Since the PSN Account linking was "disabled temporarily" due to technical problems apparently, people in those countries purchased the game, possibly spent money on the game, played the game for months, and are now being told that they will be unable to continue playing the game.

It's very illegal to do this, and just having a thing on your page saying "The PSN is required" doesn't change that.

[Tigerhawk71]

It's very legal. They're not obligated to provide you a service and section 2 of the off-platform agreement also allows them to modify it at any time... and doesn't guarantee it'll remain available.

This is why Ubisoft can pull the crew and nothing happened (or will happen).

[Sasha Mason]

Oh, so its worse than I thought.
I thought it were just war affected countries but this goes a fair bit beyond just that.
Agreed, just having a "It's required" doesn't change that. People were able to play it perfectly fine without doing so and played way past their refund window and possibly invested into some SC microtransactions as well, only for it to be pulled away from them.

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by Tigerhawk71:

It's very legal. They're not obligated to provide you a service and section 2 of the off-platform agreement also allows them to modify it at any time... and doesn't guarantee it'll remain available.

This is why Ubisoft can pull the crew and nothing happened (or will happen).

It's legal scam then.

[The Ironguard]

depending on where you are, this might in fact not be legal. I am fairly sure that this is in fact illegal in Australia at the very least.

Also a reminder to everyone: TOS IS NOT A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT.

[Caolán_The_Wolf]

it shouldnt be. especially with sony's history of personal data security

[RubberFinger]

This is exactly why you should not connect to PSN
https://youtu.be/8FuQQdXZOQA?si=u4JKa-pUsmIgkOpC

[martydaparty4u]

I've had sony accounts in the past when sony was hacked and I lost my account from it and games bought just gone. So I guess I won't buy this game then! Hope they don't require it on other sony games I have on steam!

[Gasboy]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Creating PSN accounts isn't possible in all countries.
The game didn't require one to play since launch.
People in those countries will effectively be banned out of the game they bought with this change.

How is this legal?

It's probably not. But SONY is counting on the fact that most people will not push back, and that nothing will happen.

[Pijcab]

Originally posted by The Ironguard:

depending on where you are, this might in fact not be legal. I am fairly sure that this is in fact illegal in Australia at the very least.

Also a reminder to everyone: TOS IS NOT A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT.

Thank you holy f*ck, people think of TOS and EULAs as these untouchable holy grails like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Bible...

[Schakar]

Hint: not legal in germany.

several consumer protection laws in the BGB against:
- One sided changes of contracts
- rendering a BOUGHT product unuseble afterwards
- laws about digital products and services

ALL BROKEN if this change goes life!!

PS: Die Verbraucherzentrale (consumer protection Agency in germany) is allready notified and awar of the problem :).

[ThorN]

Dunno man
Always-online games shut down FOR GOOD all the time
I've been wondering how this is legal for ages. I'm also wondering why people KEEP buying always-online games despite this sort of stuff happening all the time

[VelxraTV]

Its only legal because it was mentioned on the store page and we all had to accept a disclaimer. Will it prevent sony or arrowhead losing stocks? no

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by Gasboy:

It's probably not. But SONY is counting on the fact that most people will not push back, and that nothing will happen.

Probably so.
I don't care if some part of the ToS says that they aren't obligated to keep the game available, buying a game and not long after getting revoked access for it just cause is fraud. Period.

And this also isn't a "The Crew" situation where the game had been old enough that shutting down the servers was (partially) justified, this is still a relatively new game, not even a year old and hasn't been shut down as a whole, only made unavailable in select countries.

Some of my friends will be locked out of playing this now. If I had a game on my Steam Library that I used to play but cannot play with my friends anymore because its banned in my country due to a decision like that, I'd be pretty upset too.

[jpc1918]

Originally posted by Tigerhawk71:

It's very legal. They're not obligated to provide you a service and section 2 of the off-platform agreement also allows them to modify it at any time... and doesn't guarantee it'll remain available.

This is why Ubisoft can pull the crew and nothing happened (or will happen).

It might be in the corrupt corporate oligarchy that is the United States
TOS aren't legally binding and worth NOTHING in court or the eyes of the law due to it being a well known fact that literally nobody reads them
It's not legal in the EU, hell even a lot of corrupt ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ still consider this illegal
Consumer rights are a thing