Why was this game available for purchase in non-PSN regions?

[makalaus]

If you look at the store page there's a well visible notice about Japanese language: "This game only supports Japanese interface/voice for customers in Japan.". Nice and clear with information that may be important to some.

Why wasn't there a similair notice about the game not being playable in certain regions? Wouldn't that also be kind of an important notice? Why was the game even available for purchase in these regions in the first place? Not very customer friendly I must say.

[LeftIsBest-James]

OP with The only valid point I've heard in the last 2 days.

Sony will have to either:

1. backpeddle
   
2. give out refunds (they haaaate doing that if you remember CP2077)
   
3. find a solution/exception for those regions. (I hope it gives them a migraine)

[poppindancers]

A. Money

B. Scam Money

[Five]

Originally posted by LeftIsBest-James:

OP with The only valid point I've heard in the last 2 days.

Where have you been looking?

[RE:Deemer]

Yeah, I think that's the sticking point that's actually pissed people off more than the account linking requirement.

[357 Magnum Ace]

I can think of two likely possibilities:
1) Arrowhead and Sony were actively engaging in fraud and willingly sold a product that could not be used in other countries under false pretenses
2) This was never intended. Sony decided to do this to capitalize on HD2's numbers for their own gains. (Data harvesting, inflated PSN numbers, etc)

And a third possible, but out there idea
3) The CMs were right, this was actually to just improve their ability to moderate and ban people and no one at Arrowhead or Sony thought it through when AH begged them for the support.

[lockwoodx]

OP is asking the important question. If a greedy company marketed to people they knew would be cut off, then the greedy company is to blame.

[BoogieWoogie]

It is bait and switch. Even on the wayback machine you will find on Sony's webpage they said having an account was optional to play HD2.

[CEPHY]

Because Soyny gotta cash in on those sales before the inevitable refund wave.

[Five]

Originally posted by RE:Deemer:

Yeah, I think that's the sticking point that's actually pissed people off more than the account linking requirement.

It is a big part, but the account linking is pretty annoying too.

People comparing this to having to link a microsoft account to play Xbox games completely miss the point that EVERYONE has a microsoft account if you're on PC. At least if you're on Windows, I don't really know much about other OSs like Linux or w/e.

Not everyone who plays PC games also has a PS5. Or any playstation, whatever. Not everyone has a PSN account if you're playing on PC.

[LeftIsBest-James]

Originally posted by Five:

Originally posted by LeftIsBest-James:

OP with The only valid point I've heard in the last 2 days.

Where have you been looking?

It's all:
- "I want to say the N-word/"freespeech"" in the last thread.
- conspiracy/victim scenarios when people post to Twitter/FB/Google/YouTube/Instagram

The PSN acct can be a dummy acct. It doesn't require money or proper ID.
But OP made a valid point. Some countries ban 'Gacha' mechanics, so PSN is banned by association.

[357 Magnum Ace]

Originally posted by Five:

Originally posted by LeftIsBest-James:

OP with The only valid point I've heard in the last 2 days.

Where have you been looking?

Possibly here, where logic and civility largely go to die.
(Runner up to that would be X/Twitter)

[Sanglaine]

As I have been repeatedly saying, incompetence.

[Sandam]

Hm... maybe this game needs to be reported to Steam as a scam?

[LeftIsBest-James]

Originally posted by 357 Magnum Ace:

Originally posted by Five:

Where have you been looking?

Possibly here, where logic and civility largely go to die. :HFR_Happy:
(Runner up to that would be X/Twitter)

Twitter is a poophole now.
Professionals maintain a skeleton presence to stop opportunists from hijacking their brands.
People are just digging in waiting for the day when it's worthless and the owner blows it up out of spite(instead of walking away).

[Five]

Originally posted by LeftIsBest-James:

Originally posted by Five:

Where have you been looking?

It's all:
- "I want to say the N-word/"freespeech"" in the last thread.
- conspiracy/victim scenarios when people post to Twitter/FB/Google/YouTube/Instagram

The PSN acct can be a dummy acct. It doesn't require money or proper ID.
But OP made a valid point. Some countries ban 'Gacha' mechanics, so PSN is banned by association.

I mean fair, those are incredibly dumb reasons x3

Though I have not seen those at all, personally.

Mostly I see people complaining about 127 of the regions out of the 200 that they sold the game in being unable to make PSN accounts.

Or people complaining that they didn't do a better job of telling the playerbase this was going to happen, or Sony changing their TOS right after the announcement.

My personal pet peeve is that this is done SOLELY for the benefit of Sony. Regardless of how "trivial" you think this action is, if you're one of the people that says something like "It only takes 120 seconds to make an account, stop complaining"

That's fair, but regardless of HOW trivial it is, there is NO benefit to the player. It is a negative, and only a negative no matter how insignificant you think that is. And I think people have a right to complain or protest when a company takes an action that is solely to the detriment of their customers no matter how small that action might be.

Which, I personally don't think it's small due to the aforementioned "PSN not being available in most of the regions" thing.