Sony’s new focus on the PC market has been a welcome change for plenty of players. Those with the PC’s to run them can enjoy some of the best PlayStation Studios titles at the highest frame rates and resolutions with traced rays as far as the eye can see.
However not every part of PlayStation’s first-party gams coming to PC has been as bright and wonderful as that. One key sticking point, has been the fact that Sony has been mandating players link their PlayStation Network (PSN) accounts to their Steam and Epic Games Store accounts. It began with Helldivers 2, and then it became a talking point with every single PlayStation game releasing on PC.
On January 30 however, that requirement is officially changing, but only for some games. On a PlayStation Blog post, senior vice president head of publishing Asad Qizilbash revealed that the requirement to link your PSN account to your PC games store account will become “optional,” but only for a select few titles.
At least to start, it would seem. Qizilbash did not make it clear if linking your PSN account to more of the games already available, and titles still to come, will be optional, or how PlayStation decides which can be optional, and which cannot.
The games that now have removed the requirement to link your PSN account, and it is instead now an optional choice, are:
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- God of War Ragnarok
- The Last of Us Part II Remastered
- Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Days Gone, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, God of War (2018), Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Returnal, The Last of Us Part I Remastered, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, Until Dawn, LEGO Horizon Adventures – all these games, at time of writing, still require you to link your PSN account.
Qizilbash adds that players who do opt-in to linking their accounts on the games where it is not required will enjoy in-game rewards, while also having access to trophies and other PlayStation features.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 players will unlock the Spider-Man 2099 Black Suit and the Miles Morales 2099 Suit early, while Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered players will gain access to the Nora Valiant outfit.
God of War Ragnarok players will gain access to the Black Bear armor set for Kratos and a resource bundle of 500 hacksilver and 250 XP. Finally, The Last of Us Part II Remastered players will get 50 points to activate bonus features and extras, as well as a jacket skin for Ellie that comes from Naughty Dog’s upcoming game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
This initiative feels like PlayStation is trying to give the players who’ve rioted about the account linking requirements a little bit of what they want, by removing the requirement for some games, but they’d still rather you do what they ask and link your account.
All the in-game rewards offered aren’t exactly new content, they’re all just unlockable parts of each game that you’ll just have access to earlier than you otherwise would have.
It’s doubtful that this will really move the needle for those players who are still upset by the account linking mandate, though if it were to become optional for all games, and every game had the same kind of incentive presented here, that would be a win for those who did fight back on the requirement.
They could play a game they bought without having to link an account, and they won’t really miss out on the ‘incentives’ offered because they’ll just acquire them through playing the game.
But considering how little ground PlayStation seems willing to give up on this issue, even just starting with four out of the 20 games PlayStation has published on PC, that outcome doesn’t feel very likely.
Source – [PlayStation Blog]