Sometimes companies actually listen to feedback when they make stupid mistakes

DYSEQTA

DYSEQTA
PSN Regarding Helldivers 2

"Helldivers fans -- we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward. We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans."
 

Boone Lockley

B
Fixitman said:
Arrowhead aren't publicly traded, Frontier is (FDEV). That's the huge difference.
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If I were an executive, I would look be looking at 3 metric categories on cosmetic sales:

1 - The number of new players in a given period
2 - What % of those new players purchase ARX, for which ships, and how soon after buying the game do they do so, and what % of total ARX sales are these sales
3 - What % of active veteran players buy ARX and how often, and what % of total ARX sales are these sales

The goal would be to crank those numbers up in profitability, and since the cosmetics are likely already paid for from a production standpoint, every sale goes straight to the bottom line. Making those sales prohibitively expensive doesn't seem likely to increase any of those 3 metrics at all, and probably will be a net decrease. Publicly traded, to me, makes me think profitability should be the goal, but making things so expensive they are unpalatable, isn't likely to make people buy more.
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
DYSEQTA said:
We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable.
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What was the situation?
Does Helldivers have more players than ED? (I suspect it may by a large margin)

As it is not a game that has drawn my attention, I know little of what was happening.
 

DYSEQTA

DYSEQTA
Rat Catcher said:
What was the situation?
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In a nutshell Sony decided arbitrarily that they were going to suddenly require all existing players of Helldivers II to create a PSN account and link their Steam accounts to it to be able to continue to play that game they had already paid for.

As ridiculous as that is simply on the face of it, it was made worse by the fact that many existing customers would have effectively lost all access to the game they paid for as in many countries you can't even create a PSN even if you wanted to. Steam ended up pulling it from sale in a whole bunch of countries because of that.

All in all probably one of the dumbest things to ever occur in gaming history.

I'm sure I've missed some details but I believe that was the long and short of it.

EDIT (because I hate misinformation as much as the next person):
As kindly pointed out by @metatheurgist here there are some factual inaccuracies in the summary I posted. The PSN linking requirement was apparently in the TOS when people purchased and not enforced until now. This meant they sold the game in countries, somewhere around 170 I believe, where it was not possible to create a PSN account. So ultimately it sounds less sinister and instead more just plain stupid.
 
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Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
Disemboweled Ego said:
Is it too late for Elite players to revolt about having to link their FDev account to their Steam account?
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I discovered that a Steam gift I received a couple of weeks ago is able to run direct from the launcher. (Normally all Steam accounts post April 2019 needed to be launched via / Log-In via Steam as they are "No-CD Key" versions.)
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
DYSEQTA said:
In a nutshell Sony decided arbitrarily that they were going to suddenly require all existing players of Helldivers II to create a PSN account and link their Steam accounts to it to be able to continue to play that game they had already paid for.

As ridiculous as that is simply on the face of it, it was made worse by the fact that many existing customers would have effectively lost all access to the game they paid for as in many countries you can't even create a PSN even if you wanted to. Steam ended up pulling it from sale in a whole bunch of countries because of that.

All in all probably one of the dumbest things to ever occur in gaming history.

I'm sure I've missed some details but I believe that was the long and short of it.
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Not quite true. The requirement for a PS account was always in the T&C (that no one reads clearly), it was waived because of the networking issues the game had when it launched. They decided to enforce it in May. The dumb thing was continuing to sell in countries with no PSN access, not sure it that's a Steam issue or a Sony issue though.

I don't think you can compare the situation to ED though. You need an account to play the game with the company actually running the servers. What you don't need is the extra account from market places like Steam and PSN.
 
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