Sony has also made the PC port of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut into an unpurchasable game in many places, while Valve’s interface seems to encourage the opposite (and not by accident: Valve’s Gabe Newell used to cite the game’s unavailability as the main reason for piracy…).

Like Helldivers 2, the PC port of Ghost of Tsushima is now available in a similarly limited number of places: it has been removed from the list of titles available for purchase on Steam and various PC digital stores in over 200 countries and territories where PlayStation Network is not present. Here’s a little twist, though. While there is a multiplayer mode for Ghost of Tsushima (Legends), the story could be played offline on its own. If Sony could split the story and Legends mode in two, then maybe this wouldn’t be a problem.

With Helldivers 2, Sony tried to make a PlayStation Network account mandatory, but after criticism from fans, the company backed down, but you still can’t buy Arrowhead’s game, and now you can’t even buy it in the Baltic States, even though all three countries use the euro, which is a betrayal of the European single market principle. (What if the European Commission sued Sony for this…?) According to SteamDB, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut received the same limited availability as Helldivers 2 on May 10th.

Helldivers 2 purchase restrictions were updated to add Baltics.

Furthermore, Ghost of Tsushima now has the same purchase restrictions. pic.twitter.com/TbXjHzCfwb

— SteamDB (@SteamDB) May 10, 2024

Steam is now refunding Ghost of Tsushima for people in affected countries. pic.twitter.com/weXcLkBhk0

— SteamDB (@SteamDB) May 10, 2024

PC accounted for more than half of Helldivers 2’s sales in the U.S. The PlayStation 5’s 2023 sales target was missed by Sony, and in January VGChartz said the console, which has been available since 2020, was slightly behind the PlayStation 4. This situation is not helped by Sony’s stubborn mentality. On Twitter, a message from Steam customer support has surfaced saying that Helldivers 2 can not be purchased on Steam “due to the publisher’s decision”, despite Valve’s efforts to lift the restrictions.

Just when I thought the Helldivers 2 PSN story couldn’t get worse. This Steam message started circulating.

It looks like Valve has now released any restrictions on Helldivers because they know PSN now is not needed.

But for some reason, its SONY that is keeping them restricted. pic.twitter.com/bY6fcEhTTY

— Perma Banned (@GiveMeBanHammer) May 12, 2024

All we want to say to Sony is that they shouldn’t be surprised if the PC port of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut is being downloaded by many via pirated methods (because they can’t LEGALLY buy it, and that’s what Newell was referring to with the unavailability… oh, and Steam is refunding pre-order money). They shouldn’t have to use VPNs.

Source: PCGamer