Sony really wants you to know about the PSN requirement for its PC games
PlayStation is pretty happy to put some of its big-hitters on PC these days when it makes sense, and as such the reveal of God of War Ragnarok's long-awaited PC port was hardly a surprise to anyone.
While the game will offer widescreen support, with other bells and whistles, and come with the (excellent) Valhalla DLC, it's the PSN account linking process that's got everyone talking (yes, this again).
Sony doubles down on PSN requirement for PC titles
The game looks great, as always, but the accompanying blog post says in the footer "Account for PlayStation Network is required." A similar message actually appeared before the presentation, too.
Sony's not taking any chances for people to claim to be uninformed of the requirement, it seems, but it is curious that it's sticking to its guns when it actually dropped the requirement for Helldivers 2 after community blowback for it was so strong - although that's likely down to Arrowhead not being a first-party studio.
While there are no doubt some players who won't care and will simply log into or create a PlayStation account to be able to take on Odin and his cohort on PC, for some it's simply not an option because there are no fewer than 170 countries where PSN isn't available.
That would mean setting up an account without the correct location information, something frowned upon in Sony's terms of service - meaning they could, in theory, swing the banhammer and eject you from your purchase anyway.
It's not just Ragnarok, either - Concord also requires an account, as does Ghost of Tsushima for multiplayer access.
It'll be interesting to see if there's any backlash against the decision this time around with Sony being so careful as to point it out constantly. Much of the issue with the Helldivers 2 fiasco was that players felt the requirement wasn't made clear, but also that Sony had allowed the game to launch without it and then decided to add it back in.