God do I ever hate corporate speak.
“Yeah we figured we could increase our market share but that controversy would harm profits even more. Nevermind thihi >.<”
Yeah, but Sony cant say “Fuck, calm down we wont do it if you cunts are gonna carry on like this.”
Yeah, they’re not…
Uhh, would maybe Mark Cuban or Richard Branson have those stones? Know there’s somebody out there…
Democracy? No, free market capitalism, yes. They would not give a shit about negative reviews on steam if it were not affecting their bottom line.
Definitely. Hitting them where it matters most, their pockets. They probably have a long term plan with this game and being hit this early with that many reviews would hurt their pockets. I guess most of us have very little hope that Sony would reverse their decision hence the refunds etc but here we are with this announcement. Anyways, what do we know. We are just kids playing games.
Major order complete. The Automaton… Er, Sony Menace has been driven back can the south quadrant of the map just be sony executives and we have to go fight them off periodically
So let’s see if I’ve got the situation surrounded here:
Helldivers 2 = popular game built by a mid-sized studio under parent company Sony Fuckwits International. Well liked game, lots of people playing and enjoying it having purchased it on Steam for PC.
Sony Fuckwits International decides after loads of copies have been sold on Steam that a Playstation account is now required, including for copies of the game sold in regions where Playstation accounts aren’t allowed.
Helldivers 2 sees a catastrophic drop in reviews, Valve starts issuing refunds outside their normal refund range, and Sony Fuckwits International spends an entire week getting cornholed by the gaming press. The CEO of the smaller studio makes some press releases sounding just as upset as the gamers, almost saying “Things were going so great until ultimate retardation descended from on high.”
The backlash was apparently going to effect investor returns this quarter so they have reversed the decision. This is what it takes to keep companies like Sony in check.
This is the sort of thing that should make everyone everywhere really think twice about ordering that shiny new PS6 when it comes out in what? 1 or 2 years?
I’ve been seeing a lot of this stuff in the gaming news lately. Helldivers 2 has been a big one, I think Kerbal Space Program 2 has outright died, like the parent company fired the team who were making it? And I’m a little nervous about Coffee Stain Studios, the latest update video from Satisfactory’s community manager Snutt contained some noise about parent companies and restructuring that had that distinct smell of yacht polish and trafficked children that always follows upper management bullshittery.
The only thing I would say isn’t 100% correct here is that the decision to require a Playstation account was made 6 months before the game launched, not after. Technical issues prevented the game from launching with the requirement actually implemented though, and from the abruptness of the original announcement, I would guess that the developers are the ones who actually had their “grace period” from Sony to get it implemented expire.
Worth noting that 6 months may not sound like a short timespan, but the game was in development for ~7 years. They were down to the “get this polished” stages, when Sony handed down the PSN requirement. Doing it properly would require a lot of redone work and code. So of course, it didn’t work properly on launch.
if that were so, why go through the trouble of translating the game to Russian / Chinese? no psn there. Incompetant greed, thru n thru.
Lots of people have primary languages that don’t align with where they live, actually
Brilliant roundup.
Would you hate me if I mentioned the “until ultimate […] descended” bit might ruffle feathers? But please never stop ruffling Sony feathers :)
Hate? no. Scoff at? yep!
“Retard” rolled off the same euphemism treadmill that “idiot” and “moron” did, but if I had said “until ultimate idiocy descended from on high” you wouldn’t have felt the need to say anything. I was reaching for a derogatory term for the actions of a stupid person, and I found one. And it ain’t gonna ruffle any feathers that aren’t already permanently ruffled.
I don’t wanna be offended on others’ behalf but in trying to find justifications for and against I came across the Special Olympics - can you guess where they fall on the issue :D
Have a question that’s not a gotcha or nuthin’:
Say captain_aggravated became BFF w/a disabled person who thought innocent usage of “retarded” was harmful even on a FOSS gaming forum. Would you have a thoughtful response there or shrug it off or one of a million other possibilities I’m not guessing here? :)
(Super honest debate here that I doubt anybody else will see, just like to try to rationalize stuff and being The Word Police isn’t my thanggg but I’m still struggling with this - and you’re a cool dude I’d have a beer with so figure you’re good to ask)
I guess seeing your game rating go to nearly 50% negative over the course of 3 days after being overwhelmingly positive for weeks made some execs scratch their heads.
I saw it as low as 14% positive review in the last 30 days before they reverted the decision.
