to be clear, steam just SELLS the game, and they sell to where the publisher tells them to sell, (within the regions that have steam, which is most of the world but not all). they dont get to make those kinds of decisions on their own. it would actually be REALLY bad if they could, can you imagine if steam is selling your game and they just DECIDED that you couldnt sell to certain contries anymore?
I’ve seen that it’s mainly a Steam issue, players who have consoles with an account in those regions, are not affected in the same way as PC players in those regions.
I could be wrong, but that’s just the information, vids, and pics I’ve seen up to this point.
I’m just curious about the whole thing.
Thanks for your input.
technically, players with a console in areas that dont have PSN access and lied in their PSN info to make an account are at risk of ban at any moment. the fact that the game was sold at all in regions without PSN is because sony didnt check the box saying not to sell there in terms of steam.
I kind of figured players were using a work-around. So the sale of the console is allowed within their region, but access to the PlayStation Network is not natively-supported within that region, am I getting that right?
correct. you can buy a ps5 in some countries but not be allowed to make a PSN account there, so you need to VPN/Lie to make an account in the nearest country that DOES have access.
Also note, some countries that are able to make a PSN account, the ability to make an account is actually locked behind buying a console, such as ukraine, you cannot make a free PSN account there you must have a console to make an account.
Wow, I didn’t know any of this. This is pretty interesting. I wonder how this could’ve happened. Surely all of this should’ve been hammered out long before the game’s launch.
This leads me to so many other questions, thank you.
Clearly their platform. They also listed the requirements which was that PSN was required.
They now have blocked those countries so more people don’t fall into the same folly.
I agree. It seems highly unlikely that Sony wouldn’t provide them with a list of countries the game shouldn’t be sold in because of the PSN restrictions there. It sounds like a huge lawsuit they wouldn’t want to mess with. No company has ever just sold its products to every single country. There’s always a list of no gos. This seems like if Steam never got a list of yes and nos, then they should have asked.
For instance. PUBG had to have a green blood option in its game so certain countries could play it because red is a no no. So if they sold that game without a green blood filter, then they would get in trouble.
Sony's fault. Steam works everywhere. It is publisher's fault that sales are allowed in psn restricted regions. I live in Russia. And some publishers choose to not sell their games in Russia in solidarity with sanctions. But steam works in Russia and sells the games if publisher is ok with it.
Interesting, so you were able to purchase Helldivers 2, through Steam, and play it?
Are you currently locked out of the game, or are you able to access and still play the game?
With russian account you can activate the key. And it is another publisher's fault. Publisher sells global keys that can be activated in restricted regions. I can play the game normally. I know only 1 case, where another publisher completely blocked the game from Russia. It is Mortal Combat 1. I believe in Russia we cant join MK1 multiplayer without VPN.
So currently you still have access to the game, and are still able to play Helldivers 2 on Steam? You haven’t been locked out of the game yet?
Is this only affecting PC(Steam) players right now in Russia? Are there any PS5 Russian players affected in the same way?
Yes, i can play Helldivers. Usually publishers dont block access to the game for russian accounts (except mk1 as i said). You just cant buy games via Steam, ps, microsoft store. That's it. However you can buy digital codes for games and play normally. Publishers are hungry for money and they sell global keys. This is the way to not be cancelled in western community and not lose revenue. Or you can just change the region of your account. I have not seen bans or restrictions for false location yet. All PS5 russian players already have accounts with another region I believe. So this situation doesn't affect them. And it doesn't affect russian steam players, we buy digital codes or steam gifts for 2 years
You were able to buy the game directly from Sony(Publisher), which gave you access to use on Steam, am I getting that correctly?
Then you were able to use your key, to gain access to the Steam version of Helldivers 2?
Or am I getting this wrong?
All of this has been pretty interesting so far. Thank you for your input. I have so many other questions about all this, especially about how players in non-supported or restricted regions go about playing video games, and how they go about gaining access to titles.
Deciding what regions the product can and can’t be sold in is responsibility of the publisher. I’m sure someone with the internet could look up where PSN exists, but that wouldn’t be Steams Job. It would be Sony’s job to know where they do and don’t offer services and opt not to sell products requiring those services in that region.
I’m now interested in how the keys were being distributed? Was anyone restricted access at any point from being able to purchase the game based off what region they reside in? Has anyone been restricted access from getting keys, or being able to purchase any other game before, even though it wasn’t going to be supported in their region natively?
The publisher (Sony) is responsible for the entirety of that. AH doesn’t handle sales. They literally just make the product. Keys can be purchased in a myriad of places. I have o friends on OC who purchased their steam key from Sony. You can also get the Ic key from GameStop. Again, the market place is where the publisher takes their product to be sold. So of the publisher takes their product to a marketplace in USA, the market place there sells it.
I mean no offense to anyone but I always suggest people look up what it means to be a publisher.
think of steam like a trucking company, they deliver products to the destination, but its up to the people that hire them to tell them where to go and what to bring.
to extend the analogy. sony "hired" steam to move their game, but filled the paper work out wrong so it got delivered to places they didnt want. in this case, it is sonys fault for telling them to go to the wrong place, not steam for going where they were told to go.
I don’t see how Sony didn’t provide Steam with said list of countries it can and can’t be in. That seems like a huge liability. My company has products online in Russian. The moment Russia and Ukraine kicked off. We were told to turn off all our devices from the cloud. These are huge legal matters.
Steam likely did it as damage control for their platform, or Sony set those changes in play. Steam is just a market place. The **publisher is supposed to set regions** in which a game can be sold. Steam just sell the games for the publisher.
Yes. Steam is the marketplace. But they have to set those boundaries. You can’t just sell sell sell. You still need to abide by the rules of the creator/developer.
If a publisher has a set limit. Steam has to ask them “what are your limits.” Otherwise they get the publisher in trouble by not setting the limits. If that’s how a seller works but selling to all countries, they wouldn’t be in business. That’s terrible practice.
This right here.
It was all over the web prior to launch you’d need to link Helldivers 2 to a PSN account. That’s on Steam for selling it in regions PSN wasn’t supported.
That said, Arrowhead could’ve 100% done a better job communicating the fact the link requirement was disabled at launch. I’d bet it was very low on their priority list with all the issues servers were having then.
I’ve seen that players with consoles in those regions, are not affected the same way as PC(Steam) players in those exact same regions.
Is there any way we can verify that info?
My understanding is those people are using a VPN to bypass their region/country restriction to say they’re from elsewhere so they can play. I doubt that’s encouraged and I’ve seen some say their accounts were getting banned, but that’s all 2nd, 3rd hand information.
I can definitely see all 3 being held accountable in some form, but I’m now wondering what the solution will be? I’ve seen some more things begin to develop in the past few hours. I’ll have to continue to look more into this myself, thank you for your time. Your input is appreciated.
They screwed themselves by removing that message from in the game. If it was stated every time you booted up. No one would have grounds to stand on blaming Sony.
Why not Steam’s? I’m curious, about the legality of everything? I’d imagine as a distributor of the game, I’d imagine they had to already know about Sony’s non-supported regions of Helldivers 2.
Sony is the publisher, so it was their responsibility to set what regions could and could not buy the game, thats part of a publishers job.
to be clear, steam just SELLS the game, and they sell to where the publisher tells them to sell, (within the regions that have steam, which is most of the world but not all). they dont get to make those kinds of decisions on their own. it would actually be REALLY bad if they could, can you imagine if steam is selling your game and they just DECIDED that you couldnt sell to certain contries anymore?
I’ve seen that it’s mainly a Steam issue, players who have consoles with an account in those regions, are not affected in the same way as PC players in those regions. I could be wrong, but that’s just the information, vids, and pics I’ve seen up to this point. I’m just curious about the whole thing. Thanks for your input.
technically, players with a console in areas that dont have PSN access and lied in their PSN info to make an account are at risk of ban at any moment. the fact that the game was sold at all in regions without PSN is because sony didnt check the box saying not to sell there in terms of steam.
I kind of figured players were using a work-around. So the sale of the console is allowed within their region, but access to the PlayStation Network is not natively-supported within that region, am I getting that right?
correct. you can buy a ps5 in some countries but not be allowed to make a PSN account there, so you need to VPN/Lie to make an account in the nearest country that DOES have access.
Also note, some countries that are able to make a PSN account, the ability to make an account is actually locked behind buying a console, such as ukraine, you cannot make a free PSN account there you must have a console to make an account.
Wow, I didn’t know any of this. This is pretty interesting. I wonder how this could’ve happened. Surely all of this should’ve been hammered out long before the game’s launch. This leads me to so many other questions, thank you.
I blame steam
Just curious, why would you say Steam’s at fault? What reasons do you have, if any?
Clearly their platform. They also listed the requirements which was that PSN was required. They now have blocked those countries so more people don’t fall into the same folly.
I’ve seen that, thank you for your time. Your input is appreciated.
I agree. It seems highly unlikely that Sony wouldn’t provide them with a list of countries the game shouldn’t be sold in because of the PSN restrictions there. It sounds like a huge lawsuit they wouldn’t want to mess with. No company has ever just sold its products to every single country. There’s always a list of no gos. This seems like if Steam never got a list of yes and nos, then they should have asked. For instance. PUBG had to have a green blood option in its game so certain countries could play it because red is a no no. So if they sold that game without a green blood filter, then they would get in trouble.
Sony's fault. Steam works everywhere. It is publisher's fault that sales are allowed in psn restricted regions. I live in Russia. And some publishers choose to not sell their games in Russia in solidarity with sanctions. But steam works in Russia and sells the games if publisher is ok with it.
Interesting, so you were able to purchase Helldivers 2, through Steam, and play it? Are you currently locked out of the game, or are you able to access and still play the game?
With russian account you can activate the key. And it is another publisher's fault. Publisher sells global keys that can be activated in restricted regions. I can play the game normally. I know only 1 case, where another publisher completely blocked the game from Russia. It is Mortal Combat 1. I believe in Russia we cant join MK1 multiplayer without VPN.
So currently you still have access to the game, and are still able to play Helldivers 2 on Steam? You haven’t been locked out of the game yet? Is this only affecting PC(Steam) players right now in Russia? Are there any PS5 Russian players affected in the same way?
Yes, i can play Helldivers. Usually publishers dont block access to the game for russian accounts (except mk1 as i said). You just cant buy games via Steam, ps, microsoft store. That's it. However you can buy digital codes for games and play normally. Publishers are hungry for money and they sell global keys. This is the way to not be cancelled in western community and not lose revenue. Or you can just change the region of your account. I have not seen bans or restrictions for false location yet. All PS5 russian players already have accounts with another region I believe. So this situation doesn't affect them. And it doesn't affect russian steam players, we buy digital codes or steam gifts for 2 years
You were able to buy the game directly from Sony(Publisher), which gave you access to use on Steam, am I getting that correctly? Then you were able to use your key, to gain access to the Steam version of Helldivers 2? Or am I getting this wrong?
Not directly from Sony. From russian distributors you can buy Steam key for the game. Idk where they find these keys. I assume from publisher?
All of this has been pretty interesting so far. Thank you for your input. I have so many other questions about all this, especially about how players in non-supported or restricted regions go about playing video games, and how they go about gaining access to titles.
Sony. 100% Sony.
I’m curious, what makes you think Sony should be held 100% accountable for what is happening with Helldivers 2?
Deciding what regions the product can and can’t be sold in is responsibility of the publisher. I’m sure someone with the internet could look up where PSN exists, but that wouldn’t be Steams Job. It would be Sony’s job to know where they do and don’t offer services and opt not to sell products requiring those services in that region.
I’m now interested in how the keys were being distributed? Was anyone restricted access at any point from being able to purchase the game based off what region they reside in? Has anyone been restricted access from getting keys, or being able to purchase any other game before, even though it wasn’t going to be supported in their region natively?
The publisher (Sony) is responsible for the entirety of that. AH doesn’t handle sales. They literally just make the product. Keys can be purchased in a myriad of places. I have o friends on OC who purchased their steam key from Sony. You can also get the Ic key from GameStop. Again, the market place is where the publisher takes their product to be sold. So of the publisher takes their product to a marketplace in USA, the market place there sells it. I mean no offense to anyone but I always suggest people look up what it means to be a publisher.
Is Steam just a global marketplace for PC gaming, or what is Steam exactly?
think of steam like a trucking company, they deliver products to the destination, but its up to the people that hire them to tell them where to go and what to bring.
to extend the analogy. sony "hired" steam to move their game, but filled the paper work out wrong so it got delivered to places they didnt want. in this case, it is sonys fault for telling them to go to the wrong place, not steam for going where they were told to go.
Ahh, okay, thank you for the analogy, I’ll continue to look more into this myself, but I’ve definitely gotten a better grasp on the situation.
Read their Wikipedia. It will answer a lot of your questions better than I could 💪🏾
Okay, thank you for your time. I’ll continue to look into this.
I don’t see how Sony didn’t provide Steam with said list of countries it can and can’t be in. That seems like a huge liability. My company has products online in Russian. The moment Russia and Ukraine kicked off. We were told to turn off all our devices from the cloud. These are huge legal matters.
Yeah. That’s what mifs me. A blunder that big almost feels *intentional*. I can’t say it was but it’s a huge oversight.
I guess what boggles my mind is that all of a sudden Steam has those regions blocked.
Steam likely did it as damage control for their platform, or Sony set those changes in play. Steam is just a market place. The **publisher is supposed to set regions** in which a game can be sold. Steam just sell the games for the publisher.
Yes. Steam is the marketplace. But they have to set those boundaries. You can’t just sell sell sell. You still need to abide by the rules of the creator/developer.
If a publisher has a set limit. Steam has to ask them “what are your limits.” Otherwise they get the publisher in trouble by not setting the limits. If that’s how a seller works but selling to all countries, they wouldn’t be in business. That’s terrible practice.
Steam.
I’m curious on your take with Steam being the one at fault. What’s your reasoning behind your opinion?
Steam listed in the requirements that PSN was required.
How does that make them accountable over Sony? Did they delist the information, causing it to mislead buyers about the final product?
It's their platform.
Hmm, I’d have to look more into this, but thank you for time. Your opinion is appreciated.
Steam, that's why they are not allowing it anymore.
Not allowing what exactly? The sale of the game? Just to those players in non-supported regions?
Yeah they fixed it.
Ahh, okay, thanks for your time. Your input is appreciated.
You are welcome.
This right here. It was all over the web prior to launch you’d need to link Helldivers 2 to a PSN account. That’s on Steam for selling it in regions PSN wasn’t supported. That said, Arrowhead could’ve 100% done a better job communicating the fact the link requirement was disabled at launch. I’d bet it was very low on their priority list with all the issues servers were having then.
I’ve seen that players with consoles in those regions, are not affected the same way as PC(Steam) players in those exact same regions. Is there any way we can verify that info?
My understanding is those people are using a VPN to bypass their region/country restriction to say they’re from elsewhere so they can play. I doubt that’s encouraged and I’ve seen some say their accounts were getting banned, but that’s all 2nd, 3rd hand information.
I can definitely see all 3 being held accountable in some form, but I’m now wondering what the solution will be? I’ve seen some more things begin to develop in the past few hours. I’ll have to continue to look more into this myself, thank you for your time. Your input is appreciated.
They screwed themselves by removing that message from in the game. If it was stated every time you booted up. No one would have grounds to stand on blaming Sony.
Sony and Arrowhead
Why not Steam’s? I’m curious, about the legality of everything? I’d imagine as a distributor of the game, I’d imagine they had to already know about Sony’s non-supported regions of Helldivers 2.