Okay, so let’s dive into this wild ride with Sony and PC gaming. (Seriously, what a saga, right?)
So, here’s the thing. Sony, the folks behind PlayStation, have been busy trying to cozy up to the PC gaming crowd. They’ve been rolling out their juicy PlayStation exclusives on Steam. Took them a while to get here, but hey, better late than never. Anyway, everyone’s been loving it, except for this one tiny hiccup. Or, I guess it was a pretty massive hiccup. They somehow shot themselves in the foot by locking these games in regions where their PlayStation Network (PSN) isn’t even available. Like, why? Especially since you don’t even need a PSN account to play these games. But hey, now they’re backtracking. Finally!
I guess it all started bubbling to the surface on a random Friday afternoon. People from these locked-out regions spotted PlayStation games popping up on their Steam like unexpected guests. Was Sony lifting the locks? Could it be? A quick peek at SteamDB — yeah, it’s this site where you snoop on changes in Steam’s backend — confirmed it. Lockdown was getting unlocked, slowly but surely.
Oh, and speaking of changes, big titles like Helldivers 2, some God of War magic, and the likes of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered were suddenly accessible in these ghost regions. (Insert collective sigh of relief here.) Folks noticed nearly all the blacklisted areas getting a pass now. All good? Not quite.
The weird part — here’s the kicker — Sony had a full-on drama fest last year when they tried to bully players into tying up games with PSN mandates, starting with Helldivers 2. Gamers were not having it. Can you blame them? After players threw a fit and started review-bombing — they straight-up backpedaled faster than a cat on a hot tin roof. It was like Sony suddenly remembered gamers have voices, loud ones.
But, oh, hold up. Turns out, the initial delisting that came after all this fuss still carried over to other PlayStation releases on PC. (Even if they didn’t need PSN, like what?!) Cue months of fan protests and rallies until, finally, Sony waved the white flag, first untying four games back in January, and now saying bye-bye to region locks. Well, sorta.
Seven countries still couldn’t catch a break. Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam. Well, Vietnam banned Steam itself last year over some licensing mess. Can’t really fault folks here. And Russia? Probably something to do with their whole geopolitical shenanigans with Ukraine, I guess. But why the rest are stuck on this eternal blacklist? That’s anyone’s guess.
But hey, on the bright side, I’m loving this recent change even if it took them forever to figure it out. Shouldn’t have been a problem anyway, and from what I’ve seen, the backlash was relentless. Players, streamers, everyone with a keyboard had opinions. And loud ones at that. Finally though, the shackles are off. Most of them anyway, and players can dive back into Sony’s gaming goodness.
Seems like good ol’ Sony figured it out — more gamers mean more sales. Crazy logic, right?
