Per last night’s Sony State of Play, PS5 darling and supposedly rather good action-dad adventure God of War Ragnarök is coming to PC on September 19th 2024. The good news is that the port, co-developed by Jetpack Interactive and original makers Santa Monica Studio, will pack in all the DLSS 3, FSR 3, and ultrawide what-have-yous that one might expect from a big, monied PC release. The bad, silly, clearly pointless news is that it will need a PlayStation Network (PSN) account, despite the complete lack of multiplayer.
That’s according to Ragnarök’s Steam page, which warns of the looming PSN demand (as does that of Until Dawn, another incoming Windows port that’s being slapped with the added login requirement). Sony’s push to insert PSN into (upon?) their PC games became infamous when Helldivers 2 players revolted, ultimately forcing the publisher to abandon the requirement. However, the more recent Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut launched with PSN fully baked in, despite it making co-op impossible to play on the Steam Deck.
It’s worth repeating that PSN’s problems extend beyond the inconvenience of forcing yet another login process, or the compatibility of a single type of handheld device. Because the service itself is only available in a minority of countries, there are over 170 nations where PSN-reliant games are struck off sale by Steam, rendering them unplayable by legal means. That means the likes of Japan, the British and US Virgin Islands, Vietnam, Pakistan, and most of Africa are all locked out, and while Sony’s justification for Ghost of Tsushima amounted to PSN enabling PC/PlayStation crossplay, that doesn’t explain why it’s a requirement for purely solo games like God of War Ragnarök and Until Dawn.
The most likely reasoning, mind, isn’t hard to figure out. Any increase in PSN signups will simultaneously furnish Sony with valuable user data and make some number in a spreadsheet somewhere go higher, which in turn convinces a man in a suit that their service is excellent and beloved even as it does literally nothing to actually serve the person using it. Urgh.
Otherwise, God of War Ragnarök at least looks like a considered PC port, and will include its roguelike-flavoured Valhalla DLC as standard. You might note that this launch comes just under two years after the godkilling hackslasher’s original PS5 launch, suggesting that Sony are furthering tightening the period for which it leaves the console exclusives as console exclusives. Though if all their future ports are going to be leaden with PSN requirements, then that’s probably not as exciting a development.