God Of War Ragnarök was one of 2022’s hit games on PS5 and PS4, and by all accounts it looks great and plays well on PC, where it arrived via Valve’s storefront earlier this week. The Steam user review score is less than stellar, however, as players use the metric to once again boycott Sony’s PSN login requirement.
God Of War Ragnarök requires one despite being an offline single-player game. That means that anyone who wants to play the meaty, brooding sequel to the 2018 GOTY needs to make a PlayStation account and sign in before playing, even if they don’t own a PS5 and never plan to. That hurdle is part of Sony’s larger attempt to move its PlayStation user experience onto PC without using its own game launcher.
And a bunch of Steam users still really hate it. God Of War Ragnarök is currently sitting at a 65 percent on Steam with over 2,000 reviews in so far, giving it a rating of “mixed” in the dreaded yellowish-orange font usually reserved for games with serious bugs or gameplay shortcomings. “I really wanted to give this game a thumbs up because it IS actually a good game, but the PSN requirement is stupid as hell and Sony needs to know that gamers will not stand for this,” reads one of the reviews.
Sony’s PSN login requirement for Steam has been controversial since it was first foisted onto Helldivers 2 players earlier this year. Intended for launch, its implementation was delayed among all of the game’s other online issues and server crashes. Once it was finally brought back online, it ignited a days-long review-bombing campaign that eventually resulted in the PlayStation maker backing off on the requirement, but only for Helldivers 2.
When Ghost of Tsushima arrived on Steam in May, it also had a login requirement, but only to use its online mode, Legends, and its PlayStation overlay feature. God Of War Ragnarök, on the other hand, requires it to play the game at all. As a result, its Steam rating is currently sitting nearly 30 points below Ghost of Tsushima’s, which was the best-selling game the month it came out.
God Of War Ragnarök’s PSN login boycott might not end up impacting its PC sales too much, but the game hasn’t gotten off to nearly the roaring start on Steam that its predecessor did. So far it’s peaked at around 25,000 concurrent players on Steam, about half of what 2018’s God of War did on its launch day. PC players who do decide to give Ragnarök a spin this weekend will be happy to know that it’s improved on one of the biggest complaints from its console launch: Kratos’ son Atreus spoiling all the puzzles.
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