With the upcoming release of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Sony has decided to put the open-world action game on the list of games avoided by millions of players in over 170 countries around the world.
The reason, of course, is the requirement to have a PlayStation Network account, which was not required in the original version of Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. Problem? The 2020 version is no longer available for purchase.
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players, by ResetEranoted that Sony has removed the ability to purchase Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam and the Epic Games Store in preparation for Remastered’s October 31 release. the game’s Steam page remainsThere will no longer be an “Add to cart” button.
Anyone who wants to play Horizon Zero Dawn on PC now must pre-purchase Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, provided they don’t already own the 2020 version. Among several improvements such as re-recorded dialogue and updated animations, the sticking point is requirement for the remaster to have a PlayStation Network account.
PSN is only officially available in a few countries, which means the remaster is currently unavailable for purchase in over 170 countries. This is the same list of countries where God of War Ragnarok or the director’s cut of Ghost of Tsushima were recently unable to purchase.
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You may remember that Helldivers 2 was the first game to suffer from the decision to require a PSN login. Sony also mandated this a few weeks after the game’s release, causing a bit of a PR disaster for a company that apparently intends to make them for PC.
This has since become a requirement for every future Sony game release on PC, including, of course, the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. The amusing thing about all this is that the lack of official PSN support has never stopped gamers in these countries from purchasing and playing Sony games, whether on PC or any PlayStation console.
Preventing people from spending money on PlayStation games has a huge impact on gamers in regions where PlayStation is the dominant console. For example, enormous parts of the Middle East are – and always have been – associated with PlayStation, and this popularity is a key reason why Sony’s console brand continues to be popular outside the US and Europe.
PlayStation Network accounts have also never been available in these places; people just created US/UK/JP accounts, bought prepaid cards for online purchases, or just focused on physical gaming.
It goes without saying that blocking millions of players from accessing these games is the opposite of expanding PlayStation’s audience. It’s truly astonishing why Sony even felt the need to do this; all these players could simply continue to utilize their existing UK/US/JP accounts and enjoy the company’s games, whereas now they have lost that ability.
