God of War Ragnarok mod to remove PC port’s most-hated feature pulled by creator

Modders have removed the God of War Ragnarok PC port’s most contentious feature – the dreaded PSN login requirement.

Update (September 25, 2024)

The modder has since removed the offline mode from Nexus Mods. While some assumed Sony stepped in, iArtoriasUA told IGN in a statement that they made the decision themselves because the mod had garnered too much attention.

More than anything else, the Nexus Mods creator wanted to avoid any “possible threats from Sony’s side, even though the code has never touched any of their products in memory.”

iArtoriasUA’s statement reads in part, “In short: that was my personal decision to remove the mod since it has become way too popular and people started promoting it on Steam forums as well thus generating tons of attention.”

Original story follows:

Despite God of War Ragnarok’s successful launch on PlayStation consoles back in 2022, its port to PC hasn’t gone over as well. Not due to any major performance issues like the ones in The Last of Us Part 1’s PC version, mind you.

Players have been review-bombing the PC version of Sony Santa Monica’s narrative-focused adventure over a gripe that has plagued PlayStation’s latest PC migrations. The requirement to create and log into a PSN account has caused no end of frustration.

Fortunately for those opposed to the move on Sony’s part, modders have crafted a workaround to avoid this feature entirely. The best part is, it works most of the time.

The fact that this single-player experience with no interactivity between players has forced users to have a PSN account is baffling. Granted, it’s a decision they’ve made previously with multiplayer title Helldivers 2 but that didn’t go over so well either.

“This provides no benefit to the customer and only worsens the overall experience, adding unnecessary security risks on top of being an inconvenience to the user and not even allowing people in certain countries to have access to it,” reads one Steam review. There’s no real fault in their logic and other players have echoed the sentiment.

For those who aren’t inclined towards creating a PSN account but still hoping to play God of War Ragnarok on PC, Nexus Mods user iArtoriasUA has come up with a handy solution. The NoPSSDK mod functionally adds an offline mode to the game by disabling its PSN overlay and allowing you to select no when prompted to sign in.

iArtoriasUA has promised to “maintain the tool” to combat potential updates that may invalidate it. They are also offering tips for players struggling to use it. For most, it seems to work without any extra input.