Why is God of War Ragnarok being review bombed on PC? PSN controversy explained
Sony InteractiveGod of War Ragnarok’s PC port is being review bombed because players on Steam are required to link a PSN account in order to access the single-player title.
God of War Ragnarok is now finally available on PC almost two years after the award-winning single-player experience dropped on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
While the PC port hasn’t been criticized for any major performance issues like the horrendous launch of The Last of Us Part 1 on Steam, it is being slammed for another reason.
Despite receiving major praise when the game was first released, the PC version has been review bombed upon release.
Ragnarok currently has a six out of ten rating based on 3,900 reviews on the game’s Steam Page, a massive dip from the 94% on Metacritic it currently holds for the PlayStation version.
The cause? No different from Helldivers 2 earlier in the year, it all boils down to Sony’s requirement for players on PC to link a PlayStation Network account.
SONYGod of War Ragnarok requires PSN account link to play on PC
Across Steam, players have been calling out Sony for making players log into a PlayStation Network account to boot up the title, particularly given that it is an “offline experience” and should not “require any third-party login, especially a PSN account on a PC platform.”
“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”, wrote one Steam user.
“I enjoyed God of War 2018, and it didn’t need this restriction, and neither did this one. Consumers are complacent when it comes to companies degrading the user experience more and more in favor of their interests, and it will just get worse,” they added.
This is not the first time Sony has been criticized for requiring PC users to log into a PSN account. Following the announcement that Helldivers 2 would require players to link a PSN account with Steam to play, backlash was immediate and overwhelming.
So much so that PlayStation withdrew the update requiring players to connect a PSN account to play Helldivers 2.
While the company had made it known before God of War Ragnarok’s PC release that a PSN account would be required, this has not stopped the influx of negative reviews. At the time of writing, Sony is yet to respond to the backlash.