Freedom fighters —
Many players are angry over needing to log in to play a single-player game.
Enlarge / Artist's conception of angry PC gamers launching an attack on PSN sign-in requirements.
Sony
Sony's decision to require a PlayStation Network sign-in for the PC port of the single-player God of War Ragnarök is drawing expected levels of ire from frustrated PC gamers. Now, though, those angry players can actually do something about the problem thanks to a new mod that removes the PSN log-in requirement from the game entirely.
The NoPSSDK mod, hosted on NexusMods, promises to "fully strip the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for God of War Ragnarok." The open source mod makes use of a simple Microsoft Detours library to get around the game's calls to the PlayStation Network API without "touch[ing] or modify[ing] any original game code."
The mod, which has already seen one update related to simulating offline mode, has been downloaded just under 2,000 times as of this writing. "I will try to maintain the tool even if something changes, but hopefully nothing crucial happens," mod author iArtorias wrote in a NexusMods post.
Not a new problem
Sony initially required a PSN account to play the PC version of Helldivers 2 in May, but backed off of that requirement after just a few days of widespread complaints among the player base. Weeks later, though, the PC release of Ghost of Tsushima did require a PSN account to access the game's online multiplayer Legends mode.
Enlarge / With the mod installed, simply clicking "No" lets you play the game without a PSN login.
Unlike those recent Sony PC ports, though, God of War Ragnarök is a completely offline, single-player game that nonetheless requires a PSN sign-in for access. It's a difference that thousands of negative user reviews are angrily pointing out on Steam, often with links to the NoPSSDK mod for good measure.
"The game is amazing and I'm really enjoying it, however I can't recommend it in its current state," one representative Steam review reads. "A single player game requiring a Sony PSN login and not being able to play it offline? Really Sony? Are you serious?"
Sony's PSN requirement, which was first announced back in May, subjects players to Sony's PlayStation Terms of Service in addition to those of the PC storefront. The requirement also effectively limits the game's sales to the 70 countries where PSN accounts are available.
PC ports have been an increasingly important part of Sony's gaming strategy for years now, with 15 high-profile, big-budget titles making the jump from PlayStation to Steam since 2020. "The strategy as we were developing it when I was there was that we need to go out to where these new customers are, where these new fans could be," former Sony executive Shawn Layden said in 2021. "We need to go to where they are..."