Ghost of Tsushima
Updated 5/17/24 – See updates below.
Not long ago I wrote about how Sony wasted players’ goodwill with the Hell divers 2 debacle. The game publisher announced that this would be necessary Hell divers 2 players on PC can link their PSN accounts to Steam to continue playing the game. The only problem?
Many PC gamers either didn’t want to create a PSN account because they didn’t have a PlayStation, or simply couldn’t because they lived in one of 177 different countries where that’s simply not possible. Sony ultimately reversed the decision after enough bad press (and hundreds of thousands of negative Steam user reviews) forced their hand.
But the damage has already been done and the goodwill has already been lost. One of the best PlayStation 4 games ever made, Ghost of Tsushima, lands on Steam today and the negative user reviews are already in. From what I’ve read so far, none of the negative reviews have anything to do with the game’s gameplay or performance on Steam.
Instead, the negative reviews all focus on the PSN requirement. In case of Ghost of Tsushima, this was much better advertised. Hell divers 2 waived the requirement for several months before Sony made the announcement, which is largely why it was met with such a huge backlash. Ghost of Tsushima makes it clear from the start. It also clarifies that the requirement only applies to the multiplayer co-op portion of the game and the PlayStation overlay, meaning you can play the entire single-player campaign (the vast majority of the game) without needing a PSN account is connected. your Steam account.
My suspicion is that there never will be one Hell divers 2 PSN controversy, and all the bad press it spawned, Ghost of Tsushima The PSN requirement is said to have largely flown under the radar. Sony made this bed for themselves and now all their Steam releases with multiplayer components will be hit with a lot of negative reviews focusing solely on that.
It’s unfortunate timing. The game releases on Steam at exactly the same time that Ubisoft unveiled the first Japanese Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. That game is already mired in controversy over one of its protagonists, Yasuke, and Sony could have easily taken advantage of that by making a big deal out of it. Ghost of Tsushima Steam launch. Instead, both games have been bogged down in their own controversies. And that’s why we can’t have nice things.
Side note: I don’t see any official reviews for the game on gaming websites or YouTube, which makes me wonder if any review codes were sent out at all. That is somewhat worrying. I’ll have to walk around with it and see what’s what.
Updated 17/05
Ghost of Tsushima the reviews on Steam have improved significantly since I first posted this right after the game launched. At the time, a much higher percentage of reviews were negative. Since then, the game has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, bringing the game’s score to “Very Positive,” which is very positive!
The game is fantastic, but I think it’s still worth pointing out that by far the most common negative user reviews on Steam are focused on the PSN requirement and not anything to do with gameplay or PC performance . There are also negative reviews about performance, including crashes, freezes, the game simply does not work, and so on. Other reviews mention how it is blocked in countries without PSN.
Anyway, my point still stands: even really good games that please the majority of PC gamers are going to be criticized if you need something like PSN to play them. No one also likes that you have to use Ubisoft’s launcher when you buy the game on Steam. Activision was smart when they came out Duty on Steam and didn’t require people to also have Battle.net to run the game (although I’m less fond of that game’s launcher).
But in the end I’m happy with it Ghost of Tsushima is getting love from the PC gaming community. It really is a beautiful game and deserves all the praise and as many players as possible.
In other news, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the first game in that franchise to explore feudal Japan. It looks really good, although I’m always a bit wary of Ubisoft games these days.