The "Hell Diver 2" fiasco is far from over, and Sony has reversed its widely criticized policy of conditioning gameplay on PSN; Steam, Epic, and Green Man Gaming have all announced that Sony's May 16 release of the PC version of "Ghost of Tsushima Eurogamer reports that pre-orders for "Director's Cut" are being cancelled and automatically refunded to purchasers in more than 170 countries who cannot connect to PSN.

This is especially surprising given that the game's developer made this statement last week after Steam's "Helldivers 2" was abruptly delisted in 177 countries where the PlayStation Network is not available. The only PSN account linkage required for "Ghost of Tsushima" is for the "Legend" multiplayer mode, and "is not required to play the single-player game," Sucker Punch Productions went out of its way to state in a recent post on X. Steam, Green Man Gaming, Epic Games Store, and other online stores each had similar disclaimers.

With that in mind, one would think that players who are not interested in the multiplayer mode and only want to experience the single-player campaign (i.e., the bulk of the game) could also play. However, the reality is that this is not the case. Over the weekend, Steam deregistered "Ghost of Tsushima" in 177 countries that cannot legally register on PSN. Those who had already pre-ordered the PC version of "Ghost of Tsushima" began receiving automatic refunds.

According to The Verge, the Steam team sent the following message to players who will be refunded: You have received a refund for your pre-order of "Ghost of Tsushima". The publisher of this game requires a secondary account to play parts of this game, and this account cannot be created from your country.

While there has been no official announcement from Sony, Steam, or Sucker Punch itself regarding an automatic refund, the game's subreddit has been flooded with complaints from players who have pre-ordered the game only to find their orders have been canceled. It is unclear whether the storefront is delisting and refunding games on its own, or whether Sony has instructed them to do so.

Sony's mandate to work with PSN can only be described as disastrous. However, this case is considerably more straightforward than what happened with Helldivers 2, and highlights Sony's growing pains as it moves to port more of its titles to the PC.

One thing that Sony may not have anticipated was that Steam, and by extension the PC version of Helldivers 2, was available in more countries than PSN. Therefore, Sony did not mandate a link to PSN accounts until three months after the game's release, meaning that players in non-PSN-enabled regions could be locked out of the game they had paid for and were playing. After widespread outcry and review bombardment, Sony withdrew the change. Despite this, Helldivers 2 remains delisted from Steam in 177 countries where players cannot legally sign up for PSN.

Sony's previous PC ports, such as "God of War" and "Horizon Zero Dawn," were single-player only and did not require a link to a PSN account; "Ghost of Tsushima" has a multiplayer mode, Sony is probably trying to get ahead of this issue before a repeat of what happened with "Helldivers 2" occurs. At the same time, Sony announced a PC port of "Ghost of Tsushima" in March. It is undeniably frustrating for players to find out that a game they have pre-ordered months in advance is no longer available in their country for reasons beyond their control. And within a week of its release.