Ghost of Tsushima PC pre-orders cancelled in non-PSN countries
In a surprising turn of events, pre-orders for the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima have been canceled and refunded in over 170 nations, without PlayStation Network (PSN) access. This decision was reported by Eurogamer and comes despite the game's main component being playable without a PSN account. The cancelation was implemented by major gaming platforms including Steam, Epic Games Store, and Green Man Gaming.
Game delisted despite single-player mode exemption
Valve, the company behind Steam, has abruptly delisted Ghost of Tsushima in the affected countries. The game only needs PSN account linking for its Legends multiplayer mode, a detail explicitly stated by the game's developer. This requirement does not extend to the single-player campaign. However, despite this exemption, Steam along with Green Man Gaming and Epic Games Store have removed the game from their listings. Steam has begun sending out messages to gamers, who are being refunded for their pre-purchase.
Similar situation occurred with Helldivers 2
This situation echoes the recent incident involving Helldivers 2. Sony had announced mandatory PSN account linking for the game, which had been available in non-PSN countries for nearly three months. Despite a backlash that saw the game's Steam rating plummet from "overwhelmingly positive" to "overwhelmingly negative," leading to Sony reversing its decision, Steam did not lift the sale restrictions. This precedent adds context to the current Ghost of Tsushima issue.
New regions added to Steam's sale-restricted list
Yesterday, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were added to Steam's list of sale-restricted countries. Johan Pilestedt, CEO of Arrowhead, revealed on Discord that he was not informed about these newly-added regions, and only discovered this through the game's Discord community. He later clarified that this was due to Valve finding an administrative error, and these countries were supposed to be on the list from the start. Pilestedt is currently working toward getting PlayStation and Valve to reverse these sale restrictions.
