SONY is responsible for the PSN MTX debacle?

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CloudIVXX#4358 wrote:

It’s truly a shame that nobody has any information as to why GGG decided they weren’t going to transfer the PSN mtx. I wonder why they won’t do it. Honestly. Doesn’t make any sense to me. Just keep hearing rumors of how Sony is the fault, but again no proof.

If the only proof that'll satisfy you is a transcript of the negotiations, then go get a job at Sony or GGG, because they won't make that sort of document public.

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I personally don't play the blame game when something goes wrong in my business and am confused as to how SONY has any power over what GGG does with their own game. Does SONY own GGG now?

Your argument can be summed up as "I don't understand why GGG would have to listen to Sony to keep their game on the Playstation Store."

Sure, GGG can do what they want. They can ignore that negotiations didn't go through with Sony, and allow MTX bought on PSN to be used on PC.

But Sony can do what they want too, and if GGG violates a contract with Sony (there wouldn't need to be negotiations unless doing this would go against an existing contract), then Sony can pull the game from the Playstation Store.



Let's go a step further and try finding such a contract. A little time with Google suggests that may be the "PlayStation Global Developer & Publisher Agreement" (GDPA), along with some examples.

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9.2.1 Distribution Channel for Digitally Delivered Products. Unless expressly approved in writing by all SCE Companies in the relevant Territories, Digitally Delivered Products and any subscriptions or services associated with Licensed Products shall be distributed through PSN only, in accordance with this Section 9.

Now, I'm no lawyer, but this sounds like anything bought on the PSN "shall be distributed through PSN only". If you buy it on PSN and are able to use it in-game on PC, then it's being distributed not on PSN.

Even if my interpretation about this is wrong--as long as Sony takes this interpretation, Sony could end the contract and remove PoE and PoE 2 from the Playstation Store. It'd either take a multi-year lawsuit or a lot more money than Sony might've asked for during the initial negotiations to change that--neither of which would be good for PoE 2's launch.

Simple answer. Sony takes 30% cut from purchases made on their platform. If GGG wants their game on PS they need to obey. SONY is always the one making problems with crossplay for that reason.

Lmao! If I were GGG, I would pay for you to never play my game again...

You didn't respond to my previous post when you last made a comment on this very topic, so I'll repeat what I said. You said you want facts, so here's the facts as we know them:

- On PC, all MTX (where applicable) will work on both games
- GGG have done the work to make Xbox purchases work on PC via the new account system
- Purchases on Playstation for PoE will not be able to go to PC, and nor will they work on Playstation if purchased on PC
- GGG are not following the industry standard by allowing their previous purchases to be valid in their new game

Here's some other facts:

- Other games such as Fortnite, Rocket League and Warframe have shown that Sony do not like cross play as a general rule, and make companies like Epic pay Sony for crossplay (source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/epic-vs-apple-trial-accidentally-reveals-sonys-hatred-of-cross-play/)
- Sony have recently come under fire for their stringent account requirements for Helldivers 2
- Sony holds their exclusives on their consoles tight to their chests, with ports to PC coming years after the fact, if at all.

With all this information, we have the overall picture that Sony as a business are protective of their own playerbase, and do not want much cross pollination between their own customers and the rest of the gaming ecosystem. They're trying to do an Apple, have a closed garden approach to their console and their games. Cross play gaming goes against this ethos.

On the other hand, we have GGG, and while they're not a perfect company, their words and actions have shown to me personally that they're not taking advantage of their large player base, and are mindful of supporting them as customers. They were willing at one point to keep PoE1 and 2 as "same but different" games at one point in time, before it became untenable to keep that going, and even in doing that they're put in a massive effort to make their MTX system cross between games, a move that is rarely done in the games industry.

So you tell me, OP. What's more likely? That Sony, the company that historically has been conservative with cross platform features, disallowed GGG from allowing their microtransactions purchased on playstations to be used on PC or xbox?

Or that GGG arbitrarily disabled it because they don't like Sony or their playstation players?

I know which one feels more likely to me.

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TudoRake89#9516 wrote:

Hello!

I bought the supporter pack on the site does it work on ps5 if I have it connected or I have to buy it from the playstation store again?

Thank you!

If you intend to mainly play on PS5, please contact GGG support, I am sure they will help.

DELETE please.

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NicknamesOfGod#1810 wrote:

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AbilityPoints#9049 wrote:

OP is trolling, they even call POE a Diablo-like.

Only Diablo IV is diablo-like. All other ARPGs are now POE-like :)

Spoiler

I'm only slightly kidding about that, BTW. Seriously, look at every non-Blizzard ARPG released in the last ten years. They're clearly all either taking insprtation from, iterating on, imitating, or responding to what GGG have done. PoE1 already redefined the genre; elaborate end games and massive passive systems are table stakes now. And PoE2 is going to up the ante again.

Dungeon Siege and Dungeon Siege 2 are neither Diablo-like nor Poe-like, the PS2 had a sheer quantity of ARPGs that was difficult to match and did not translate to the next generation of gaming devices due to how unabstracted the programming was at the launch of those gaming devices (I'm talking about having to manually program which core an instruction would run on and manually program individual sound channels) which actually caused a big lurch in the industry and caused a lot of generational talent to simply leave the industry. Then we've got Gazillion and the crew that made Marvel Heroes basically being abused so badly by executives and investors that Disney pulled the license of the game they made. I keep coming back to the ones that likely would have been made as soulslikes today if they could even raise money to make them at all, such as Soul Blazer, Act Raiser, Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle (still waiting for Dark Chronology).

Anyway, to OP, yes, Sony has in place a bunch of policies it feels will protect its platform and one of those is the requirement that DLC purchased on their platform be exclusively available on their platform. I'm of the mind that in today's gaming landscape something like that won't have their desired effect and will likely have people looking elsewhere for their living room experience, but we'll see if that bears out. Sony also famously botched the release and marketting of a $40 set-top box capable of gaming in 720p back when 720p was as good for most people as 1080p is today, and it also ran netflix and other apps, which for the time was pretty huge for a $40 set top box. Sony is going to do things that it feels will make it the most money. Not the most money in the short term or the long term, just the most money.

Sony has a very long history of constantly refusing to allow anything cross platform. Cross platform games between sony system and others are incredibly rare. even when it is allowed they force developers to gut their game to near unplayability to make it happen, usually by doing things like hiding user names on other platforms, disabling chat with other platforms, and more which all basically just ruin online games for everyone. And i absolutely believe this situation is 100% on sony's fault and their end too, not even remotely GGG's fault in the slightest. I think what OP is forgetting here, SONY owns that platform, they have to approve every snippet of code and so on, even if GGG could put it in, Sony would almost certainly block the update, and even if GGG sneaks it past them, sony could sue, or worst may even disable access to game to players until resolved, or maybe just revert game to previous versions and lock it until GGG reverses their decisions or something. GGG has no power here. I am sure GGG has exhausted their attempts to negotiate this.

If anyone was playing rocket league and paying close attention to cross platform play with other platforms will know how Sony is when it comes to this stuff as well, constantly demanding they dumb down game, remove things from game like preventing cross parties, chat, and so many things and it took years for Rocket league to finally come to an agreement and solution which was an absolutely horrible solution. GGG would have to make considerable compromises that would likely ruin the game to appeal to Sony. I been telling people for a long time. stop buying their products if you support open platforms.

OP learned a lesson, maybe he can sell his PS5 back and stay on xbox and PC instead.

thats a good thing. The more negative and issues PSN/Sony has, the better for games in the end. I wish for one day that sony/PSN crashes and burns they are the scourge of the gaming industry in my eyes. I hope that platform dies eventually and that all games are available to all platforms at the same time, playign together.

That's contract law.