Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was recently removed from digital stores on PC and saw a price hike on PlayStation to make way for the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. It has now been confirmed that PC users will need a PlayStation Network account in order to play the remastered game.
This aligns with Sony’s new approach on PC which asks users to link an existing Epic or Steam account to a PSN account in order to boot up and play these PlayStation ports. The move has been a controversial one. It started during the launch of Helldivers 2 and caused a major uproar from fans. So much so that the game was review-bombed. The account integration was then removed from the game.
However, newer PlayStation PC ports haven’t been so lucky. Ghost of Tsushima and God of War Ragnarok both came with the mandatory account link feature. One modder was able to mod the PSN account feature out of God of War Ragnarok but Sony had the mod removed faster than you can say “We don’t need a Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster”.
While linking your PSN account to your preferred PC store isn’t a big deal, the feature does mean that in countries where the PlayStation Network isn’t available, these games simply won’t be available. Now I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal. How many countries don’t have the PSN, right? But there are actually quite a number of countries around the world that are PlayStation Network-less.
The majority of countries in Africa don’t have the PSN. Egypt and various European Union regions too. These include Belarus and The Baltics. So while many of you can easily link your accounts, some players can’t even buy the game in the first place.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is launching on 31 October for PC and PS5. The game is a complete new purchase on PC. If you own the PS4 version, you can pay for an upgrade to the remaster.
