177 countries, it's crazy. Sony's decision about Ghost of Tsushima on Steam must be a mistake. Sony needs to rectify, again.

This package can NOT be activated or purchased in specified countries: Afghanistan; Aland Islands; Albania; Algeria; American Samoa; Angola; Anguilla; Antarctica; Antigua and Barbuda; Armenia; Aruba; Azerbaijan; Bahamas; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belarus; Belize; Benin; Bermuda; Bhutan; Bonaire/Sint Eustatius/Saba; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Botswana; Bouvet Island; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Brunei Darussalam; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Cayman Islands; Central African Republic; Chad; Christmas Island; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Comoros; Congo; Cook Islands; Cuba; Curaçao; Côte d'Ivoire; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Egypt; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Estonia; Eswatini; Ethiopia; Falkland Islands (Malvinas); Faroe Islands; Federated States of Micronesia; Fiji; French Guiana; French Polynesia; French Southern Territories; Gabon; Gambia; Georgia; Ghana; Gibraltar; Greenland; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Guam; Guernsey; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Heard and Mc Donald Islands; Holy See (Vatican City State); Iran; Iraq; Isle of Man; Jamaica; Jersey; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Kiribati; Kyrgyzstan; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Latvia; Lesotho; Liberia; Libya; Lithuania; Macau; Madagascar; Malawi; Maldives; Mali; Marshall Islands; Martinique; Mauritania; Mauritius; Mayotte; Monaco; Mongolia; Montenegro; Montserrat; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nauru; Nepal; New Caledonia; Niger; Nigeria; Niue; Norfolk Island; North Korea; North Macedonia; Northern Mariana Islands; Pakistan; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Pitcairn; Puerto Rico; Republic of Moldova; Rwanda; Réunion; Saint Barthélemy; Saint Helena; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; San Marino; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; Serbia; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Sint Maarten (Dutch part); Solomon Islands; Somalia; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; South Sudan; Sri Lanka; State of Palestine; Sudan; Suriname; Svalbard and Jan Mayen; Syria; Tajikistan; Timor-Leste; Togo; Tokelau; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Tunisia; Turkmenistan; Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuvalu; U.S. Virgin Islands; Uganda; United Republic of Tanzania; United States Minor Outlying Islands; Uzbekistan; Vanuatu; Venezuela; Viet Nam; Wallis and Futuna; Western Sahara; Yemen; Zambia; Zimbabwe

I expected PSN integration because Ghost was stated to have PS trophy support and how are you going to earn trophies without a PSN account and it was needed for multiplayer. Not sure how they can resolve that unless they remove multiplayer from the PC version.

I am curious with how they will approach God of War Ragnarok as that is the rumored next PS exclusive coming to PC. Wonder if they are just going to drop trophy support for PC or keep it which will require PSN. I do think the solution for Sony would be to increase PSN access to those countries that do not have it and make PSN accounts optional (restricting some features like multiplayer or trophy support if users dont use it).

Ehhh I could care less about the trophy support.

As for PSN being absent why are Puerto Rico, Nigeria, Monaco, Morocco, San Marino and Sri Lanka missing? Oh yeah Kenya too. Virgin Islands too, A number of people may have Playstations or can afford it, esp. Monaco.

Becaus it is not about wheter you can afford a PS or not, there is people in all countries that can do so. It is the countries where PlayStation Network is not avaiable. Currently there are 121 countries where it is not availablem full list here - https://insider-gaming.com/countries-that-dont-have-psn/

edit - the reasons why is mostly to do with different legal frameworks in those countries (and a couple due to sanctions). Sony decided that instead of trying to make a service that fits them all, they vent for the cheaper option of just doing the most basic version that fits USA, Japan, most of Europe, and then adding on the countries that did not have las that is against that framework, and basically screw any other contry where there is a deviation from those laws. Quaick and cheap solution, also a dirty solution

Hmmm... they learn the hard way. History has told to never trust Sony so why should we now?
I think this is a dispute from Sony and Steam for getting into their ecosystem. But their innovations have shown Steam has the upper hand on the consumers with Steam Deck and customer service. Sony streaming handheld thing just can't compete and Playstation 5 Pro sales will probably hurt from this backlash. PC games = PC gamers that's what sony thinks. Stupid I guess...

Just an FYI, there are 195 countries (so sayeth google)

I don't disagree with some of this sentiment but at times I feel like XBox fanboys have made so many more excuses for them. Oh and those who don't realize they are XBox fanboys. I don't know if this is some misguided sense of loyalty because MS is an American company or what.
When you bring up Mistwalker their excuse is it didn't sell enough. "Lost Odyssey" didn't sell as well as expected but it has held up as being a real FF successor to those who love pre-FFXII FF. "Blue Dragon" sold huge in Japan and bought XBox an opening that was wasted, they needed more good locked-in(not timed) Japanese exclusives as the war with the PS2/Sony was one of attrition. THIS type of war is one MS has constantly proved they are unwilling to committ to. They have unrealistic expectations constantly.
As big a problem as Sony has been their problems are a LOT easier to fix. Have they made poor decisions? Yes, Playstation TV should have been marketed as "Roku with games" to the average consumer. It was a perfect way to leverage their Vita, PSOne and PSP collection and for gamers it was perfect for retro later. Eventually it would have been able to drop to $100 naturally. It would have given us a Vita 2 this way.
Their three biggest problems now are easily addressible and some even dovetail into one another. Put a cap on their games currently to what Gravity Rush 2 costs. Sony prides itself on exclusives selling the console which is smart but they are letting the cost inflate to absurd proportions which has seen the PS5 have like, what, 7 Sony exclusives in the last 4 or 5 years since the console released. The response then is "Why bother? I'll get a PC.". If they had more reasonably budgeted games it would maybe even have 30 by this point or more. When we get into the clear firm double digits and they AREN'T remakes then people start looking at a console. At this point Sony should have that many easily.
Some of that wasted cost is on consultants who really don't know the audience of gamers well. Cut that fat or spend a minimum if you need them on low interest loans. These consultants will NOT expand the gaming audience, sorry to tell. If the Wii didn't show that having a massive casual audience isn't worthless I don't know what will.

edit: That casual audience is the one the consultants are chasing I hope I made clear(I assume this at least). The Wii had a horrible attach rate for games even if it had huge numbers.

They've recently actually added Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to the list of delisted countries. If they were planning on backtracking on the PSN demand, they'd start re-listing the game in the countries they removed it from to not lower sales, right?

Meaning Sony has no intent to actually back down from the PSN requirements and it is pretty much guaranteed that people from one of the impacted states will never be able to normally buy a Sony game again.

Sony is trying to get people to make PSN accounts so they can then sell products directly to them, likely bypassing Steam in the process. The main thing is likely PS Plus although maybe MTX and DLC are bundled in there. I know a ton of people on GOG hate streaming services for games but its honestly a great deal, especially if you are a casual gamer or dont care that much about ownership which I strongly believe the vast majority of gamers are (or GOG would be far bigger and Steam not as much).

When it comes to people simping companies, no company is more simped for than Valve though. They did a really good job marketing themselves as the "good guy" and lets face it, PC gamers eat it up. A casual look into Valve history shows that they introduced MTX into video games, mainstreamed DRM, and destroyed game ownership for the sake of convenience but PC gamers still love them. I would understand if they were an acceptable evil gamers begrudlingly accept to access a huge library of games but people literally boycott or pirate games because they "arnt on steam" and take the stance it is ok to pirate from big studios (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft) but not Valve. That is crazy to me.

Unfortunately true. Even for things like Game Pass. 90% of the people will go "all this for only $1? trial? SIGN ME UP" and don't give a 2nd thought to anything else, be it ownership or the eventual negative impact a model like this will have on the industry as a whole.

I used Game Pass on XBox but it had the opposite response from me as I use it to try unknown stuff I will buy it on GOG. Case in point, Frostpunk.

Streaming games is awful as there isn't ownership and the quality is inferior. PS Now was first 720p only and Stereo sound. Imagine that if you were trying to play Ni No Kuni which has a great soundtrack.

The thing, though, is that (as with movies) many people are not really interested in "owning" the game, they just want to play it once and that's it. So for those people this model works fine. It is not for you (nor me), but for some others? yeah it fits. .

I agree with this take. Not to be rude but there are alot of one and done games, especially now. A game maybe worth experiencing once but not multiple times. Gaming is more involved than tv which is a passive consumption experience but there are games you are fine playing through once and not touching again or even trying out to see what the fuss is about, especially modern games tbh. Steaming should be considered renting. You are able to try a wide variety of games or films for a faction of the price but if you want to replay and enjoy on a more permanent basis, buy.

The issue comes when streaming becomes the only form of consumption. Physical media is dead and everything is a streaming service like current modern tv. Combine that with the average consumer's very poor understanding of "ownership” like "buying" a movie through Amazon Prime, only to have it leave the service and thus become unwatchable, nevermind the inability to resell your "license" to someone else to own it.

To say Gamepass/PS Plus sucks and shouldnt exist is a bad take when it is a really good deal. To embrace Gamepass/PS Plus/EA Pass/etc as the mainstream form of game consumption especially in light of the fact that physical releases of games are becoming increasingly more rare even in the console space, is a recipe for disaster that far too many people are closing their eyes too. I really find it funny and sad how so many gamers are "up in arms" with Ubisoft saying "gamers should get used to not owning their games" with talks of "if buying isnt owning then piracy isnt stealing." Gamers are already half way there NOT owning their games.

While this is good for now, it's going to hurt gaming and ownership overall later down the road that will have a negative externality on all of us.

It's classic Silicon Valley Business 101. Make a service enticing to use with high level of service and subsidies from the company's pockets, venture capitalists, angel investors, etc. to rapidly gain market share. Then when saturation is achieved, management starts cutting costs, multi-tiering their services, and jack up the prices to maximize profitability.

Streaming, ridesharing, food delivery, social media, Youtube, Spotify, etc. are all displaying signs of decreased levels of services and higher prices. And since the games industry will always follow in the footstep trends of their film/TV entertainment industry older sibling, gaming will follow suit. Then no one won't bother to sell their game standalone because the niche market will be too small to be worth pursuing. Where have I heard that before? You're absolutely right. Them and the "piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" Steam crowd are extremely misguided because they're trying to have their cake and eat it too. If they cared about ownership in the first place, they would've already started cracking their DRM (legally) and/or switched to DRM-free only.

If they permanently remove themselves from the market by pirating, then those companies are just going to ignore them and go after the lower-hanging fruit that are still voting with their wallet until the well dries up. It costs significantly more to try to fight against gravity than to go with the flow.

Exactly this, because it seems the direction the industry desperately wants to move towards. If it was just an extra option, it would be actually great. But a future where subbing to a service is the only option to play games, like we basically have now with shows/movies, is a future I don't want to experience.

The problem of course being, that it's too appealing to normies because the price is comparatively low. But that is where it's necessary to talk about it and raise awareness, whenever possible and as you put it, explain why we're basically half way there already.