A few days ago, Sony letGod of War Ragnarökrun free on Steam,nearly two years after its debut on PlayStation 5. However, there’s been a bit of contention regarding the publisher’s insistence that players need a PSN account, even if they don’t have the console version. Or even the console itself.
We are happy to confirm that God of War Ragnarök is VERIFIED on Steam Deck! Play the epic conclusion of the Norse Saga on your handheld device today!pic.twitter.com/5e6wxGbTpa
The modder says the download is a “tiny library that fully strips the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement,” after some players encountered problems with the port of the game. They do make it clear that the mod is not intended to encourage piracy, nor does it “touch or modify any original game code.”
A quick look at the mod’s history demonstrates that it may not be a guaranteed fix for everyone, or at least not a permanent one. A few comments raise issues around sudden curveballs to navigate from Sony, like getting stuck on account linking threads, but iArtoriasUA has since patched the issue. Regardless, as future patches roll out, it’s worth noting Sony may introduce or change requirements that could result in modded PC copies getting locked out.
Sony strikes again with its PSN demands
At the time of writing,God of War Ragnarökhas aSteam review scoreof “mixed.” Indeed, while a lot of people seem pleased with the game, there have been a few comments regarding Sony’s PSN account requirement.
This is also not the first time Sony has come under fire for this tactic. Earlier this year, it was announced that those who wanted to playHelldivers 2on PCwould also need to connect up a PlayStation Network account. There was quite the backlash from the community, andSony eventually backpedaledon the idea.
As forGod of War Ragnarök, developer Santa Monica recently published Patch 2, with the update intending to fix some issues with Nvidia Frame Generation and Reflex, as well as tweaks to the UI. You can see the full patch noteshere. The developer also recently announced thatRagnarökhas been verified on Steam Deck.
Whether Sony will change its mind about PC players having to link to PSN remains to be seen at this stage, but we saw what happened withHelldivers 2. For now, you may have to use iArtorias’ mod.
