The creator of the high-profile God of War Ragnarok PSN-bypass mod has reportedly pulled it offline with out rationalization.
Simply days after the PlayStation sport God of War Ragnarok launched on PC to a ‘blended’ Steam consumer evaluate ranking over its compelled PlayStation Community account linking, a mod was launched that bypassed the requirement solely.
Sony had made it clear on the God of War Ragnarok Steam web page {that a} PlayStation Community account can be required to play Sony Santa Monica’s purely single-player journey, however that failed to forestall a quantity of damaging evaluations singling out the coverage.
One modder going by the title iArtorias took issues into their very own palms by stripping out the PSN requirement. iArtorias’ NoPSSDK mod, which had been downloaded hundreds of occasions from Nexus Mods earlier than its elimination, “totally strips the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for God of War Ragnarok.”
However as a result of the mod eliminated the PSN overlay from the sport and mimicked an offline mode within the course of, it was getting used to bypass the PSN / Steam account linking requirement. IGN verified the mod labored earlier than its elimination.
Posting earlier this week on Nexus Mods, iArtorias vowed to take care of their mod even when Sony updates God of War Ragnarok to fight it. “I’ll attempt to preserve the instrument even when one thing modifications, however hopefully nothing essential occurs,” they mentioned.
However at this time, September 26, the mod is now not accessible from Nexus Mods or Github. In a tweet, Nexus Mods insisted NoPSSDK had been faraway from its website “by the writer” and was looking for out why. It appears probably Sony took a dim view of iArtorias’ mod, but it surely’s unclear at this level if the corporate obtained in contact to request its elimination or whether or not iArtorias took it upon themselves to take action. IGN has tried to contact iArtorias by way of Nexus Mods, and has requested Sony for remark.
Earlier than the elimination of the mod, iArtorias had obtained requests to launch an identical mod for Sony’s different not too long ago launched PC video games, equivalent to Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Tsushima requires a PSN account for the Legends on-line multiplayer mode and to make use of PlayStation overlay, however it isn’t required to play the single-player sport.
Sony’s PSN account requirement for its PC video games was thrust into the limelight with the discharge of Arrowhead’s explosive PC and PS5 co-op shooter Helldivers 2 earlier this yr. Helldivers 2 suffered a evaluate bomb marketing campaign on Steam after Sony made PSN accounts obligatory for PC players on Valve’s platform (Arrowhead subsequently determined to show the Steam consumer evaluate historical past graph right into a cape, which is prepared for launch however has but to launch).
Sony finally backed down and reversed Helldivers 2’s PSN account requirement, however the sport stays unavailable within the many nations that lack PSN. And certainly all Sony’s video games on PC now undergo from this drawback, which implies God of War Ragnarök is unavailable on PC in over 100 nations.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.