God of War Ragnarok requires a PlayStation Network account on PC, suggesting that Sony learned very little from its Helldivers 2 snafu

God of War Ragnarok is heading to PC in September, but you'll need a PSN account in order to play it via Steam. 

Announced during the PlayStation State of Play, God of War Ragnarok PC brings Kratos and Atreus to Steam in the wake of God of War 2018's port a couple of years ago. As well as things like Ultrawide support, enhanced framerates, and various other nice PC features, the port also comes with Valhalla, Ragnarok's very good epilogue-meets-roguelike expansion. 

Unfortunately, it also resurrects something a little less well-received. Notes on the reveal trailer and a PlayStation Blog post about the game suggested that PlayStation Network account linking would be required, and while it initially looked as though that might only be for the unlocking of certain cosmetics, the Steam page is somewhat less ambiguous about that - right at the top of the page, a big red box reads that a "PlayStation Network Account [is] required, subject to the PlayStation Terms of Service."

Cast your mind back a couple of weeks, and you'll remember that Sony found itself in a substantial mess over the requirement that Helldivers 2 players on PC link their accounts to PSN. That change saw a huge backlash against the game, which is yet to be relisted in several countries that don't offer PSN support. Its effect was also felt by Ghost of Tsushima, which similarly required a PSN link for its own PC version, which launched earlier this month.

Sony is likely to stick to its guns around this PSN connectivity, and even if it does change its mind, the Ragnarok decision was likely made before the Helldivers 2 issue. Nevertheless, right now it certainly feels like a tricky PR spot, and I have a feeling that this latest update won't really help fix things for Sony.

Keep an eye on our list of upcoming PS5 games.