Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PC confirms players' concern over region-locking

With the confirmation of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PC port, fans have been anxious about how consumer-friendly this release will be. With past launches such as Helldivers 2, Sony received massive backlash for their strict PlayStation Network (PSN) account requirement and they continued to enforce this rule for subsequent launches too.

Unfortunately, the upcoming port of the acclaimed 2023 PS5 superhero game from Insomniac Games is next in line. With the official Steam page confirming a PSN requirement for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on PC too, this confirms fans' fears for what's to come next regarding consumer rights.

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Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PSN requirement on PC harms potential sales

Regions without PSN will miss out on the game unless they resort to unofficial means (Image via PlayStation)

As with most PlayStation-published games on PC thus far, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PC will require a PSN account to play, despite being a single-player experience. While the simple solution would be to make a PlayStation account, signing up for which is free, the fact remains that the service is not available in many regions.

In other words, plenty of gamers around the globe cannot create a PSN account officially, which in turn ensures those in regions without PSN support will be unable to play any of these games. This controversial move picked up steam with Helldivers 2 as the company received massive backlash for the mandatory PSN requirement.

While the co-op horde shooter's PSN requirement is understandable due to being a multiplayer game, no such requirement is needed for single-player offerings. As such, while nothing is stopping Sony from lifting this requirement on the upcoming rendition of Peter and Miles' 2023 adventure, past trends show nothing will change going forward despite pushback from the community.

This is a bizarre move given that Sony aims to further expand profits with these PC versions; however, withholding them from other regions just limits any further sales their ports may see. Recent PlayStation titles that also have this requirement on PC include Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut and God of War Ragnarok, as well as the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered - all of which are single-player as well.

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Marvel's Spider-Man 2 arrives on PC on January 30, 2025.