Yes they're doubling down on the **** move they did with Helldivers, the game is still not available for sale still in the 170 countries, I think they even added 3 more to the sell ban, even when the game in it's entirety no longer requires PSN.
The fact that they're doing the same with Ghost of Tsushima, a game that's mostly single player and doesn't require PSN unless you join the multiplayer is a big screw you to the customers. Although this could still be a Steam decision since they're technically selling an incomplete game to everyone outside the PSN bubble.
All these big corporations are fighting themselves recently on who is the biggest piece of sh*t.
I really wanted to own Ghost of Tsushima, since I've never owned a PlayStation, but now I'll have to sail the high seas.
But hey, the industry is in a "lack of growth", we must close studios with successful releases and block the selling of our games to more than half the globe for the sake of customer data. Ignore the record sales being broken every year including this one, lol.
That dig at MS: are you absolutely sure the studios they closed had suc$$e$ful games? Or merely well reviewed by critics and fans of that specific niche?
Without going too far, remember what happened to DISHONORED 2. Good game the gamers ignored. Price dropped 50% in two months. The DLC got reworked into a standalone half price game. Then staff left and REDFALL happened.
Only MS really knows what hapened there but it is too easy to cast aspersions blindly without looking at the actual profit and loss data.
Even Sony isn't totally clueless.
Remember that, unlike MS with profitable datacenters all over the world for AZURE they can use for PC games, Sony's datacenters are cost centers, not profit centers. Supporting extra countries costs them money. And since their business is P(l)aystation first, controlling access is critical to maintaining their walled garden.
Regardless of the publisher, MS, SONY, EA, UBISOFT, they need to make a profit to stay in business. Something the snarky games media forgets, probably on purpose since snarky headlines make for good click bait.