So there was some speculation whether Valve delisted the 177 (now 180) countries to protect itself legally or if Sony had done it for Sony reasons. It appears that Sony has been confirmed to be the one who delisted it
Yeah. From a legal perspective I can’t see steam modifying a game for a publisher at all. It can remove the game. But going in there and modifying any settings makes steam liable. Which they wouldn’t want to touch with a 10-ft hole especially with this game
Hard to say. Obviously not a lawyer, but I’d say that it’s within Valve’s rights to decide which games it sells to which region at a whim, particularly when they could’ve also become liable if they knowingly continued selling a “defective” product in those regions.
That said, putting the legal perspective aside, I doubt that Valve would’ve done anything that could’ve hurt their relationship with Sony without consulting with them first.
Conceivably I could see them delisting a game in specific regions which shouldn’t be legally purchasable if, say, PSN is required but not available legally, abd thereby protect consumers.
I really hope collecting the data is worth it for Sony. Seems like a big big mistake.