First of all, I've been unable to find the exact department I've been dealing with on here. I've recently contacted PlayStation Support via the PlayStation dot support email address at Sony dot com and it's been an incredible struggle getting anywhere with them. This is obviously technically about "PlayStation Support."I've also contacted them via live chat on the site and also contacted them via their European phone number. The live chat didn't really get me anywhere and the person on the phone appeared to ignore me - as the phone went completely quiet - and then hung up. Very professional...Firstly, I've been having significant problems with Gran Turismo 7 - yes, the most disliked game of 2022 on PS5 by users on Metacritic - because it's online-only. Yes, bemusingly approximately 5% of the game is available offline; you need to have a combination of a PlayStation network account and a constant internet connection to use most of the game. There is no career mode, or anything of consequence offline; the only thing available is a tedious time-trial mode and an arcade mode. Both are reminiscent of those mind-numbing arcade racing games that were developed to rob people of their coins years ago. Even more annoyingly, the cutscene at the beginning cannot be skipped, updates only function while logged in to a PlayStation account online and the game running; and all saves are saved online; the latter means you cannot begin a new game without creating an entirely new PlayStation account... Yes, really... Absolutely frightening technological extremism here, so you can probably understand my frustrations. So no starting a game again just to enjoy the beginning parts, which are typically the best parts of games. That is my main issue with saves needing to be online; having to create another account is an absolute nuisance, and personally, I dislike the fact they'll have access to what people do in-game. It is technological extremism.To me, because I don't particularly believe in online games, I'm not remotely interested. Polyphony, likely motivated by the backlash on Metacritic, mentioned they've developed online-only to "prevent cheating." I question exactly why that's been implemented for single-player / career mode, though? My bemusement is that it should have been required for multiplayer only, because that's surely where the issues of all that pointless competitiveness surely reside? I'll point out the obvious reasons Gran Turismo 7 was programmed to be online-only: micro-transactions, data analysis and data selling. Forcing people online means micro-transaction purchases are ALWAYS possible vs invisible to those offline. Data analysis - based on how people play - aids their development. The fact saves are only available on their servers means that data is theirs for that. A constant internet connection works for Sony from a data-gathering and selling perspective, too, as they can profile individuals more efficiently and make more money per head due to them having to be online. This is simply how the online world works... It's cynical from Polyphony and Sony...Anyway, complaining about Gran Turismo 7 aside, PlayStation Support haven't been particularly helpful since regarding my attempts to get a refund; they claim it's because they cannot give refunds of physical games that weren't purchased on the store. They directed me to the retailer who incidentally already said I couldn't get a refund for the game because it was "used and opened." While the box has a small icon that says something like "requires online," it's rather small, and something that most simply WILL NOT notice. Product descriptions of the game barely mentioned its crucial requirements, either. It was handled in the small print, which is really scummy, underhanded and cynical in general. This was my argument and was inevitably on deaf ears. A truly responsible and respectable corporation Sony, aren't they...?The biggest problem since, however, is they've categorically ignored every email since their last reply. Initial point-of-contact was late November 2022, and a series of emails have been ignored since December 22nd 2022. I find this all fascinating because it's realistically them c******g on people with their policies and slamming the door on anything that seems realistically unfortunate on the customer. Intriguingly, it reminds me of a sketch a certain George Carlin did regarding businessmen. Worth a watch and shows how utterly s*****d we all are whenever we purchase anything. Also, I've had issues with DLC for another game; downloads were cancelled because I entered another redeem code. They still haven't sorted this after around 6 weeks...My advice: avoid that game, stick with PC, or go for Xbox.
