>And yes, I know PSN supports less countries than Steam, but how many people on the internet really reside in one of those non-supported areas? I would bet it is less than 84,000 people.
It was delisted from 177 regions [0]. This apparently includes the CIS region [1], which has a population of nearly 240 million. You might be underestimating a bit.
There's so many confounding variables that there's no way to know if that's true or not. People often speak English on the internet, despite it not being their first language. Not every one of these regions may have heard about this in the few days it was active and so may have not participated in the reviews. And some people will just suck it up and say oh well, despite being affected. Regardless of the number affected (which is not insignificant), it completely prevents them from using a product which they purchased, and that's simply not acceptable.
>Regardless of the number affected (which is not insignificant), it completely prevents them from using a product which they purchased, and that's simply not acceptable.
I'd agree with refunds on a core level, yes.
I think my main issue here is that people who very much can access PSN are the ones making the most fuss. So it feels like a deflection rather than a core inability to play from players.
Also, the fact that this isn't the first time these regions had to deal with PSN. I bet some of them simply made accounts on a nearby, supported country. I'd bet the number of accounts being banned for such situations is multiple magnitudes less than the review bomb.
I don't think there's any evidence that this is the case, but even if it is true, so what? If anything, it's good to see American gamers standing up for those from other countries. An injury to one is an injury to all, and solidarity is the only way you can make large companies pay attention.
Steam reviews (and the ones review bombed) are predominantly English, so I don't think they affected as much as this implies.