Helldivers 2 players can finally breathe a sigh of relief following a controversial week as Sony has decided to reverse course on its previously announced requirement to have PC players link a PlayStation Network account to their Steam to continue playing the game.
After Sony announced the requirement last week, hundreds of thousands of players review-bombed the highly popular shooter and demanded refunds. This forced the video game company to post an announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding the issue.
Sony Reverses Course on Helldivers 2
(Photo : Arrowhead Game Studios / Screenshot taken from Steam)
In the post, Sony said that they have heard player feedback regarding the PSN linking requirement and will no longer be moving forward with the efforts, which would have started on May 30, 2024.
This highlights the sheer number of players who made their voices heard in defiance of the requirement. A few hours after the initial announcement that Sony made, Helldivers 2 had received more than 14,000 negative reviews on Steam.
This later rose to more than 200,000 negative reviews in the two days that came after, according to The Verge.
This review bombing was strong enough to drag the game's "overwhelmingly positive" rating down to "overwhelmingly negative." While such actions are usually seen as an extreme decision that players can take, the recent efforts were apparently encouraged by one of Helldivers 2's community managers.
Spitz wrote in the game's Discord server, "I want people to make their displeasure known in a place where it might actually make a difference." He added that Steam reviews and refund requests will be able to do that.
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However, Helldivers 2's players were not content with just going after the game itself. Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt also expressed his dismay at players targeting the original Helldivers game.
Furthermore, after Spitz urged players to review bomb and request refunds for their copies of Helldivers 2, he was faced with criticism from the publisher. After Saturday, the community manager stopped posting on the Helldivers 2 Discord, prompting concerns that he was fired, said PCGamer.
Requiring Players To Link a PSN Account
When he returned after leaving the Discord server, he responded to the concerns, saying that he was almost fired, but not quite. He elaborated that "Turns out that telling people to review-bomb and refund a game isn't a popular decision with the publisher."
Sony's decision to require Steam players to link a PSN account to continue playing Helldivers 2 came as the game pulled in a ton of goodwill from players. The game had been a smash hit for both PlayStation 5 and PC.
Its now-reversed decision was supposedly based on concern over players' safety and security. However, PSN had already previously been the target of attacks as it is not the most secure network in the world.
The video game company had also removed the game from Steam listings in countries that do not have PSN coverage. What happens with fans who want to dive into the world of the popular hero shooter still remains uncertain and no official word has been released so far, according to Forbes.
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