After a wild weekend filled with outrage, refund requests, review bombs, and a lot of online chatter, players of Helldivers 2 are free to deliver democracy to the galaxy once again. Sony has reversed course and will not require Helldivers 2 players on Steam to create and connect a PSN account in order to play the game. The weekend’s events show the power that consumers still have and how disconnected from reality companies like Sony can be.
The drama began when it was announced that an update releasing on May 6 would require PC players to link a PSN account to play the online game. The account linking has been optional since the game was released in February. While this may not sound like a big deal, the issue comes from the fact that PSN is available in only a percentage of the countries that Steam is available in. That means the linking requirement would render the game unplayable for anyone in those countries. The outrage was immediate and the response resounding. The game’s review score plummeted and players requested refunds in large quantities. Helldivers 2 had gone from the surprise hit of the year to the bottom of the barrel of public opinion.
The most incredible part of this story is the response from Sony and the studio, Arrowhead. The Arrowhead CEO communicated with fans on X/Twitter and admitted his own fault in the crisis, though he did reiterate it was not up to him where the game was sold since that was the main issue. Steam granted refunds after Arrowhead signed off on it and the CEO vowed to help gain back trust. Sony saw the writing on the wall and that it was alienating its burgeoning PC audience and reversed course, an action that surprised a lot of people.
Now it is up to players to show they are happy with this concession and review scores for Helldivers 2 on Steam seem to be showing that already. The game is obviously a lot of fun to play and there will likely be no noticeable difference in player count from before this decision was reversed to now. Helldivers 2 is available on PS5 and PC.
