It would appear that Sony has elected to call down a 500kg bomb strategem on the PC-using playerbase of Helldivers 2, as a previously optional requirement for Steam players to enjoy the popular co-op shooter will soon no longer be optional.
On Thursday evening, the game’s Steam page shared an announcement from Sony that the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account will be fully enforced for new players of the game starting on May 6th, while existing Steam players have until June 4th to meet the demand. The announcement claims that this is for safety and security reasons, as it’s the company’s “main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior.”
Arrowhead later released an FAQ about the requirement, which repeats much of the corporate boilerplate that Sony coughed up in its original statement.
This linking of accounts isn’t technically news, as the game’s main Steam page does outline the requirement and firing up the game for the first time also calls out the requirement. However, the mandate became optional when the game’s servers began to creak under the strain, which had the additional effect of letting players who live in countries without PSN access buy and enjoy the title.
It’s that potential for losing that access that’s part of widespread player backlash, as Helldivers 2 PC fans answer Sony’s demand in the most Helldiver way possible: with the use of all available heavy ordinance. Gamers have been flooding the three general chat channels in the title’s Discord with furious messages for a day and a half, a review bombing of the shooter on Steam has sunk overall reviews to “Mixed” and recent reviews to “Mostly Negative” levels, and the shooter’s subreddit is absolutely on fire with messages of anger, suggestions that Sony is breaking EU GDPR laws, and messages of solidarity for fans being left in the lurch.
Other complaints being raised by PC fans include repeated references to the PSN’s spotty history of security and a general distaste for having to set up another account to play a game they purchased and enjoyed for months without the need for a link; on that point, many were referring to a related FAQ from Sony that first said account linking was optional for PC fans, though Sony changed the language of that FAQ on the sly.
The tsunami of rage has sent Arrowhead into a scramble: CEO Johan Pilestedt initially directed players to Sony support, then later provided some more personal messages about the matter, admitting that the news should have been handled better and expressing his disappointment and understanding at tanking Steam user reviews. Pilestedt also confirmed Arrowhead is in talks with Sony regarding fans outside of PSN’s reach.
Many of those messages were repeated by other members of the community management team, who claimed that Sony was tying the studio’s hands or otherwise expressed understanding that the publisher would want to make use of its reporting tools.
Their tune might be changing however: CM Spitz is suggesting that players should voice their displeasure in order to give Arrowhead leverage in discussions with Sony and claims assurance that if a better solution isn’t provided that Arrowhead won’t make the requirement mandatory. Incidentally, Spitz was another source of rage from the playerbase after initially dismissive comments, but he since apologized, claiming he wasn’t aware of how few countries had PSN access.
It’s unclear whether or not Sony will walk back this mandate, what will happen to the game’s goodwill, and what will become of PC players who aren’t covered by the PSN umbrella. For now, all fans can do is sit and watch.
