UPDATE*
Sony has seen the outcry from fans and has rescinded the update that was going to require PC players to log in to a PSN account in order to play Helldivers 2. Let’s hope Sony comes up with a better system to ensure player safety but not hard lock them out from an amazing game.
Original Article
This sucks so hard for fans of the 3rd person squad-based shooter spreading democracy across the galaxy. Can you imagine not being able to play your favorite new game after only 3 months, not because of a technical error or your brains being sucked out by a giant slug bug, but simply because Sony wants your email address for marketing?
Helldivers 2 received over 162,000 negative reviews on Steam in 72 hours this past weekend. Putting the viral and surprise hit game at an Overwhelmingly Negative standing after the announcement on Friday, May 3rd, that as of May 6th, players will be required to connect a PlayStation Network account to Steam to log in and play. For many, this is a non-issue and you may be like me and linked your account on Steam when I purchased the game at launch in February.
However, this is a massive blow to people living in over 170 countries worldwide who do not have the PSN available to them. The game has already been delisted from Steam in these countries, meaning you can no longer purchase it if you live in one of the affected countries. Those who have already purchased the game have no means to create an account unless they try to fake it, thus breaking Sony’s Terms of Service and risk being banned, or worse. This has left many in the Helldivers community with an effectively dead game.
From the beginning, though, account linking was a part of the game. I recall the day one prompt to link accounts when I first booted up Helldivers 2 on PC. As the official post from Sony states, the account linking process was intended to be there all along. It was only “temporarily” optional due to technical issues during the game’s initial launch. One would assume that Sony, being the mega-game-platform-corporation it is, has a plan and will be rolling out solutions in the near future.
As a massive fan of the game and its incredible reception, I hope there is a resolution on its way for those affected by this process. This negatively affects many players, but maybe the snap negativity will make Sony handle these situations a little more affable. I have been loving my time with Helldivers 2. I would hate to see something like this rob players of that experience or prevent them from continuing the fight.
Steam is doing right by players as they are issuing refunds to those who were Hellbombed by these changes. They are even going against their own policies that restrict refunds to anyone who’s played more than two hours of a game. Let’s assume Arrowhead Studios is doing everything they can as we all wait for Sony to sort things out. Hopefully, Sony isn’t shooting themselves and one of their most successful games in the face with their own grenade launcher with this change.
With Sony releasing more and more of their games on PC and the upcoming release of the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima, they must have a plan, right? Are they seriously going to cut out potential players in over 170 countries? I would think the answer would be “Not Today!”
