Sony is reversing its unpopular Helldivers 2 decision after harsh player backlash

Stand down, Helldivers. Your battle has been won. Sony announced this late last week Hell Divers 2, one of the most popular multiplayer games of the year, requires Steam players to link their accounts to a PlayStation Network account. After a weekend of strong player feedback, including a review bombing for the game on Steam, Sony reversed course earlier this morning and will no longer require PC players to link to a PSN account.

The power of this player’s reaction cannot be underestimated. Hours after the initial announcement Hell Divers 2 It received over 14,000 negative reviews on Steam. This number swelled to over 200,000 negative reviews in the next two days, enough to reverse the game’s “overwhelmingly positive” rating to “strongly negative”. Although review bombing is usually seen as an extreme act that players can do, it appears to have been encouraged one of Hell Divers 2Community managers.

“I want people to express their discontent in a place where it might actually make a difference,” Spitz, A Hell Divers 2 wrote a community manager on the game’s Discord server. “Steam reviews and refund requests will do that.”

But the players were not satisfied with their pursuit Hell Divers 2. Johan Bilstedt, CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, expressed his displeasure that gamers were also targeting the original Divers. “It saddens me greatly that @HelldiversGame The review is also bombed because of the recent @helldivers2 Controversy” Written on X.

The review bombing had a detrimental effect on the game’s presence on Steam. As news spread, players and others pointed out that PlayStation Network was not available in certain countries, meaning this requirement would result in players in those countries losing access to the game they had paid for. Steam tracker Steamdb reported this The game was written off at 177 Countries where PSN was not available, and there were reports from players that Steam was present Issuing refunds to players outside the typical refund period. Then, early Monday morning, Sony announced that it would be scrapping the PSN tethering requirement.

On social media, players wondered how it all happened. Although PSN account linking was always planned for the game and was noted on its Steam page, Pilestedt wrote that the unstable state of the game’s launch forced them to delay implementing the requirement. He also stated that there were apparently internal discussions with PlayStation that this requirement might anger fans.

“When servers exploded at launch, quick decisions had to be made, such as shutting down the link,” Pilestedt wrote on X“And now, finally, the demand for re-empowerment has come from PS [PlayStation] (To help with moderation) – and we had to comply even though there were fears of a backlash.”

Now that the decision has been reversed, Billstedt expressed his appreciation to fans and thanked PlayStation for quickly resolving the issue. The game has been restored in countries where it was previously removed, and players appear to be changing their negative ratings Hell Divers 2 It now sits at a “mixed” rating with the number of positive reviews slowly rising. Pilestedt even poked fun at the entire event, sharing a graphic from a community member that turned the game’s negative review into a Steam graph Design for the capes that players wear in-game.