Late last week, Sony announced that Helldivers 2, one of the most popular multiplayer games of the year, would require Steam players to link their account to a PlayStation Network account.
After a weekend of strong player backlash, including review bombing the game on Steam, Sony reversed course earlier this morning and will no longer require PC players to link to a PSN account.
Within hours of the initial announcement, Helldivers 2 received over 14,000 negative reviews on Steam.
“Steam reviews and refund requests will do that.” But players weren’t content to just go after Helldivers 2.
Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt expressed dismay that players were also targeting the original Helldivers.
“It deeply saddens me that @HelldiversGame is also being review bombed due to the recent @helldivers2 controversy,” he wrote on X.
The review bombing created a knock-on effect for the game’s presence on Steam.
Pilestedt even poked fun at the whole event, sharing a graphic from a community member that turned the game’s negative review Steam graph into a design for the capes players wear in-game.
Helldivers, get down. You’ve prevailed in your battle. Sony revealed late last week that users of Steam would need to connect their account to a PlayStation Network account in order to play Helldivers 2, one of the most well-liked multiplayer games of the year. Following an intense weekend of criticism from players, which included review bombing the game on Steam, Sony changed its mind earlier this morning and will no longer require PC users to connect to a PSN account.
It is impossible to overstate how powerful that player response was. Helldivers 2 received more than 14,000 unfavorable Steam reviews in the few hours following its original release. The game’s “overwhelmingly positive” rating was changed to “overwhelmingly negative” in the two days that followed, as a result of this number skyrocketing to over 200,000 negative reviews. Review bombing is generally considered an extreme measure that players can take, but it seems that one of Helldivers 2’s community managers encouraged it.
Helldivers 2 community manager Spitz stated in the game’s Discord channel, “I want people to make their displeasure known in a place where it might actually make a difference.”. “Refund requests and steam reviews will handle that. “.
However, players didn’t stop at Helldivers 2. Johan Pilestedt, CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, voiced his disappointment that players were going after the original Helldivers as well. He posted on X, saying, “It deeply saddens me that @HelldiversGame is also being review bombed due to the recent @helldivers2 controversy.”.
The game’s availability on Steam was positively impacted by the review bombing. Players and others noted that some countries did not have access to the PlayStation Network, so the requirement would prevent players in those countries from playing a paid game once the news spread. The game has been delisted in 177 countries where PSN is unavailable, according to Steamdb, a tracker site for Steam games. Additionally, players have reported that Steam is refunding them after the usual refund window has passed. After that, Sony declared early on Monday morning that it would no longer enforce PSN linking.
Players wondered how this happened on social media. While Pilestedt stated that the requirement of linking a PSN account was always planned for the game and mentioned on its Steam page, the unpredictability of the game’s launch caused them to postpone its implementation. He added that there had reportedly been internal PlayStation talks about how the requirement would enrage gamers.
Pilestedt posted on X, “when servers exploded on launch, quick decisions had to be made, like turning off linking. And now, finally, the requirement to reenable came from PS [PlayStation] (to help with moderation) – and we had to comply even though there were concerns there would be backlash.”. “.
Pilestedt thanked PlayStation for resolving the issue quickly and thanked fans for their support now that the decision has been overturned. Since the game has been made available again in the nations where it was previously unavailable, it appears that users are modifying their unfavorable reviews. Helldivers 2 currently has a “mixed” rating while the number of favorable reviews is gradually rising. Pilestedt even made light of the entire affair by posting a graphic created by a community member that transformed the Steam graph of the game’s unfavorable reviews into a design for the capes that players wear while playing.
