Sony reverses unpopular Helldivers 2 decision after scorching reaction from gamers

Stand down, Helldivers! Your battle is won. 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 backlash from players, including a barrage of reviews of the game on Steam, Sony changed course this morning and will no longer require PC players to link to a PSN account.

The strength of that player reaction cannot be underestimated. Within hours of the initial announcement, helldivers 2 received over 14,000 negative reviews on Steam. This number skyrocketed to over 200,000 negative reviews in the following two days, enough to revert the game’s “overwhelmingly positive” rating to “overwhelmingly negative.” Although review bombing is often seen as an extreme action that players can take, it was apparently encouraged by one of helldivers 2Community administrators.

“I want people to make their discontent known in a place where it can really make a difference,” said Spitz, a helldivers 2 community manager, wrote on the game’s Discord server. “Steam reviews and refund requests will do that.”

But the players were not content to go after helldivers 2. Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt expressed dismay that players were also targeting the original. helldivers. “I am deeply saddened that @HelldiversGame is also being criticized due to the recent @helldivers2 controversy,” he wrote in X.

The review bombing created a domino effect for the game’s presence on Steam. As the news spread, gamers and others pointed out that the PlayStation Network was not available in certain countries, meaning the requirement would cause players in those countries to lose access to a game they paid for. Steam tracking site Steamdb reported that the game had been delisted in 177 countries where PSN was not available, and there were reports from players that Steam was issuing refunds to players beyond the typical refund window. Then, early Monday morning, Sony announced it was rescinding the PSN pairing requirement.

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

“When the servers blew up at launch, quick decisions had to be made, such as disabling linking,” Pilestedt wrote in X, “And now, finally, the requirement to re-enable came from PS (PlayStation) (to help with moderation ) – and We had to comply even though we feared there would be a violent reaction.”

Now that the decision has been reversed, Pilestedt expressed his gratitude to fans and thanked PlayStation for resolving the matter quickly. The game has been restored in the countries where it was previously removed and it seems that players are changing their negative reviews, with helldivers 2 It now has a “mixed” rating as the number of positive reviews slowly increases. Pilestedt even poked fun at the entire event, sharing a graphic from a community member who turned Steam’s graph of negative reviews of the game into a design for the capes players wear in the game.