The biggest drama surrounding co-op shooter HELLDIVERS 2 is only heating up. And it’s all because of the decisions of Sony, the publisher of the game. It all started on May 3, 2024, when it was announced that from June 4 the game would require a mandatory connection to the PlayStation Network. This is how the publisher explained his decision:
“Account linking plays an important role in protecting our players and the security values of PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our primary way of protecting players from griefing and abuse, and allows us to block users who behave in this manner. Also, linking accounts will allow banned players to appeal.”
A somewhat strange decision for a PvE game designed to be played in a team of 4 friends. And the players didn’t like it very much.
Within two days, the game received more than 120,000 negative reviews on Steam, in which players cursed Sony. In addition to the fact that the publisher decided to impose unnecessary functionality, people are noticing that the PlayStation Network is not available in a huge number of countries. Therefore, players cannot easily create an account and continue playing. After all, according to Sony rules, you can be banned for cheating and violating the rules of the service. We also received messages that some users cannot create an account because required Availability of PlayStation 4 or 5.
Arrowhead Game Studios for its part reported, that it was not their decision and they themselves do not support mandatory connection to the PlayStation Network. A representative of the developers openly called for leaving negative reviews on Steam and returning money for the game, since Sony does not read the developers’ discord server. But Sony monitors reviews on Steam and is very sensitive to returns. And what’s surprising is that Valve has met the players halfway and is returning money for the game, even if it’s fake tens And hundreds of hours. In addition, users are discussing filing a complaint about a violation of the GDPR in the European Union.
However, Sony does not give up and went on the offensive: on the evening of May 4, the sale of Helldivers 2 on Steam was banned in all countries where there is no PlayStation Network. A complete list of countries can be found at Changelist #23416542.
At the moment, it is unclear how the situation will ultimately end, and whether the game developers from Arrowhead will be able to somehow influence the publisher. Players can only express their dissatisfaction, issue refunds on Steam and make funny pictures on Reddit.