Helldivers 2 backlash continues as Sony pulls the game from over 150 regions

The Helldivers 2 community has been through a lot lately, with everything from failed Major Orders to Sony’s aborted attempt to force PC players to link their accounts to PSN to contend with. Now, the community’s attention has shifted onto a player who has unwittingly become the focus of an altogether more wholesome story.

The CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios, Johan Pilestedt, has said that he wants the game to go on "forever", even when the team eventually stops working on new updates.

Steam and other digital games storefronts are reportedly cancelling pre-orders for the PC port of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut and refunding players in countries where PlayStation Network is not officially available. The game comes with PSN support on PC and will give players the option to use a new PlayStation overlay that essentially brings the PS5 interface to PC, along with support for Trophies and more. Ghost of Tsushima has reportedly been delisted from storefronts in over 170 non-PSN countries.

A former Helldivers 2 lead writer has praised the shooter's community for uniting against the recent PSN mandate.

Helldivers 2 players started a petition calling on developer Arrowhead Game Studios to rehire community manager Spitz. With the recent PlayStation Network account-linking controversy finally at an end, much of the Helldivers 2 community has begun to shift focus back to the Galactic War. However, some fans were still dismayed upon hearing of the recent dismissal of Spitz from the official Discord channel and are doing all they can to gather their fellow players in support of the former community manager.

For a while in the late 2010/early 2020s, it seemed liked gaming subscriptions may be the future of the hobby. Microsoft certainly wanted us to think it was the future, pushing Xbox Game Pass every chance they got, and Sony eventually joined the party with their own expanded PlayStation Plus service.

Helldivers 2 developers are reportedly working on a new cape inspired by the account-linking controversy. While the community can breathe a sigh of relief knowing the worst of the fiasco has passed, some fans have additionally taken to sharing designs for costume accessories inspired by Helldivers 2's Steam page. Some of these designs even managed to reach the offices of developer Arrowhead Game Studios and, if one executive is to be believed, will soon hit live servers as an official cosmetic.

Following the news that Sony no longer plans to move forward with its controversial Helldivers 2 PlayStation Network account-linking update, reviews are skyrocketing in a positive direction. The Helldivers 2 community has been up in arms over the recently announced update, which would have forced players to create and connect to a PlayStation Network account in order to access the game. Massive backlash ensued, with Helldivers 2 being review-bombed on Steam. This decision was ultimately reversed, with reviews immediately shooting up as a result.

With the PSN account linking fiasco now in the rearview mirror, what was nearly a disaster moment for Helldivers 2 is now becoming a part of community lore. Fans have been busy working on cape designs since Sony reversed course, at least some of which have seemingly caught the eye of the development team.

The Helldivers 2 debacle has reached new hellish lows as the year's best-selling game is now unavailable on Steam in over 170 countries. 

Helldivers 2 PC players who live in regions without access to the PlayStation Network will still be able to play the game, even after the account linking mandate comes into effect, according to one developer. 

Helldivers 2 PC players galore as Sony has confirmed that it has canceled the upcoming mandatory Helldivers 2 PSN account linking update.