According to SteamDB, Helldivers 2 has been put back up for sale on Steam in certain countries, which hopefully means that those affected by its delisting can get back into the action.
07.05.2024 - 16:21 / gamerant.com / Johan Pilestedt / Sony / Lance Gose
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.
Despite only lasting a few days, the Helldivers 2 account-linking controversy was undoubtedly the biggest scandal to hit Arrowhead Game Studios' PvE cooperative shooter since its February release. While Sony and PlayStation decided to scrap the update after widespread community backlash threatened to ruin the game's success, the incident will likely remain a memorable event in players' minds, with many fans calling it a victory for the community as a whole and a reminder that players had a say in how the game was run. Many users additionally flooded several Helldivers 2 social media pages with banners and posts celebrating the controversy's resolution, and some even drafted concepts for items immortalizing the game's revival.
Director Johan Pilestedt was particularly impressed with one of the more popular concepts, which transformed the tide of negative and positive reviews from Helldivers 2's Steam page into a unique cape. The Helldivers 2 director shared a picture of the stylized design on his official Twitter account, praising the concept and jokingly stating players will soon see the accessory appear in the in-game store for $999.99. In another series of comments, Pilestedt claimed developers were already thinking of a good name for the cape and clarified that they planned to release it for free.
While the design is inspired by the PlayStation Network account-linking controversy, the cape is also notably a sign of Helldivers 2's redemption in the eyes of the community. Since PlayStation's backtrack, the Steam score for Helldivers 2, which was previously inundated with criticism from fans, has seen an overwhelming spike in positive reviews. The game admittedly has yet to reach the all-time high it achieved in the weeks following its release, but its steadily rising score can likely be taken as a sign that its wounds are healing and, more importantly, that Helldivers 2 PC players are willing to give the title a second chance.
With the account-linking controversy resolved, players are now gearing up to refocus their collective efforts on the greater conflict against the Terminids and Automatons. To help them with their war effort, Helldivers 2's patch 1.000.302 implemented fixes to several gameplay issues,
According to SteamDB, Helldivers 2 has been put back up for sale on Steam in certain countries, which hopefully means that those affected by its delisting can get back into the action.
A new Helldivers 2 patch is here and will hopefully put the whole PlayStation Network account linking debacle to bed once and for all, as it's now been added as an explicitly "optional" setting.
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has taken to X/Twitter to seemingly share a first look at the cape design that was inspired by the review bombing on Steam following the PSN account linking fiasco.
I spent this morning being pseudo-profound about Animal Well and pseudo-elegaic about Tango Gameworks, so now it's time to get back to the Real Business - being a pseud on the subject of videogame gun balancing.
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released the Polar Patriots Premium Warbond as planned after the boss of the studio polled fans on whether it should go ahead so soon after what he called “negative sentiment” over the game’s PlayStation Network account linking.
Helldivers 2 Community Manager 'Spitz' is seemingly no longer with Arrowhead Game Studios following outings he did over the now-canceled mandatory PSN account linking update.
Fans of Helldivers 2 have started a petition asking developers Arrowhead to reinstate a fired employee in charge of community management. The employee, "Spitz", was let go following the fiasco in which Sony told PC players they would need to link their Steam and PlayStation Network accounts to continue playing the shooter. Sony and Arrowhead changed their mind about that after player backlash in the form of 100,000+ negative reviews on Steam. The kicker? Community manager "Spitz" was low-key encouraging players to continue the review bombing. This doesn't seem to have gone down well internally.
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.
It’s been a tumultuous few days for Helldivers 2, as one of this year’s most beloved runaway hits managed to seemingly undo all of its goodwill and earn the ire of thousands of players in the blink of an eye.
Sony has reversed a decision that would have required Helldivers 2 players to link their Steam accounts to PlayStation Network accounts.
Amid the turmoil of the recent Helldivers 2 controversy, its predecessor Helldivers has also been review bombed by disappointed fans. The original's latest negative reviews criticize the account-linking requirement of Helldivers 2, which was eventually retracted by publisher Sony.
PlayStation has delivered a U-turn and scrapped its plans to require Helldivers 2 players on Steam to sign in with a PlayStation Network account.