Helldivers 2 Drops To "Mostly Negative" On Steam After PSN Sign-In Controversy

With all the «negative sentiment» in the air and Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead keen to keep its riotous fanbase calm, the release of the premium Polar Patriots Warbond presented something of a PR issue for the Finnish studio. Not wanting to appear «tone deaf,» the dev did just about the most on-brand thing ever, putting the matter to a vote.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has announced plans to roll back changes made to patrols and spawn rates following a recent patch after admitting the PlayStation Network controversy was the focus of its attention in recent weeks.

The Helldivers 2 PSN debacle might be over, but a similar requirement is restricting access to Ghost of Tsushima's PC port in over 170 territories. 

Sigh… here we go again. We just got through a major brouhaha involving Sony requiring PSN linking for Helldivers 2 after initially not asking for it at launch, which led to a major backlash and review bombing campaign and, eventually, Sony reversing course. While some would say the reaction was rather overblown, one of the issues was that a number of countries in the world simply don’t have access to PSN, which led to Helldivers 2 being delisted in those regions (in fact, even Sony’s after reversal on the issue, they’re still delisted).

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.

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.

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.

After the recent fiasco surrounding and Sony's attempt to make PSN account linking on Steam mandatory, the game's community is campaigning to commemorate its victory with a special cape. After days of backlash following the announcement that players on PC would need to create a PlayStation Network account to keep playing, users showed their dissatisfaction by «reviewing bombing» the game's Steam page with hundreds of thousands of negative reviews. The tactic proved effective, forcing Sony to walk back its decision while accidentally creating what could be a very cool cosmetic.

After Sony U-turned on its controversial decision to force Helldivers 2 PC gamers to account link to PlayStation Network, the game’s community has launched an initiative to drag Steam user reviews out from under rock bottom.

Helldivers 2’s first patch since the PSN login debacle is out now, making some much-needed fixes to the game.

Helldivers 2 announced over the weekend that players would soon have to link their Steam accounts to PSN to continue playing, a move that drew so much backlash that Sony completely walked back the announcement mere days later. However, it wasn't quick enough to stop a review bomb that tanked the game's overall score.

Over the weekend, Helldivers 2 announced that players will soon need to sign into the PlayStation Network to keep playing on PC.