Helldivers 2 Has Been Delisted on Steam in Over 170 Countries

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.

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.

Helldivers 2 is still being removed from sale on Steam in more countries, even after publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) scrapped its hugely controversial PSN mandate. 

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. 

After the Helldivers 2 account-linking fiasco, which Sony backtracked on, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is the latest Steam port from the company to be delisted from certain countries on Steam. According to SteamDB’s history of the listing (which you can view here), around 180 countries can no longer purchase the title.

After Helldivers 2 was removed from Steam for 177 countries following the recent PlayStation Network account-linking debacle, fans have been eagerly awaiting updates, especially after Sony reversed course on the account-linking decision. A couple updates did come in today — but not ones that fans were hoping for.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has just about recovered from a disastrous weekend of controversy, following Sony's decision to make linking a PSN account to Steam to play the game mandatory. Among all the negative reviews, backlash, and apologies, Sony made the strange decision to delist Helldivers 2 from over 150 different countries in which the PlayStation Network isn't supported, though we're still not quite sure for what reason.

Arrowhead Games Studio CEO and Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt has confirmed that he is working on getting the game relisted on Steam in the certain regions it was recently removed from. This news comes after the controversy about requiring PC players to link PlayStation Network accounts to continue playing Helldivers 2.

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.

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.

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.