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.
05.05.2024 - 00:59 / rockpapershotgun.com / Johan Pilestedt
Earlier this week, Helldivers 2 players on PC were told that they'd soon need to link their Steam account to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account. Two days later and the game has received 100,000 new negative reviews on Steam.
What's more, developers at Arrowhead have made several statements to say that they're on the players' side.
"Ouch, right in the review score," tweeted Arrowhead game Studio's CEO and creative director Johan Pilestedt. "Well, I guess it's warranted. Sorry everyone for how this all transpired. I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience. I just want to make great games!"
When Pilestedt made that comment yesterday, Helldivers 2 still had a 'Mostly Positive' user review rating on Steam, with a 'Mixed' rating based on reviews just from the past two weeks. As of the time of writing this post, the overall rating is now Mixed - indicating only 59% positive reviews - and recent reviews are Mostly Negative.
Internal discussions are ongoing about the mandatory linking change and while I can't reveal details, the response from our dev teams has been pretty universally negative and we're looking for better options," wrote Arrowhead community manager Spitz on the Helldivers Discord (as shared by Reddit user Navar4477).
Spitz also said that the decision and announcement were carried out by Sony, not by Arrowhead themselves.
Players object to the requirement to link their PSN accounts for a range of reasons, from the basic inconvenience to more general data collection and privacy concerns. The change is of particular concern to those players in regions where it's not possible to sign-up for a PSN account. An earlier comment from Arrowhead had suggested that such players should sign-up to PSN for a region other than that which they reside, but doing so would actually breach Sony's own terms of service.
"If a better solution isn't provided for players who are in regions without PSN coverage, I'm assured that we won't be making the requirement mandatory for those players," wrote Spitz. "We're not going to force people to either break Sony TOS or not play the game."
Sony have brought more and more of their games to PC in recent years, typically years after their initial console exclusive release. Helldivers 2 is a little different, in that they're publishing the game and it's developed by a third-party studio they don't own, and it was released on PC and PlayStation platforms simultaneously. That cross-platform release is part of why it has been such a huge success; it's reportedly the seventh highest grossing Sony published game of all time, with more than half its sales on PC. It's also just a great game.
All of which makes it a real big
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.
Johan Pilestedt, Helldivers 2's creative director and Arrowhead Game Studios CEO, thinks that the development team may have «gone too far» with balance updates.
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 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.
Helldivers 2 patch 01.000.032 has been deployed across PC and PS5, finally fixing damage-over-time (DoTS) effects.
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.
Being a Helldivers 2 fan has been an absolute rollercoaster over this past weekend, with the game being the most loved live service game out there, to the most hated, and back again over the course of just a few days. Most of you will know that this was down to Sony's sudden implementation of its PSN account system, requiring Helldivers 2 players on Steam to sign up for the PlayStation Network if they want to continue playing.
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.
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.
In the days since Sony Interactive Entertainment announced an unpopular Helldivers 2 and PlayStation linking policy, players have been flooding the game’s Steam page wil negative reviews. By Sunday, more than 200,000 of Helldivers 2’s 266,126 reviews on Steam were negative, filed in the aftermath of the disastrous announcement. But the review-bombing worked: Sony heard Helldivers 2 players and announced Monday that it’s no longer requiring Steam players to link a PlayStation Network account.