"Ouch, right in the review score": Helldivers 2 boss responds to 20,000+ negative Steam reviews sparked by Sony's PSN mandate, says "I guess it's warranted"

It's only been out three months, but Sony has revealed that everyone's favorite extraction shooter has become the fastest-selling PlayStation game ever.

Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead is still struggling to catch up to the intense pressure that comes with releasing such a wildly, unexpectedly successful game - and now they're also dealing with internal delays caused by the recent PSN-linking kerfuffle.

Helldivers 2 lead Johan Pilestedt has given us our first look at an upcoming cape - one which references the most controversial moment in the game's short history. As we can see in the screenshot, the red lines on the cape mirror the review bombing Helldivers 2 received on Steam last week, as thousands of players hit the game with negative ratings.

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. 

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 patch 01.000.032 has been deployed across PC and PS5, finally fixing damage-over-time (DoTS) effects.

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.

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.

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.

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.