Steam is Refunding Helldivers 2 Players Even if They Have More Than 2 Hours of Playtime

2024 continues to be a successful year for Sony where its PC releases are concerned. Ghost of Tsushima got its long-awaited port on the platform yesterday, and instantly upon release, it seems to have attracted players in impressive numbers. 

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.

Following Sony's decision last week to delist Helldivers 2 in 170 regions worldwide on Steam, it seems this will be the firm's PC stance moving forward, and it has since done the same for the imminent PC release of Ghost of Tsushima. More regions have been added to the list, taking the total number of territories affected to 180, which is now consistent across both titles.

As the industry digests the latest deluge of earnings reports, attempting to parse the information and present a clearer picture, one piece of news is likely to fuel more than a few pointless arguments on social media: despite marginally missing its own revised target, Sony shipped 4.5 million PS5s last quarter, estimated to be almost five times as many as Microsoft managed with its Xbox Series X|S consoles combined.

It's been explained by Sony general manager Sadahiko Hayakawa that PlayStation has become much more concerned about "platform playtime" over the past couple of console generations, rather than software sales.

Sony has announced the latest lineup of games coming to their PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers this May. The headliner is definitely Rockstar’s blockbuster Red Dead Redemption 2, but some other solid additions, including Deceive Inc. and Stranded: Alien Dawn are also on the way. Meanwhile, Premium subscribers have some deep cuts coming, including snowboarding game 2Xtreme and a Worms pinball game I’ve never heard of.

Steam and other digital games storefronts are reportedly cancelling pre-orders for the PC port of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut and refunding players in countries where PlayStation Network is not officially available. The game comes with PSN support on PC and will give players the option to use a new PlayStation overlay that essentially brings the PS5 interface to PC, along with support for Trophies and more. Ghost of Tsushima has reportedly been delisted from storefronts in over 170 non-PSN countries.

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 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.

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.