Update: 06/05/2024 at 11:23am ET — Sony has reversed course on a controversial decision to force Helldivers 2 player’s on PC to link to a PlayStation Network account.
The original story follows:
Sony will soon require all Helldivers 2 players on PC to link to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account.
On the game’s official X (Twitter) page, Sony Interactive Entertainment said the change will go into effect starting May 6th. New players will need a PSN account to play, while existing players have until June 4th.
Sony says it’s been offering a “grace period” for PC users to play without connecting their accounts to PSN due to developer Arrowhead’s popular third-person shooter’s widespread technical issues at launch. However, that’s now changing three months after launch.
“Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games,” says Arrowhead of the decision to require PSN linking. “This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.”
Naturally, this change hasn’t gone over well with PC players. Following Sony’s announcement, more than 14,000 negative reviews have been published on the Helldivers 2 Steam page.
Helldivers 2 user reviews on Steam taking quite a dip since Sony said it'd enforce the requirement to have a PSN account to play pic.twitter.com/Z5QismgJrR
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) May 3, 2024
A quick glance at the game’s Steam page shows a slew of players — many of whom have logged dozens of hours into the game — who are blasting Sony for the decision and saying they’ll simply stop playing instead. In response, some PlayStation players have defended the move, noting that many companies require a third-party account and that Helldivers 2‘s Steam page has always listed a PSN account requirement.
However, Steam users are particularly taking umbrage with Sony enforcing this three months after launch, especially now that they’ve invested significant time into the game. Others have pointed out that Sony has suffered multiple data breaches in the past, including one last October, although that was employee-facing and didn’t affect consumers. As Kotaku mentions, some users have also flagged that PSN isn’t actually available in every country, meaning this change would lock some players out of the game entirely.
It’s a particularly questionable move from PlayStation because Helldivers 2 has been a massive success, quickly becoming one of its best-selling games of all time. Historically, the company has only released games on PlayStation consoles before bringing them to PC years later, but Helldivers 2 ended up being a huge hit when it launched simultaneously on both PS5 and PC. This even led Sony to express interest in exploring other multiplatform releases.
It should be stressed that regardless of where you land on this issue, this was PlayStation’s decision, not developer Arrowhead’s. To that point, Arrowhead CEO and creative director Johan Pilestedt took to X to lament the diminishing review score and apologize for the move.
Ouch, right in the review score 😢🤕
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! pic.twitter.com/EPO7apDUlc
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 3, 2024
As Pilestedt notes, game makers like the Arrowhead team simply want to create great games for people, so be sure to direct constructive feedback towards PlayStation directly.
Image credit: PlayStation
Source: PlayStation
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