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Helldivers 2 has faced a lot of controversy over the past few days, following an announcement by Sony that all players will be required to connect a PSN account in order to keep playing. With PSN not being available in over 120 countries, this announcement indicated that many players will be unable to continue playing the game once this comes into effect, despite spending money on the game.
This led to mass outrage by the community as well as review bombing as players expressed their frustration. While this might seem like a childish way to handle things, it is a common tactic that often gets the point across to publishers, and even the Helldivers 2 developers, Arrowhead Game Studios, are encouraging it.
Spitz, the Associate Community Manager for Helldivers 2, took to the game’s Discord server to encourage players to leave negative reviews and request refunds for them. While this might sound like an unusual request from a member of the creators, they say it will help give the studio more pull and leverage when dealing with Sony and trying to get this issue resolved.
In a series of posts, Spitz told the community that they “want people to make their displeasure known in a place where it might actually make a difference, Steam reviews and refund requests will do that, angry posting in the Discord won’t. I’m not happy about this decision either”
Spitz then went on to tell players to make their displeasure known, while also noting Arrowhead Game Studios is on the side of the players during this controversy,
“Players making their displeasure known through reviews, refunds etc. gives us more pull in the discussions with Sony. They don’t read our Discord. It hurts to see the game’s popularity suffer in ratings, but discussions are ongoing and our team is on the side of the players in this fight. It’s unrealistic to expect people to make PSN accounts in different regions to get past the account linking requirement. We’re aware of that. Discussions are ongoing.”
Spitz also came under fire during the initial anger from the community following a remark that its not an issue to just make an account. It appears that they have backtracked after learning the impact this has on the wider community saying,
“I was completely unaware of how many countries didn’t have the ability to make a PSN account when I made that statement. I deeply regret implying that it was so easy for everyone to just sign up and not have to worry about it. It’s absolutely not our intention to force people to break Sony ToS or just not play the game if they’re in a restricted region. There needs to be a better solution.”
They then reassured the community that players in affected countries won’t be locked out of Helldivers 2 saying,
“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. We’re not going to force people to either break Sony TOS or not play the game.”
Although nothing has been officially announced by Sony in regards to what will happen to the potentially affected players, or whether a PSN will become a requirement for eligible users due to the recent backlash, it does seem like things are going in a positive direction. Hopefully, this will mean that all players can get back to Helldiving very soon and bring democracy to the galaxy. With new changes coming to the game regularly, we highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide so you can keep up to date with the latest metas in the game.
