The Helldivers 2 PSN controversy highlights problems with PC gaming

Helldivers 2 has become one of the most popular games in the world, with it currently being the best-selling game of 2024, beating out the likes of Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Rise of Ronin. This is partly due to its incredibly fun gameplay, but also Helldivers 2 has built a highly-engaged community, with over one million players on both the official Discord server and sub-Reddit, along with thousands of players following on social media.

I have often seen the phrase “goodwill” used when talking about Arrowhead Game Studios and it seemed like the developers could do no wrong. But that could be about to change thanks to Sony’s recent decision to force its PC users to link a PSN account to the game to keep playing. While this might sound trivial and something that can be done in a couple of minutes so you can get back to bringing democracy, it does run deeper than that with some major implications for players across the world, as well as highlighting some more glaring problems that have been plaguing the gaming industry for some time now.

Helldivers 2 players in over 120 countries could be unable to play a game they’ve paid for

Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios recently announced that all Helldivers 2 players on PC will be required to link a PSN to the game to keep playing, otherwise, they will be locked out from May 30th. The publisher said in a statement that it is being done “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.”

To find out how to create a PSN account without a PS4 or PS5 and link it to your Steam account, check out our guide here. This news has understandably annoyed many players, some players simply don’t want to have many different accounts to play their games. But, the biggest reason why this is an issue is that the majority of the world is unable to access the PlayStation Network and its services.

Currently, PSN is only available in 70 countries worldwide, with even some of Europe being excluded. Whereas Steam is available in every country and territory in the world except the countries on the US ban list which prevents companies from doing business there. This list currently consists of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. This means that, at least in theory, players from approximately 120 countries will be unable to play Helldivers 2 from May 30th, even if they have already purchased the game.

Why has Sony decided to force players to link a PSN account?

There appears to be some truth in its decision to force users to use a PSN account to help combat abuse, as a legal document published on April 4th, 2024, detailed a new patent from Sony for technology that uses biometric data including a user’s heartbeat, as well as the use of AI, to determine the emotions of a player to detect whether they are being harassed by another player. On paper, this sounds like it could be great to help prevent cyberbullying and could really improve the online experience of people across the world, even outside of gaming. Cyberbullying has been on the rise for many years as technology has become more advanced and the world has become more digital-focused. In the US, 59% of teenagers have been victims of cyberbullying. This can have serious long-term effects, with 37% of bullying victims going on to develop social anxiety.

Despite these alarming figures, giving Sony access to your biometric data could be worrying to some players, as Sony has been the victim of multiple hacks and data breaches throughout the years, with the most recent being in October 2023 when 6,791 current and former employees discovered their personal data had been breached. Of course, at least right now, none of this technology has been developed by Sony or implemented in any of its products, but it is important to note that the company is working on this new technology and it could be an indication of where the world as a whole is heading as we head into this new and uncertain age of AI.

The community backlash

Following this news by Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios, many players have taken to social media platforms to voice their concerns and frustrations. On the Helldivers 2 X account, the announcement has over 6,800 replies at the time of writing, with many of them being critical. @ChemicalHazard took to X to say “I don’t have a PlayStation account. I don’t want a PlayStation account.” @KartalEagleEye responded to the news saying “Now, after 80 hours of game time and paying for the PC version, I’m going to be forced to make an account for a console which I don’t own and for a company which I have no intention of using the account for? And if I don’t do it, I’ll be locked out of my game which I purchased?”

In Sony’s defense, it isn’t as though it’s the only publisher or developer that has forced users to have accounts for its platforms to play their games on Steam, as @MikaDima1 noted saying “Xbox is literally doing the same for all multiplayer games, Activision as well and many more.”

But, it’s not just an endless amount of accounts and logins that are plaguing gamers these days, but also the incessant amount of launchers that players need installed on their PC to access certain titles, which spreads out your library and, at least in my case, often makes you forget those games exist.

I have 9 game launchers on my PC and I hate it

It’s not just making accounts that have become commonplace in PC gaming, but also the insistence by publishers that they all have their own launchers to play their games. Currently, I have 9 different launchers on my PC, and that used to be 10 before Bethesda shut down its launcher in 2022. Each of these has games that are either exclusive to the launcher or are required to at least launch the game on a platform such as Steam. Right now, I have these launchers clogging up my hard drive:

• Steam
• Epic Games Launcher
• Ubisoft Connect
• EA
• Xbox
• GOG
• Riot Client
• Rockstar Games Launcher
• Battle.net

Why?

I understand from a business perspective it makes sense to release your games through your own platform as this avoids having to pay royalties to the likes of Valve, which can be as high as 30%. This way the publisher keeps 100% of the sales. But, from a consumer standpoint, this really hurts us as gamers. And, I am very much an “out of sight, out of mind” type of person. I’m not a Steam shill by any means, but it is the superior platform in PC gaming and its stats show that, as it often has over 30 million users logged in at any one time. I don’t mind Epic Games, Xbox, and GOG as they are designed to be a mass marketplace in the same vein as Steam. But, when it comes to the likes of EA and Ubisoft, I very rarely log onto them, meaning any game I purchase on them will likely remain uncompleted.

Thankfully, some publishers have realized that fighting against the popularity of Steam just isn’t working, with the likes of Microsoft adding many of its titles to Steam along with releasing the more modern Call of Duty games to the platform after having been Battle.net exclusives since Modern Warfare (2019).

Recently, Ubisoft announced a release date for XDefiant, a new free-to-play competitive shooter, which looks like it will be a lot of fun and we are excited to cover it on VideoGamer. However, when I was reading the announcement I saw that it will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC…via Ubisoft Connect, and I just know that outside of covering content I will rarely play it due to it being locked to Ubisoft Connect.

Gaming is a business, and we as players often forget that, but it has also become incredibly anti-consumer in recent years and I hope this eventually changes.