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Helldivers 2 is still reeling from the recent PSN controversy. The good news is that Sony ultimately listened to fans by reverting the requirement, but the bad news is that there’s still some fallout from the backlash. A community manager who encouraged fans to post negative reviews and request refunds has seemingly been fired, and Helldivers 2 fans have created a petition imploring Arrowhead to bring back the ‘legendary’ individual.
Although easily forgotten about, the release date and time for the new Polar Patriot Warbond is imminent. As for the PSN controversy, Sony has said that PC players will no longer have to link to PSN, and this has resulted in over 200,000 positive reviews flooding the game’s Steam page to restore its reputation.
Sony listening to fans is fantastic as their original PSN requirement plans provoked huge backlash to what has been one of the best and brightest games of the year so far. While we can all celebrate Sony reverting their requirement plans, some fans are hoping to also bring back a fallen casualty of the war.
Helldivers 2 fans create petition to bring back community manager
We previously reported that a Helldivers 2 community manager has seemingly been fired for ‘representing’ fans in the PSN controversy. The community manager is Spitz, and on Discord they said they had involuntarily been let go and no longer work at Arrowhead.
As for why they were seemingly fired, Spitz told fans on Discord, “Generally it’s not a good idea to tell people to refund and leave negative reviews when you’re a community manager”. They also said “I knew I was taking a risk with what I said about refunding and changing reviews. I stand by it. It was my job to represent the community, that’s what I did.”
Since the apparent firing of Spitz, fans have created a petition online imploring Arrowhead to ‘re-hire the legendary community manager’. The current goal of the petition is to get 2,500 signatures, and, as of writing, it currently has 1,666.
Started by Elcorvo Loco, the petition comes with the following message:
‘Earlier this month, it was revealed to the Helldivers 2 community that a Playstation Network sign-in would be required in order to play the game. At the time of this announcement, the title had been available world-wide in many regions that would not be able to make a PSN account in accordance with terms of service, and would thereby have their access to a title they paid for revoked in no uncertain terms.
Sony’s own Terms of Service prior to the Helldivers 2 backlash stated that PSN logins would not be required, and would thereby be “optional” on all PC games that fell under its banner. This was altered as player outrage led to a continuing review bombing that would eventually lead to internal discussions that would drive Sony to rescind this requirement entirely. The HELLDIVERS community at large had won — but not without sacrifice.
SPITZ, the outstanding community manager whose suggestion to continue the review-bombing in order to provide additional leverage with Sony, was the reason many Helldivers felt optimistic about returning to the game — and is most likely the reason many of us didn’t attempt a refund. On 05/07/2024, at or about 11:45 PST, the Helldivers discord discovered that Community Manager Spitz had been relieved of his position, and all traces of his previously held post deleted or otherwise removed from the discord.
ARROWHEAD: We implore you to return this icon to their previously held position in recognition of his bold Community Management strategy — which not only worked, but restored the faith of much of your community.
We additionally request the official canonization of GENERAL Spitz in Helldivers lore. FOR FREEDOM. FOR DEMOCRACY. FOR THE GOOD OF THE GAME AND ITS DEDICATED COMMUNITY ALIKE.
RESTORE GENERAL SPITZ!’
You can sign the petition by clicking here. Although Spitz has insinuated that they were fired for encouraging negative reviews and refunds, this has not been confirmed by Arrowhead as of writing.
For more Helldivers 2, here is a guide to cheats along with guides to the best stratagems tier list and best weapons.
