The community won the arm wrestling versus Sony.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has dismissed plans of requiring Helldivers 2 players on Steam to connect their accounts to PlayStation Network (PSN) on May 5, after an intense backlash from the community.
Sony's U-Turn comes a mere three days after the company announced that Helldivers 2 players on Steam had to connect an existing or new PSN account to their Steam one to continue playing the game. This caused a major uprising in the Helldivers 2 PC community as they had been playing the game normally since February without connecting to PSN.
The community saw this as an unnecessary step, especially because PSN is only available in around 70 countries worldwide. A lot of Helldivers 2 players would have to break Sony's Terms of Services and create an account in a different region to keep playing the game. The community resorted to review-bombing Helldivers 2 on Steam to get their point across.
Sony's response to Helldivers 2 community
Sony issued a public statement to address the situation through PlayStation's X account last Sunday night. The company said it is still learning "what is best for PC players" and thanked for the feedback.
"We’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update," Sony said. "The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward."
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Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2's developer, praises the community efforts
The developer of Helldivers 2 Arrowhead Game Studios found themselves in the middle of a PR crisis though it was Sony's decision to require Steam players to link their accounts to PSN. After Sony announced the U-Turn, Arrowhead Game Studios' CEO Johan Pilestedt celebrated on X.
"Firstly, I am impressed by the willpower of the Helldivers 2 community and your ability to collaborate," Pilestedt said on X. "Secondly, I want to thank our partners and friends at for quickly and effectively making the decision to leave PSN linking optional. We together want to set a new standard for what a live game is, and how developers and community can support each other to create the best game experiences."
What's next?
Now that the Helldivers 2 community got what it wanted, we can expect a lot of players to change their Steam reviews once more.
After all, they only reviewed the game negatively because Sony had forced Steam players to connect to a PSN account. It would be a shame if this permanently affected Helldivers 2's review scores as it dampens the chance of new players buying the game.
That's all for now. However, stay tuned to esports.gg for more Helldivers 2 news and guides.
