It what can be seen as a victory for players, Sony has apparently cancelled the requirement for players to link their Steam account with the PlayStation Network if they want to play Helldivers 2. This was revealed through the official X account for PlayStation.
In a post on the account, Sony said they've heard the feedback and revealed that the account linking requirements "will not be moving forward." The post went on to say that they're still looking into what works best for PC players and to provide an update on future plans.
Steam Delisting
This move comes at the hells of an announcement by Valve that Helldivers 2 was delisted on Steam and that it would no longer be available for purchase in the 177 countries where PSN is not available. Valve also noted in a post on X yesterday that the game had received 215,000 negative reviews.
There's no word yet on what's going to happen to the game on Steam though before the announcement by Sony, Valve was giving out refunds despite a rule which says that refund were only possible for games played for less than two hours.
Immediate Impact
The announcement by Sony should give some cause for celebration for Arrowhead Game Studios and a bit of breathing room. Over the weekend, Helldivers 2 had received Overwhelmingly Negative review on Steam. However, it seems that there have been some changes as the profile now shows Mostly Negative reviews.
Account Linking
All of these started with the studio revealed through a post on Steam that players had to link their accounts to a PSN if they wanted to play the game. Obviously, it didn't sit well with players with a lot of them review bombing the game on Steam. One issue raised by players is that they don't want to give up any of their personal information after buying the game. Another concern is that PSN is not available in some countries where Helldivers 2 can be purchased. That means even if there are players okay with the account linking, it won't be possible for them since they can't access PSN in the first place.
It didn't help that the studio is seemingly showing it can't do anything. In a post on X, CEO Johan Pilestedt revealed that while he's doing everything he can for the community, he doesn't "have the final say." He said in another post that he's sorry for "how this all transpired" and hopes to make it up to everyone.
While the issue may seem to be resolved, hopefully it serves as a lesson to both video game developers and publishers on why they should listen to their customers.
