Tweeted just shy of an hour ago, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that ‘Helldivers 2’ will no longer require players to link their PlayStation Network accounts to the game in order to play. What was expected to go live on the 6th has been yanked after major backlash against requiring PC players to sign up for a PlayStation Network account to access the game even though Helldivers 2, up to this point, had no issues whatsoever with its networking and other multiplayer features between PC players and PlayStation 5 owners.
Since the PSN linking announcement on May 2nd, plenty of players have taken to social media as well as the game’s Steam store page reviews to decry the requirement. Though originally intended to be required at launch, the developer Arrowhead Game Studios decided to push the PSN link requirement back as the servers were getting hammered thanks to just how popular the game had become. But even then, seeing as how Helldivers 2 worked perfectly fine without linking a PSN account, players naturally weren’t happy about having a new requirement pushed upon them over two months after the game had launched.
To make matters worse, PlayStation Network is not supported in many regions where the game was available for purchase originally. Signing up for a PSN account in those regions would put you at risk of being banned, per PlayStation Network’s Terms of Service (though a developer had stated those players would still be able to play, apparently). Sony didn’t seem very interested in resolving that issue either, yanking sales of the game from said unsupported regions. With this change, it’s unknown if sales of the game to those regions will resume, however.
Regardless, this is a win for players and likely a learning experience for Sony, who still needs to figure out their own place in the PC market. Helldivers 2 is available on PC via Steam and PlayStation 5 and is a solid and frantic cooperative bug-clearing democracy-loving experience.
