Helldivers 2 Won’t Require a PSN Account After All
Following backlash from fans, Sony is canceling a planned update to the popular multiplayer game Helldivers 2 , which required players who purchased the game on PC to link their copies to PSN accounts. something that people only have if they play on a PlayStation console.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the company noted “feedback” about the change and said it was still “exploring what’s best for PC players.” Although PSN (short for PlayStation Network) accounts are free to create and do not require account holders to actually own a PlayStation console, the proposed update has caused controversy among the Helldivers community, with user reviews on Steam dropping from “Mostly Positive” to “Extremely Negative” over the weekend ” At the time of writing, the game is currently rated Mixed.
If the update were to go through, new players would have until May 30 to link their accounts, and existing players would have until June 4 to do so.
Why are people angry about Helldivers 2 ?
News of the update briefly made the PC version of Helldivers 2 unavailable for purchase in 177 countries , as PSN does not work in these regions. If the update were to be released, players in regions who had already purchased the game would have to bypass Sony’s terms of service to continue playing.
Affected regions included Jamaica, Bangladesh, Belarus and almost all of Africa. This even affected Sony’s home country of Japan: the game was available in a “standalone package” but users could not buy the “global version”.
“Oh, right in the review score,” said Johan Pielstedt, CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios. – Well, I think it’s justified.
Pielstedt followed up his post with another message that Arrowhead is “discussing solutions with PlayStation, especially for non-PSN countries.”
What’s next for Helldivers 2 ?
Pihlstedt followed up today’s news that the Helldivers 2 update would not be released, first expressing how impressed he was with the community’s ability to collaborate, and then thanking PlayStation for its “quick and effective decision to keep the PSN link optional.”
While most of Sony’s other experiments in PC gaming are single-player , it is currently unclear whether the decision to keep PSN tethering optional in Helldivers will affect other games. According to Pielstedt, the team knew six months before launch that a PSN link would be required at some point , and that the decision to make it optional at launch would only be temporary.
Meanwhile, Helldivers 2 is once again available for purchase in countries where it was pulled.
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