Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz claims the game will no longer require players to link a PlayStation Network account to their Steam account in countries where PlayStation Network is not available.
A screenshot from Helldivers II (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
Sony, Helldivers 2’s publisher, announced players would be required to link their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account or they would no longer be able to play the game at the beginning of June.
Sony stated, “Due to technical issues at the launch of HELLDIVERS™ 2, we allowed the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. That grace period will now expire. See details below in this post.”
“Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games,” the company posited. “This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.”
It then declared, “As such, as of May 6th, all new HELLDIVERS 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account. Current players on Steam will start to see the mandatory login from May 30th and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4th.”
Helldivers 2 announcement requiring PlayStation Network linking
One of the complaints lodged against the announcement was the fact that PlayStation Network is not available in all countries across the world. Helldivers 2 CEO Johan Pilestedt initially addressed this complaint on May 3rd writing on X, “We are discussing that question with our partners at PlayStations and trying to find a solution.”
Johann Pilestedt on X
Now, one of the game’s Community Managers, Spitz claims players in countries where PlayStation Network is not available will not need to link a PlayStation Network account in order to play.
First, Spitz addressed his flippant remark regarding players’ complaints about linking their accounts to PlayStation Network. He wrote, “Yeah, I was completely unaware how many countries didn’t have the ability to make a PSN account when I made that statement. I deeply regret implying that it was so easy for everyone to just sign up and not have to worry about it. It’s absolutely not our intention to force people to break Sony ToS or just not play the game if they’re in a restricted region. There needs to be a better solution.”
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz
In a follow-up post, Spitz wrote, “If a better solution isn’t provided for players who are in regions without PSN coverage, I’m assured that we won’t be making the requirement mandatory for those players. We’re not going to force people to either break Sony TOS or not play the game.”
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz
After previously disparaging gamers and claiming that negative feedback would not matter, Spitz now indicates that players should continue to provide negative feedback so they can use it in discussions with Sony.
The Community Manager wrote, “Players making their displeasure known through reviews, refunds etc. gives us more pull in the discussions with Sony. They don’t read our Discord. It hurts to see the game’s popularity suffer in ratings, but discussions are ongoing and our team is on the side of the players in this fight. It’s unrealistic to expect people to make PSN accounts in different regions to get past the account linking requirement. We’re aware of that. Discussions are ongoing.”
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz
As noted above, he previously indicated negative feedback did not matter writing, “Feedback is always listened to, most of it is passed on, and most of what is passed on is considered and goes into what changes we make When it comes to a requirement from Sony that has existed since pre-launch, I don’t think feedback is going to change much.”
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz
Nevertheless, negative feedback has been piling up and the player base has been dwindling. Steam DB reports peak concurrent players today has only reached 115,130 players down from 119,027 from May 3rd and 119,571 players on May 2nd.
Helldivers 2 concurrent players data via Steam DB
On top of the player base dwindling, the game’s Steam reviews have been overwhelmingly negative over the last couple of days. On May 3rd, the game received 62,477 negative reviews and only 252 positive reviews.
On Saturday, May 4th it received 94,055 negative reviews. It has received zero positive reviews.
Helldivers 2 reviews via Steam DB
What do you make of this shift in narrative from Helldivers 2 Community Managers?
Even in countries where they can sign up, they actually can’t because they don’t own a Playstation. Why did hire such an ignorant manager? That’s their TOS: Ignore the stupid manager.