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Sony has reversed its decision to mandate PSN account logins for Helldivers 2 PC players. After a weekend of intense backlash and review bombing campaigns that extended to other Sony and Arrowhead games, the publisher said that “it’s still learning what’s best for PC players.”
Helldivers 2 PSN account requirement backlash explained
It’s not unheard of for games to require linking external publisher accounts for their games on Steam. However, Helldivers 2 is an interesting case because the game was sold in a large number of countries where PSN isn’t available.
While it’s a common practice among console players to create PSN accounts in multiple regions, a large number of Steam players in non-PSN countries found their accounts blocked when they attempted to link them to Steam — likely due to the discrepancy in regions. Players also found it unsettling that creating PSN accounts with false information to circumvent the regional restrictions is actually against Sony’s terms of service, leaving them at the company’s mercy when it comes to dropping the banhammer.
Helldivers 2 subreddit was full of complaints from players in non-PSN regions who invested hundreds of hours into Helldivers 2, only to end up getting banned for having the wrong GPS coordinates. Valve ended up pulling the game in 177 countries and issuing a large number of refunds before Sony caved.
Sony’s own goal here is astonishing considering that PC accounts for a majority of Helldivers 2’s sales.