Helldivers 2 recently found itself in the crossfire of fans.
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In the past few days, the fans and developers of Helldivers 2 have had to go through a lot. The announcement that a PSN account would have to be linked to the game in the future caused an outcry in the community. Many players could even have been permanently banned from the shooter because it is not possible to create such an account in their country.
The Arrowhead development studio has now agreed with Sony to waive the account requirement. However, an Arrowhead community manager almost lost his job because of his statements.
What happened?
The community manager Spitz had not spoken on the Helldivers 2 Discord server for some time. When a fan asked concerned whether he had been fired, he answered:
Nearly. Not quite.
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It turns out that the publisher doesn't like it when you tell people to rate a game negatively and return it. But I'm still here and I'm glad we were all able to make a difference.
2:43 p.m
Helldivers 2 does what others only try to do!
What did Spitz say? In the course of the sometimes heated discussion about the account requirement, the community manager the fans asked for itto express their opinions where they will be heard:
When players express their dissatisfaction through reviews or refunds, it gives us more leeway in discussions with Sony. It hurts to see the game's popularity suffer in reviews, but the discussions continue and we are on the players' side […].
Like the rest of the development team, Spitz was obviously not happy with the situation and apparently had to deal with a lot of negativity on the Discord server. In the end, it may actually have been the fans' protest over Steam that persuaded Sony to lift the account requirement.
In the end, the dispute over account requirements in Helldivers 2 fortunately ended well for developers and fans. The mood in the community seems to be much better again and the developers are also seeing the past few days with humor, as you can read in the news above. Peter explains in his column why the past few days have also shown the dark side of review bombing.