Helldivers 2: PlayStation bends under pressure, players' voices still count | Xbox

In just 3 days, Helldivers 2 received 331,431 negative reviews on Steam, while since February, the game had been praised by all players and the press. The culprit: a simple press release published on May 3 by Sony which ignited the powder.

The mandatory establishment of a link between the Steam account and a PlayStation profile

Helldivers 2 being a game published by PlayStation, since its release it should have required the link between a Steam account and a PlayStation profile on PC. However, due to technical issues during launch, Arrowhead Game Studios had not been able to implement this process until now.

However, on May 3, the studio announced that three days later, all new players of Helldivers 2 would be required on Steam to connect their Steam account to their PlayStation account, while those already playing it would begin to see the request appear. login required from May 30 and should link their accounts before June 4.

The studio justified the need to implement this measure to protect players against anti-gaming, abuse, and to allow players who engage in this type of practice to be banned and to contest a decision.

This is a measure that is by no means surprising and already exists in many games, such as Sea of ​​Thieves on Steam or PlayStation 5. In the case of Helldivers 2, the news was particularly poorly received by the community, which explains the 331,343 negative reviews issued in just 3 days.

Why is the community furious?

Factually, creating a PlayStation account and linking it to your Steam profile is not problematic, but in the case of Helldivers 2 the situation is particularly delicate. Indeed, the PlayStation Network is unavailable in more than 150 countries, which means that players in these countries who have been able to enjoy the title until today could no longer do so with a mandatory connection to the PlayStation Network. And this, even though they have already paid for the game!

Fortunately, Steam is accepting requests for refunds from affected players, but it is still scandalous to prevent players from enjoying Helldivers 2 when some have accumulated dozens, even hundreds of hours of play.

Thus, the community of Steam players mobilized on social networks and by posting negative opinions on the platform to make themselves heard.

Victory for Steam players

Obviously, Arrowhead Game Studios and PlayStation could not remain indifferent to such a situation. Yesterday, the studio's CEO announced that he had started discussing a solution with PlayStation, “in particular for countries that do not have a PSN system.”

Your voice has been heard and I am doing everything I can to speak on behalf of the community, but I do not have the final say.

Finally, today, PlayStation announced that the implementation of the link between Steam and PlayStation will not take place.

As of this writing, there have been 53,202 positive reviews posted on Steam today.

An event anchored in the history of the game?

It is obviously regrettable to end up engaging in “review bombing” to make oneself heard, but the CEO is still ironic about this wave of negative ratings on Helldivers 2. In fact, he suggested that this affair could be grounded in the game in a fun way.

He actually shared on Twitter the design of a cape illustrating the negative notes posted following the incident, while insinuating that it could integrate the game!

When players complain, we all win

This is not the first time that players have managed to make themselves heard after anti-player decisions are made at high levels and to such an extent that a developer or manufacturer backs down.

For example, in 2021, Xbox announced an increase in the price of Xbox Live Gold, even though the service was clearly losing interest. Thus, the players made their dissatisfaction known, so much so that Microsoft finally backed down. Thus, the price increase had not occurred and had even made it possible to play free-to-play games online without the need for an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

But one of the most striking examples of backtracking on the part of a major manufacturer will undoubtedly remain that of the launch of the Xbox One. At the time, Microsoft managed its communication very poorly and faced an outcry over anti-consumer measures. Lack of backward compatibility, inability to lend games or even the presence of intrusive Kinect are just some of the measures

Don Mattrick, then head of Xbox, even declared that “If you're backwards compatible, you're really backwards. » A statement which clearly showed the disconnection of society's elites with the real expectations of players and which still resonates today. The Xbox One disaster was ultimately narrowly saved, but the scars are still there today.