The events around Helldivers 2 are currently taking place away from the actual battlefield.
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Instead of Very positive
suddenly Mostly negative
– If the Steam user reviews crash like this within a few days, something must have happened.
In the case of Helldivers 2, the reason is quickly found: many players of the multiplayer shooter are still annoyed about the imminent obligation to connect their own Steam account with a PlayStation account (we reported).
That's why Helldivers 2 is currently experiencing massive review bombing, to which the head of developer Arrowhead has now personally commented.
I think that's justified
Instead of getting lost in PR talk or downplaying the fans' discontent, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt's reaction to X (formerly Twitter) is completely different:
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Ouch, straight into the review score😢🤕.
Well, I think that's justified. I'm sorry to everyone for how this whole thing turned out. I hope we can make amends and regain your trust by continuing to provide a great gaming experience.
I just want to make great games!
Pilestedt even has Understanding the anger of the players and even describes the total collapse in valuations as justified
– even if these are very often defiant reactions without any constructive content, like a look into the Review section shows on Steam.
In one another tweet Pilestedt also refers to the fact that there has been a corresponding note about PlayStation account linking since the release of Helldivers 2. But here too he asserts that the communication was suboptimal.
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Helldivers 2 shows where other shooters fail
Sony also reacts – but differently than hoped
The crash on Valve's platform can almost be described as dramatic: Loud SteamDB are proud alone on Saturday, May 4th, 2024 114,303 negative reviews was written to get Arrowhead and publisher Sony to give in.
By the way, the Japanese company has now reacted, but probably not in the way Helldivers fans would have liked. Sony has apparently quietly changed its own FAQs on account linking.
An X user recorded the change:
Link to Twitter content
Where it previously said that logging into the PlayStation Network (PSN for short) on the PC was optional, the section now reads differently:
Some games may require you to log in and link to a PSN account.
There already seems to be some positive news: Helldivers fans who live in countries where PSN accounts cannot be created probably don't have to do without the shooter.
This is suggested, among other things, by a Discord message from community manager Spitz (via Play3), which explains that Arrowhead and Sony are currently discussing the issue and are probably looking for a solution.
So Helldivers 2 continues to be a hot topic of conversation, not because of what happens on the battlefield, but off it. What Arrowhead and Sony will do next on this matter remains to be seen.
The planned date for the introduction of the account requirement is May 6, 2024. So it's only a matter of time before we find out something new – be it good or bad for the fans.