Helldivers 2: The Fallout of Review Bombing and Sales Restrictions – PlayStation Calls for Truce

After announcing theCold Patriots Premium War Bond ofHelldiverse 2 last Thursday, Sony Interactive Entertainment unknowingly triggered quite a controversy around the game ofArrowhead Game Studios the day after. Indeed, despite an indication present at launch on PC via Steam the need for a third-party account, in this case at PlayStation Networkin order to play, a “technical issue” had apparently prevented the studio from implementing it. More than three months after the release, SIE therefore returned to the charge, announcing point blank that this would become obligatory. The reactions were quick to come from the players and the CEO ofArrowhead Johan Pilestedt then returned community to support PlayStationwhich is a way of saying that it was not his responsibility.

THE review bombing on Steam has since been massive with over 350,000 negative reviews added since Friday according to SteamDb for a total of 421,159 at the time of writing, compared to 315,267positives since January. Just go to the section of reviews to see to what extent this imposition of PSN was taken badly. On DiscordTHE community manager Twinbeard cleared the studio for him by declaring thatit was a decision of Sonynot from the studio and that'Arrowhead was going to contact the Japanese firm to obtain information regarding the problems that could be encountered in different regions.

Johan Pilestedt deplored the free fall in the evaluation score, indicating that his only desire is to create great games. On the other hand, this was his decision to disable the need to link an account PSN at launch and the studio was aware of this prerequisite 6 months before launch. Suffice to say that the communication around this detail should have been clear even before the release so that it did not make so many waves.

On the other hand, when the studio signed the game 8 years ago, this was not indicated, as it clarified in another message very interesting. It was only during development that such a request was made by the publisher. For now, we should especially ask ourselves why Helldivers 2 was then marketed in regions that cannot normally create an account. PSN…

Thank you for these courteous questions.

We signed HD2 8 years ago. Details such as account linking were not specified.

There are always demands from publishers during development. It was one of them. We discussed it and it was deemed important for PS to have it for an online title. And it was implemented a few months before its release.

When servers exploded at launch, quick decisions had to be madesuch as disabling links and galactic war statistics to be able to lighten the load on the servers.

We were unable to reactivate it due to the risk of crashing the servers again. (and remember the negative feedback on this). And now, finally, the reactivation requirement came from PS (to help with moderation) – and we had to comply even though we feared there would be negative reactions.

There were negative reactions.

And now we're talking about it again.

As if that wasn't enough, Sony was caught red-handed modifying its FAQ concerning precisely the need for an account PSN on PC, going from optional to a requirement for certain games…

The descent into hell continued with a sudden change made to Steamnamely the withdrawal from sale gaming in 177 regions, including French overseas territories. Since the PSN is not available everywhere around the world, it is ultimately quite logical, but now impacts players who have invested time and money in the game.

THE review bombing also extended to the first Helldivers with a few hundred negative evaluations over the weekend, still according to SteamDb. Yes, it's stupid since the game is absolutely not affected by this matter.

Eventuallythis Monday morning, PlayStation finally spoke out around this controversy and the players' opinions were therefore taken into account since the connection between Steam and an account PSN will ultimately not be obligatory.

Helldivers fans: We've heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required linking Steam and PlayStation Network accounts for new and existing players from May 30, will not go further.

We're still learning what's best for PC gamers and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we will keep you posted on future projects.

And the final word for Johan Pilestedt:

First, I'm impressed by the willingness of the Helldivers community and your ability to collaborate. Secondly, I want to thank our partners and friends at PlayStation for quickly and efficiently making the decision to leave the PSN link optional. Together, we want to set a new standard for what live gaming is and how developers and the community can support each other to create the best gaming experiences.

Let's hope this serves as a lesson and that everything is back to normal now, so that all players can once again go out and spread controlled democracy across the galaxy!

On PS5, Helldiverse 2 is currently sold for €34.02 on Amazon And at the house of Cdiscountwhile Gamesplanet offers it at €35.99 on PC.

Alexandre SAMSON (Omega Law) Editor
Addicted to Assassin's Creed and Destiny, big fan of RPGs and passionate about video game experiences in general. Reader of comics (DC) and various mangas (One Piece!). Chemist by training and Whovian at heart.
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