Sony removes game from sale on Steam in several countries as negative reviews exceed 200,000

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Helldivers 2 is no longer available for purchase in several countries around the world

Yesterday, we shared with you the reactions following the controversy surrounding Helldiverse 2, including a massive wave of negative reviews on Steam. This dispute follows Sony's decision (announced by studio Arrowhead) to require the linking of a PSN account with a Steam account to be able to play on PC.

We learn today that Helldiverse 2 has been withdrawn from sale in 168 countries around the world (according to SteamDB). This list corresponds to territories where creating a PlayStation Network account is not possible. Yesterday, we pointed out that many players reluctant to create a PSN account had no problem associating their Steam account with other third-party accounts (EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Rockstar) to play other multiplayer titles. However, the situation has now taken a chaotic turn.

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There is indeed a real problem for players from affected countries who cannot meet this requirement. The lack of a solution before this announcement did not help Sony's image and today's decision is not likely to improve things. The situation remains unclear, but It looks like Steam is starting to accept refund requests for the gameeven for those whose playing time exceeds the usual 2 hours, which is normally the limit to be eligible for a refund in order to prevent abuse.

Complicated negotiations between Arrowhead and Sony

According to information circulating on social networks, the developers of Helldiverse 2 seem to support the players and would not agree with the decision imposed by Sony. According to Spitz, the community manager on the game's Discord server, the developers would even encourage players to participate in review bombing on Steam in order to strengthen their position during negotiations with Sony. Currently the game has accumulated over 200,000 negative reviews on Steam.

Players expressing their dissatisfaction through reviews, refund requests, etc. give us more weight in discussions with Sony. They don't check our Discord. It's hard to see the game's popularity suffer in the ratings, but discussions are ongoing and our team is on the players' side in this fight. It's unrealistic to expect people to create PSN accounts in different regions to bypass the account linking requirement. We are aware of this. Discussions continue.

Even if we can easily believe in the good faith of the developers, who simply wanted to create a good game, it seems that there was a serious management problem. According to Arrowhead's CEO, who spoke in a post on X, the studio was informed six months before launch that linking to a PSN account would be mandatory. However, he decided to temporarily deactivate this obligation in order to allow players to enjoy the game despite the server problems encountered at launch. As a result, players who normally would not have been able to purchase the game due to this restriction now find themselves shortchanged.

I also have a role to play. I'm not blameless in all of this – it was my decision to disable account linking at launch so players could play the game. I didn't ensure players were aware of the requirement and we haven't talked about it enough. We knew for about 6 months before launch that this would be mandatory for PlayStation Online titles.

While waiting for an official statement, we hope that things will move in the right direction. For further clarification, here is the list of countries affected by the withdrawal:

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  • Afghanistan
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Anguilla
  • Albania
  • Armenia
  • Netherlands Antilles
  • Angola
  • Antarctic
  • American Samoa
  • Aruba
  • Åland Islands
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Barbados
  • Bangladesh
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Benign
  • Saint Barthélemy
  • Bermuda
  • Brunei Darussalam
  • Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
  • Bahamas
  • Bhutan
  • Bouvet Island
  • Botswana
  • Belarus
  • Belize
  • Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Central African Republic
  • Congo
  • Ivory Coast
  • Cook Islands
  • Cameroon
  • Cuba
  • Green cap
  • Curacao
  • Christmas Island
  • Djibouti
  • Dominic
  • Dominican Republic
  • Algeria
  • Egypt
  • Western Sahara
  • Eritrea
  • Ethiopia
  • Fiji
  • Falkland Islands
  • Federated States of Micronesia
  • Faroe Islands
  • Metropolitan France
  • Gabon
  • Grenade
  • Georgia
  • French Guiana
  • Guernsey
  • Ghana
  • Gibraltar
  • Greenland
  • Gambia
  • Guinea
  • Guadeloupe
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  • Guam
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Guyana
  • Heard and McDonald Islands
  • Haiti
  • Isle of man
  • British Indian Ocean Territory
  • Iraq
  • Iran
  • Jersey
  • Jamaica
  • Jordan
  • Kenya
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Cambodia
  • Kiribati
  • Comoros
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • Democratic People's Republic of Korea
  • Cayman Islands
  • Kazakhstan
  • Lao People's Democratic Republic
  • St. LUCIA
  • Sri Lanka
  • Liberia
  • Lesotho
  • Libya
  • Morocco
  • Monaco
  • Republic of Moldova
  • Montenegro
  • Saint-Martin
  • Madagascar
  • Marshall Islands
  • North Macedonia
  • Mali
  • Myanmar
  • Mongolia
  • Macau
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • Martinique
  • Mauritania
  • Montserrat
  • Mauritius
  • Maldives
  • Malawi
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • New Caledonia
  • Niger
  • Norfolk Island
  • Nigeria
  • Nepal
  • Nauru
  • Niue
  • French Polynesia
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Philippines
  • Pakistan
  • Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  • Pitcairn Islands
  • Porto Rico
  • State of Palestine
  • Palau
  • The meeting
  • Serbia
  • Rwanda
  • Solomon Islands
  • Seychelles
  • Sudan
  • Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
  • Svalbard and Jan Mayen
  • Sierra Leone
  • San Marino
  • Senegal
  • Somalia
  • Suriname
  • South Sudan
  • Sao Tome and Principe
  • Saint Martin (Dutch part)
  • Syrian Arab Republic
  • Eswatini
  • Turks and Caicos Islands
  • Chad
  • French Southern Lands
  • Togo
  • Tajikistan
  • Tokelau
  • Timor-Leste
  • Turkmenistan
  • Tunisia
  • Tonga
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Tuvalu
  • United Republic of Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • United States Minor Outlying Islands
  • Uzbekistan

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