Helldivers 2 players are up in arms after Sony made it mandatory to connect a PlayStation Network account to play the game on Steam, prompting a wave of negative and angry responses.
A connected PlayStation Network account had been listed as a requirement in the Helldivers 2 terms of service since launch, but Sony said it allowed that requirement to be optional “due to the technical issues at launch.” Any new players joining on or after May 6 will need to connect Steam to a PlayStation Network account, and any current players have until June 4 to link their accounts.
The player base’s response to this announcement has been overwhelmingly negative. On Steam, the Recent Review score has dipped to just Mostly Positive, after months of overwhelmingly stellar reviews. On the day of the announcement, at time of writing, Helldivers 2 has received 7,842 negative reviews compared to just 555 positive ones. “Forcing your players to make a PSN account months after launch is extremely undemocratic,” wrote one player.
On the game’s populous Discord server, players are outraged, with dozens of users sharing the same post highlighting contradicting statements from Sony and the Arrowhead CEO, as well as alleged threats of being timed out from the server’s moderators.
Angry players are citing a PC Gamer interview with the Arrowhead CEO, in which he says the studio is independently owned and not forced to do anything by Sony, as well as a PlayStation website support page that says signing into PSN is optional when playing on PC.
Sony claims the account linking is meant to provide increased safety and security from griefers, but many players are convinced it’s just a way for Sony to gather data. Sony and the PlayStation Network were victims of a serious data breach back in 2023, which saw hackers steal players’ personal data, so naturally, PC players are not thrilled about tying their Steam accounts to PSN. Some players can’t even do that because PSN is not available in every country.
The large backlash could lead to either a sizable dip in the game’s player numbers or it could illicit a response from Sony and/or Arrowhead.
