Sony has made a massive U-turn, cancelling plans that would have required Helldivers 2 PC players to have a linked PlayStation Network (PSN) account. This mandatory Steam account and PSN account linking policy was revealed just ahead of the weekend. Since the announcement, Sony has faced a barrage of criticism from media figures and ordinary gamers, as well as a ferocious Helldivers 2 review-bombing campaign. Valve probably wasn’t very happy either, with many Steam PC gamers demanding (and somewhat surprisingly receiving) refunds.
Helldivers fans -- we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward.We’re still…May 6, 2024
A few hours ago, the official Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation account on Twitter/X issued the above notice. We’ve already told you the important thing – mandatory PSN linking plans have been scrapped.
Apparently, Sony is “still learning what is best for PC players,” so “your feedback has been invaluable.” The firm glosses over the ferocious pushback it received from the gaming community and instead diplomatically ends “Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans.” As long as those plans don’t try to pull the same trick again but from a different angle, it should be OK.
The above story charts a swift U-turn for a company the size of Sony. It introduced the PSN/Steam account linking plan by selling it as a way of “protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security.” Sony explained that it would make banning more watertight. However, the gamer backlash didn’t see the policy in the same way, and one of the big problems was that PSN simply isn’t supported in 177 countries worldwide. The account linking would thus mean a lot of PC-based Helldivers 2 gamers would be excluded from the game they had bought.
As well as the vociferous backlash, Valve felt compelled to refund gamers on its Steam platform who were about to get access to Helldivers 2 revoked due to the PSN linking policy. Reports suggest that Valve was more generous than expected with refunds, honoring the spirit of the policy even when gamers had already spent months and hundreds of hours in the game.
The scale of the Helldivers 2 review bombing was also pretty remarkable. Over the weekend the game’s review score changed from mostly positive to mixed. Over 150,000 negative reviews were dropped on the Steam-hosted game in the few hours following the account linking policy reveal.
