The new PSN login policy for Helldivers 2 has caused Helldivers 2 to be removed from sale in many countries as players review the game.
Online shooting game Hell divers 2 had been one biggest surprise hits of the yearbut suddenly the massive success has crashed into a sea of angry user reviews, as the game is being withdrawn from sale in much of the world.
It's still available in the UK, US and other key PlayStation regions, but because the PC version now requires you to link your PlayStation Network (PSN) account before starting, that's caused predictable issues in the 177 countries all over the world who don't have easy access to PSN.
How Sony didn't see that problem coming is anyone's guess, but the game's rating on Steam is now “overwhelmingly negative,” with developer Arrowhead Game Studios admitting it has no idea what to do about the problem.
That's such a huge miscalculation that it's hard to believe it's all true, but… The problems started on Friday when Arrowhead revealed that the game was intended to always require you to link a PSN account to play, but that a 'grace period' had been created at launch where it wasn't necessary.
This was something that most people were completely unaware of (the US PlayStation website specifically says this isn't necessary for any game), but Sony is now insisting that starting Monday, May 6, new players will need to link their Steam account to a PSN account in order to play. Those already playing must do so by May 30, after which it will become a mandatory requirement for everyone on June 4.
This immediately led to a tsunami of negative reviews on Steam (over 225,000 at the time of writing), but Sony has refused to issue any refunds – although some players have reported that it only worked through Steam.
There has been no official comment from Arrowhead, but Helldivers 2 CEO and Creative Director Johan Pilestedt has been busy on Twitter, admitting to one disgruntled fan that he doesn't know what to do since PSN isn't supported in their country .
He also tweeted: 'We are talking about solutions with PlayStation, especially for non-PSN countries. Your voice has been heard and I am doing everything I can to speak for the community – but I do not have the final say.”
He then admitted that the problem was partly his fault: 'I do have a role to play. I am not blameless in all this; it was my decision to disable account linking at launch so players could play the game. “I didn't make sure the players were aware of the requirement and we didn't talk about it enough.”
“We knew about six months before launch that it would be mandatory for online PS titles,” he added.
For its part, Sony has claimed that the main reason for requiring a PSN account is to prevent online abuse and facilitate appealing bans. Of course, the real reason is that they want your data so they can market to you more effectively, which is always the reason for things like this.
It's all a huge disaster and at this point it's unclear who will sort it out on their own or whether players will return once things calm down.
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