Helldivers 2 requires PSN account linking and creates a lot of backlash

[nvhgamer]

Summary

Sony has mandated that PC players of "Helldivers 2" link their PlayStation Network (PSN) accounts to continue playing. This requirement, which becomes effective later this month, has led to significant uproar within the gaming community. The backlash has been fueled not only by the mandatory account linkage but also by Sony's refusal to offer refunds to those affected, which has intensified the community's frustration.

Additionally, a controversial comment made by the game's Community Manager, Spitz, during a PirateSoftware stream has further stirred discontent.


 

Quotes

Quote

From a statement by Sony, the company claims: "This new requirement will enhance the security of player accounts and provide a unified gaming experience across all platforms." However, this move has been met with widespread criticism, as evident from community responses like: "Forcing players to merge accounts and share personal information is an invasion of privacy and restricts access based on geographical and technical limitations."

My thoughts

This new policy harms both the community and the integrity of multiplayer gaming. It's unfair and problematic to force players to link their accounts and reveal (additional) personal information post-purchase. The fact that many players can't even create or link a PSN account due to geographic restrictions compounds the issue, effectively barring them from accessing a game they've already bought. This frustration is amplified by the fact that "Helldivers 2" fundamentally does not require a PSN account to operate.

 

Sources

- https://tweakers.net/nieuws/221568/helldivers-2-spelers-binnenkort-verplicht-om-psn-account-te-koppelen-op-pc.html
- https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/helldivers-2-sees-uproar-as-sony-re-introduces-a-mandatory-requirement-on-pc-players
- https://www.gamesradar.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-pc-players-will-be-forced-to-link-to-a-psn-account-later-this-month-for-greater-security-from-sony/
- https://www.vg247.com/helldivers-2-suffers-steam-review-bombing-after-reveal-psn-account-linking-mandatory-soon
- https://twitter.com/PirateSoftware/status/1786319949520425167
- https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2136022612
- https://clips.twitch.tv/PlausibleWanderingDonutTebowing-KsMoYeXFtHkheEJZ
- https://clips.twitch.tv/TangentialBashfulFlamingoKAPOW-u0fayVxa0jR8ZcyK

Edit (2024-05-10):

The timeline so far:
May 3rd 2024: 
Sony enforces the PSN requirement behind the developers back for Helldivers 2 after the requirement has been removed due to server issues on launch. While requiring an account in of itself was not the issue, but the game was available for purchase in a lot of countries that don't have/allow PSN. If you lived in one of those regions and/or countries, you will be locked out of playing it. So the situation spiraled out of control very quickly and people started review bombing. Also bad takes and responses form the community manager only put fuel on the fire.

May 4rd 2024: 
Sony quietly changes their FAQ about PSN account requirement.

May 5th 2024:
Sony removed all non-PSN countries (all 177 of them) from buying Helldivers 2. And Valve (the company behind Steam) starts to allow refunds (speculations has it that it was to save their own reputation, but still unconfirmed if this is truly the case). This was about 30 hours before dropping the PSN requirement. Some countries that have PSN, but require you to buy a PlayStation to even create/verify a PSN account to regain access to the game. This is basically telling them that they are to poor to play.

They even blocked the pope! 

May 6th 2024:
Sony retracts the PSN requirement by caving to all the backlash.

This caused some players to prematurely change their reviews back to positive.

May 10th 2024:
The blockade of purchasing Helldivers 2 in 177 regions/countries is not only not lifted, but Sony added Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia to the list.

Also Sony applied the same region lock on Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT. 

It's a single player game that don't need a PSN account other than for playing multiplayer. Real childish, Sony. https://www.twitch.tv/piratesoftware/clip/SpunkyMildGrasshopperGOWSkull-D_Qyr6Q6GKNaIrgp
Luckily their stocks are dropping:

 

My thoughts:
This situation remains dire, and there's no logical or economic justification for it. It's the result of short-sighted decisions made for short-term gains and a desire to exert total control. From a broad perspective, this strategy makes no sense. Even though the Steam page for the game originally indicated that a PlayStation Network (PSN) account would be required, PirateSoftware rightly pointed out:

Quote

"Why invest in translating a game into Chinese, Russian, and other languages if you're going to block those countries from accessing the game by mandating PSN accounts, which aren't available there? This feels weird. Why weren't those regions restricted from purchasing Helldivers 2 on Steam from the beginning? None of this makes sense."

https://www.twitch.tv/piratesoftware/clip/DeliciousAnnoyingTofuDoubleRainbow-ylpFnV9kmArtLBuh

Personally, I don't understand why Sony is doing this. The only tangible outcome seems to be an increase in PSN account numbers, but they're mostly empty accounts. Even if their original intention was to restrict the game to PSN, this would still be an economically unwise decision. If they allowed purchases and gameplay in all legally permissible regions, as they briefly did after disabling the PSN lock at launch, they'd sell significantly more copies and generate much more revenue. This increase in revenue would far exceed the costs of implementing an alternative moderation system. By restricting access through PSN alone, they limit sales, reduce copies sold, and diminish income for both Arrowhead and Sony.
 

This situation is bad for overall income and shareholder satisfaction. Expanding the game's reach globally would boost revenue and the company's value, which aligns with shareholder interests. Shareholders should be outraged unless they're speculating on shorting their stock. That's awful behavior: betting on a situation that will destroy gamers' ability to play and capitalizing on the misery.

Allowing people to buy the game wherever it's legally permitted and incentivizing them with cosmetic items to link their accounts to PSN would achieve 90% of the desired inflated PSN numbers while driving more engagement and revenue. More players mean better word-of-mouth marketing, greater interest from other potential buyers, and a stronger fear of missing out. Limiting the game only reduces microtransaction revenue and leads to players seeking refunds, resulting in losses for Arrowhead and Sony. Negative reviews also tarnish Sony's reputation, potentially driving away non-gaming customers.

In the long term, Sony is risking its future by relying on empty PSN accounts. Continuing with this policy will likely erode the company's brand reputation and ultimately cause a drop in income, potentially forcing budget cuts and layoffs. This vicious cycle will hurt the overall quality of Sony's products.
 

It doesn't make sense to refuse what is effectively free revenue. As PirateSoftware said:

 

Quote

Building a community is the most important thing in all of this. Without your community you are absolutely nothing no matter how awesome your game is. This rule is true no matter the size or funding of your studio. If you lose the faith of your players then you lose everything.
https://develop.games/#nav-markening-community

Thor describing Sony and it's actions: I have spent a lifetime on the internet. It is very rare to that you get to experience what I like to call "Pure Elemental Dumbass"

https://clips.twitch.tv/InquisitiveHeartlessDootMVGame-FB2VF58MJD10UCTO

I'm struggling to understand Sony

https://clips.twitch.tv/GrotesqueRamshackleRaisinCorgiDerp-2_x9-6SLGUNUibea
https://clips.twitch.tv/SassyTriumphantRedpandaGivePLZ-pBbGsrqLY3yExW8x

This is a pattern of behavior and extremely anti-developer.
It's also disgusting to see in our industry and the greatest advertisement for piracy I have ever seen.

Sources
https://gamerant.com/psn-faq-change-helldivers-2-controversy/
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-has-been-pulled-from-steam-in-170-countries-without-psn-access-while-valve-ignores-its-own-policy-to-issue-refunds-for-players-with-over-100-hours/
https://steamdb.info/sub/137730/history/
https://steamdb.info/sub/962153/info/
 

Edited May 10 by nvhgamer

[TempestCatto]

We live in an age where you need an account for your "smart" toaster. There's no reason to need to link an account to play a game on a different platform. That'd be like having to link our LTT Forum accounts to Discord in order to use the LTT Discord server.

 

I hate it here.

[Catzzye]

My guess? PlayStation is forcing them to do it, it could've been part of an original agreement but it took time to set the systems in place and now they're actually enforcing it.
Tho, they sold the game for months without it being a requirement, I'm definitely on the side of the consumer of this one, it's not fair.

[Biohazard777]

Quote

Why is Sony forcing this requirement upon Steam players? Safety and security, it said. “Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games,” Sony said in its statement. “This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.”

https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-is-forcing-all-helldivers-2-steam-players-to-connect-to-a-playstation-network-account-and-its-going-down-about-as-well-as-youd-expect

 

Doesn't HD2 have the option to set the lobby to friends only?

So why should my friends and I need PSN to protect us from griefers and cheaters?

I dunno about others but I mostly play coop games with people I know in RL...

 

Anyway, didn't buy it yet and probably will not buy it at all at this point.

Was waiting for the hype to blow over and bugs to be fixed, guess I'll add not needing PSN to the checklist before purchase.

[TetraSky]

Great, yet another account I have zero need for. Because a big company decided they wanted more player information to sell.

[C2dan88]

I suspect this is the beginning for Sony to launch their own PC store/launcher, and start to remove their games from steam. 

[Failure 101]

Let's go i have to make a PSN account for my non existent playstation!!! Just to play helldivers...

[jagdtigger]

The backlash wont matter much, they already got heat under their bacon for the fiasco with Stellar Blade but it doesnt seem to bother them at all..........

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, nvhgamer said:

It's unfair and problematic to force players to link their accounts and reveal (additional) personal information post-purchase

IMO this is not a problem.  They did tell us ahead of time

 

Many people, myself included, hit skip and forgot all about it. 

 

1 hour ago, nvhgamer said:

The fact that many players can't even create or link a PSN account due to geographic restrictions compounds the issue, effectively barring them from accessing a game they've already bought.

This, is an issue. These people should get a refund from Sony, but Steam will probably step in.

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

31 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Many people, myself included, hit skip and forgot all about it. 

You can't hit that forever. Come June 4th you can't play the game without a PSN account anymore. So you can try to forget for a month, but then you will be reminded...

[nvhgamer]

30 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

IMO this is not a problem.  They did tell us ahead of time

 

Many people, myself included, hit skip and forgot all about it. 

 

This, is an issue. These people should get a refund from Sony, but Steam will probably step in.

Fair point, but in my opinion the requirement/enforcement for another account is unneeded. You already have a steam account and that is already enough to make the game function and ban a user if needed. You may give the community the option to link the 2 accounts and reap the benefits of it, but don't force/require it. 

[TVwazhere]

Just now, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

You can't hit that forever. Come June 4th you can't play the game without a PSN account anymore. So you can try to forget for a month, but then you will be reminded...

Well, we only hit it once (I haven't logged on today so I haven't seen it since then)

But I already have a PSN account from owning a PS4 that I no longer use. So I'll end up linking it and forgetting about all of this again. 

 

2 minutes ago, nvhgamer said:

Fair point, but in my opinion the requirement/enforcement for another account is unneeded. You already have a steam account and that is already enough to make the game function and ban a user if needed. You may give the community the option to link the 2 accounts and reap the benefits of it, but don't force/require it. 

It's definitely BS that it runs perfectly fine without it, but it's also not as big of a deal IMO that people seem to be making it. Sea of these required PSN users to sign up for a Microsoft account, and everyone playing Call of Duty games since 2019 that came with crossplay had to sign up for an activision account. 

 

I'm not exactly happy about all of this, but I'm also not looking sleep over it.

[jaslion]

49 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Many people, myself included, hit skip and forgot all about it. 

I never got this screen?

 

Then again I did buy multiple weeks after launch so maybe it was missing for a bit?

 

 

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

It's definitely BS that it runs perfectly fine without it, but it's also not as big of a deal IMO that people seem to be making it. Sea of these required PSN users to sign up for a Microsoft account, and everyone playing Call of Duty games since 2019 that came with crossplay had to sign up for an activision account. 

 

I'm not exactly happy about all of this, but I'm also not looking sleep over it.

I can only speak for myself, but for a few reasons this example really annoys me. Helldivers 2 is/was praised for its player-friendly take on monetization, lack of FOMO and profited heavily from marketing the Devs as the good guys in general.

Of course, the game is fun as hell, but looking at the patch history with all the technical issues (leaving aside balancing stuff, that's a different discussion imho) and how they communicate in general there is a point where you also have to show boundaries. Either to them or to their Sony overlords.

 

You are right, a PSN account is easily made and linked, it takes a few minutes and is no hassle. Other games did similar things, so why isn't it ok here? Because with other games it was also not ok, people just accepted it. So I won't lose much sleep either, but I will leave a steam review, uninstall the game and then just play something else.

Would have loved to play this, but another run at Elden Ring is before the DLC drops is also fun.

[Eaglerino]

12 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I never got this screen?

 

Then again I did buy multiple weeks after launch so maybe it was missing for a bit?

 

 

I don't remember ever seeing it either and I've been playing almost since launch (not gonna play anymore obviously)

[thevictor390]

13 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I never got this screen?

 

Then again I did buy multiple weeks after launch so maybe it was missing for a bit?

 

 

As far as I can tell the behavior changed several times during the early days of the servers shitting the bed.

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

14 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I never got this screen?

 

Then again I did buy multiple weeks after launch so maybe it was missing for a bit?

I've also never seen it when installing it the first time, at least I can't remember. Got curious and apparently it was in the game the whole time, but got lifted in the wake of the devs infrastructure not being able to cope with the demand. Why they now bring it back, I don't know. But supposedly you will see it again when you log in now.

[nvhgamer]

While it's not the first time a game has required an account and certainly not the last time it will happen, the way their Community Manager handles things only makes things worse by adding fuel to the fire instead of calming things down. 

Still find it a horrible situation for players that bought the game and can't play them anymore because PSN is not available in their country and can't get a refund because they played a ton of hours of that game.

[RejZoR]

Was thinking of jumping on the Helldivers 2 craze. Turns out I won't be. I have PS2, but I have zero interest in creating yet another account to play a game that's on Steam where it already requires an account for the Steam itself. This is just stupid and I'm glad people are outraged. This dumb account on top of account on another account is bullshit. The same way double chained launchers are on Steam. Oh, you bought EA's game on Steam. Here's Steam, but also EA's stupid launcher on top of it. WHY? Steam should just give ultimatum that if you want to sell on Steam it should be Steam only. They have a monopoly that they can use for the greater good of all gamers and I think they should enforce it. I also thought about buying Dead Space remake and Mass Effect Legendary Edition just to drop the idea on Steam because of double launchers. This requirement for PS account falls into same category. I don't use PS account and I don't think I ever will since I'm a PC gamer and purchase of that PS2 was out of curiosity years ago, mostly because it didn't require anything and just works stand alone.

[GuiltySpark_]

This is wild. I cannot fathom how words like "outraged" are being thrown around. 

 

Little annoying for a few minutes and then back to gaming. 

 

People, unless you live a perfect life where all you have to deal with every day is what video game to play when you wake up to when you go to sleep,  there are more important and upsetting things going on in the world and probably in your day to day life. 

 

You don't have to make this one of them. Sheesh.

[IkeaGnome]

I'll put this here too.

Dumb question.

If Sony is the one forcing this change, why are people mad at the Helldivers devs?

[CarlBar]

1 hour ago, Eaglerino said:

I don't remember ever seeing it either and I've been playing almost since launch (not gonna play anymore obviously)

 

Add me to the list whos never seen that as far as i recall.

 

5 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

If Sony is the one forcing this change, why are people mad at the Helldivers devs?

 

Thats just a theory, no ones confirmed it.

 

This isn;t going to stop me playing, but it is annoying. And i am perfectly happy with the large segment of people who refuse to deal with non-steam accounts getting extremely mad at the bait and switch being pulled. They're completely entitled to be mad as far as i'm concerned as none of them would have bought the game if they knew upfront this was going to be a thing.

[RejZoR]

10 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

This is wild. I cannot fathom how words like "outraged" are being thrown around. 

 

Little annoying for a few minutes and then back to gaming. 

 

People, unless you live a perfect life where all you have to deal with every day is what video game to play when you wake up to when you go to sleep,  there are more important and upsetting things going on in the world and probably in your day to day life. 

 

You don't have to make this one of them. Sheesh.

Yes we do, because corporations just keep taking things the moment you let them a bit. The state of gaming would be far worse if consumers weren't outraged over anti-consumer or privacy invading practices. It has gone worse despite outrages and boycotts and if we all gone with your way of not giving a f**k, then it would just be the worst.

[KnoT]

10 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

This is wild. I cannot fathom how words like "outraged" are being thrown around. 

 

Little annoying for a few minutes and then back to gaming. 

 

People, unless you live a perfect life where all you have to deal with every day is what video game to play when you wake up to when you go to sleep,  there are more important and upsetting things going on in the world and probably in your day to day life. 

 

You don't have to make this one of them. Sheesh.

Cuz its not that simple especially when most ppl bought the game it was not required to link PSN acc to play the game, further more there are regions and countries where the game was sold and work without problems but wont work anymore as PSN is not available there.

https://clips.twitch.tv/ArborealLitigiousCheeseChefFrank-SASxdmXUeiktmWdR

This kind of bait and switch is maneuver is possibly illegal in EU:

 

[GuiltySpark_]

2 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Yes we do, because corporations just keep taking things the moment you let them a bit. The state of gaming would be far worse if consumers weren't outraged over anti-consumer or privacy invading practices. It has gone worse despite outrages and boycotts and if we all gone with your way of not giving a f**k, then it would just be the worst.

I appreciate that y'all worry about these things but I simply cannot be bothered. As I said, actual important things affecting my life I worry about. Video games are not it. 

 

Just now, KnoT said:

Cuz its not that simple especially when most ppl bought the game it was not required to link PSN acc to play the game, further more there are regions and countries where the game was sold and work without problems but wont work anymore as PSN is not available there.
 

Can they not just select a different country? 

 

If not, yeah, for those people this is terrible. (Though it seems it was advertised as requiring PSN at launch but not enforced due to a technical issue)