Players Are Not Happy About Helldivers 2’s New PlayStation Network Requirement And The Review Scores Are Proving It

Requiring Steam players to connect to a PlayStation Network account in order to play a game is a weird requirement. But, for Helldivers 2, it is a requirement, nonetheless. According to Sony, requiring players to tie the shooter game on their Steam account to PSN was always intended. It’s just that at launch, there were technical issues that resulted in them not making it a requirement immediately. Now, they’re going ahead and making it mandatory as it “plays a critical role in protecting players and upholding the values of safety and security”.

The new requirement goes into effect for new players on May 6. Existing players will be required to link their accounts by June 4.

The end result is a whole lot of unhappy players hitting those review buttons. As of this writing, nearly 30,000 negative reviews have been posted by Steam players. And that’s just today. The reviews all effectively say the same thing, Steam players don’t want to connect to a PSN account.

Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt responded to these reviews on Twitter saying he “guess[es] it’s warranted”. He also apologized and said that he hopes they can regain player trust. The tweet ends simply with, “I just want to make great games!”

Ouch, right in the review score 😢🤕

Well, I guess it's warranted. Sorry everyone for how this all transpired. I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience.

I just want to make great games! pic.twitter.com/EPO7apDUlc

— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 3, 2024

Player response to the tweet has been generally negative as well. Some say Arrowhead should tell Sony they’re not going to do it. Others point out this is a problem for countries in which PSN is not available. And yet others note that PSN is one of the most breached gaming services. It will be interesting to see if this results in a reversal.