Sony Interactive Entertainment reverses Helldivers 2 PSN account requirement

Helldivers 2 is a third-person shooter game released in 2024, developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the direct sequel to Helldivers, a top-down shooter released in 2015. Helldivers 2 was released on February 8, 2024, for PlayStation 5 and Windows. The game has received positive reviews from critics and has sold over 8 million units within the first two months of its release.

After it was revealed that PC players of the game were required to link their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account, the community decided to review bomb the game, as it meant that players from countries where PSN was not available would be unable to purchase or continue playing the game. As reviews for the game continued to collapse, Arrowhead's best-selling game was pulled from 177 countries.

Whereas players in Japan would only be able to a access a separate package and not the "Global Version".

On Friday, Arrowhead CEO, Johan Pilstedt apologized for the requirement in a statement posted to X/Twitter.

The Controversy gained traction on Friday when Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that the "grace period" in which Helldivers 2 did not need to be connected to a PSN account was ending. Starting May 6, all new Helldivers 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to PSN. Existing Steam players will begin seeing a mandatory login on May 30.

Helldivers 2 came out as the best-selling game in 2024, notable for it's community engagement. SIE's decision casted a shadow on the game's future success. Pilstedt took to X/Twitter to announce that Arrowhead was working on a solution, but that the studio didn't have the final say on the matter.

In a Poetic message Pilstedt posted, "Waking up to the sunshine of yesterday replaced with a dreary drizzle and shivering winds makes me reflect on how I spent my time those rare few moments when all was perfect."

He also chose to shed some light on his role in the decision-making regarding the policy stating:

After a ton of backlash from the public, that involved tens of thousands of negative reviews, some of which spread to Sony's other steam games. Sony Interactive Entertainment reversed it's decision on this unfavorable policy, on Sunday evening, the company announced on X/Twitter:

Following PlayStation's announcement, fans breathed a sigh of relief and expressed hope for the games future, and that further games would not include the requirement. Others urged players to not take out their anger on Arrowhead.

With this, players can now turn back their focus on playing the game, Pilstedt praised the Helldivers community in a tweet stating:

With the community now leading an effort to turn back the game's negative reviews.