Sony Went Back on Its Helldivers 2 PSN Requirement. Johan Pilestedt Is Impressed by Willpower of Game’s Community
Helldivers 2 won't require a PlayStation Network account to play. This is the result of the „strong will” of gamers, who heavily criticized Sony before the company backed down from its previous plans.
The past weekend showed how quickly one can lose a meticulously built reputation. In a few days, Helldivers 2 has alienated a large part of the gaming community. The protest proved to be successful, much to the surprise of some fans, as Sony withdrew its controversial decision to require a PlayStation Network account for playing Helldivers 2 at the last minute.
The publisher's post (published on X) makes the matter clear. The requirement that was supposed to apply to new players from today will ultimately not be introduced. As Sony put it, the company is still "learning what's best for PC players" and appreciates the priceless opinions of gamers.
PSN to the Sony's rescue?
You don't have to look far to find the most certain reason for Sony's resignation from its current plans. Just take a look at the reception of Helldivers 2 on Steam: so many negative reviews have been posted in the last few days that they now account for more than half of all user reviews on the platform (their number has exceeded 330,000 in this period). Players' sharp reaction was also evident in their social media posts.
The reasons are quite simple: on the one hand, this was due to a lack of trust in the security of PSN (which has often been targeted by hackers), and on the other hand (and perhaps more importantly) - due to the lack of service in some countries.
Some online users were suspicious that the need to link Steam and PlayStation Network accounts could be due to an attempt to boost the platform's statistics ahead of Sony's investor meetings. According to this theory, the publisher wanted to take advantage of the success of Helldivers 2 to be able to boast to shareholders about the increase in the number of new PSN accounts.
This would help the company after the previous financial report, which decidedly didn't benefit Sony's situation. The company's share value dropped by $10 billion right after the report was published.
PSN in Helldivers 2 is nothing new
It should be added that even the developers of the Helldivers series themselves were far from supporting Sony's earlier decision. One of the studio's community managers not only assured that the developers don't necessarily agree with it but actually encouraged players to engage in "protests."
Johan Pilestedt, while somewhat more reserved, was definitely not unsupportive of Sony, and after a recent hiatus, he actively engaged in discussions with fans about the publisher's decision. The CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios is impressed by the "willpower" of the community and its "ability to cooperate." The Swede also thanked Sony for backing out of this decision (via X).
During the weekend, Pilestedt provided commentary on the remarks of internet users. He confirmed again that the studio was aware of Sony's plans for 6 months and didn't communicate it effectively to players. That's likely the reason why the head of Arrowhead Game Studios was so engaged on X. As he mentioned, while coping with this criticism is challenging for the entire team, refraining from interacting with fans at this time would be unwise.
Indeed, such information appeared on Steam a long time ago, but few people paid attention to it. However, the unexpected popularity of Helldivers 2 forced us to abandon this requirement to relieve the load on the game servers (via X). The decision to impose PSN was supposed to "help in moderating" the game.
Nevertheless, the Swede also confirmed that both the PSN requirement and the HD2 being sold without it so far were publisher decisions. The dev also realizes that this situation will forever be a stain on the honor of the series.
New order after defeating Sony's Tyranny
Of course, Pilestedt wouldn't be himself if he didn't add a pinch of humor to the whole situation. The CEO of Arrowhead Studio pointed out that the review bombing of Helldivers 2 accidentally resulted in a cool cape design in the game (via X).
The players quickly embraced the Swede's idea and also took their own initiative. A new, unofficial Major Order directs the forces of Super Earth to regain the honor of HD2 after "saving Democracy from the Tyranny of Sony" and reclaim the game's positive Steam reviews (via X / Reddit).
Other fans are proposing that May 6th should be declared as Victory Day in Helldivers 2. As you can see, despite this "small" image disaster, players still trust the developers.
