Sony makes Helldivers 2 PSN account linking U-turn — gamer uproar and review bombing turned the tide

Helldivers 2
(Image credit: PlayStation)

Sony has made a massive U-turn, cancelling plans that would have required  Helldivers 2 PC players to have a linked PlayStation Network (PSN) account. This mandatory Steam account and PSN account linking policy was revealed just ahead of the weekend. Since the announcement, Sony has faced a barrage of criticism from media figures and ordinary gamers, as well as a ferocious Helldivers 2 review-bombing campaign. Valve probably wasn’t very happy either, with many Steam PC gamers demanding (and somewhat surprisingly receiving) refunds.

A few hours ago, the official Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation account on Twitter/X issued the above notice. We’ve already told you the important thing – mandatory PSN linking plans have been scrapped.

Apparently, Sony is “still learning what is best for PC players,” so “your feedback has been invaluable.” The firm glosses over the ferocious pushback it received from the gaming community and instead diplomatically ends “Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans.” As long as those plans don’t try to pull the same trick again but from a different angle, it should be OK.

The above story charts a swift U-turn for a company the size of Sony. It introduced the PSN/Steam account linking plan by selling it as a way of “protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security.” Sony explained that it would make banning more watertight. However, the gamer backlash didn’t see the policy in the same way, and one of the big problems was that PSN simply isn’t supported in 177 countries worldwide. The account linking would thus mean a lot of PC-based Helldivers 2 gamers would be excluded from the game they had bought.

(Image credit: PlayStation)

As well as the vociferous backlash, Valve felt compelled to refund gamers on its Steam platform who were about to get access to Helldivers 2 revoked due to the PSN linking policy. Reports suggest that Valve was more generous than expected with refunds, honoring the spirit of the policy even when gamers had already spent months and hundreds of hours in the game.

The scale of the Helldivers 2 review bombing was also pretty remarkable. Over the weekend the game’s review score changed from mostly positive to mixed. Over 150,000 negative reviews were dropped on the Steam-hosted game in the few hours following the account linking policy reveal.

TOPICS
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • oofdragon
    This kind of uproar should happen next time Nintendo unveils their new potat.. I mean hardware
    Reply
  • Crazyy8
    Victory for the gamers? Reminds me of the War Thunder situation almost exactly one year ago.
    Reply
  • Dr3ams
    I own the game, but I don't own a Playstation or have a Playstation account...and I don't want them either. For me this would have been 60 Euros down the drain. I'm happy for the revolt and maybe these companies will realize that we (gamers) aren't going to take their sh*t any more.
    Reply
  • garrett040
    gamers rise up
    Reply
  • TechLurker
    Sony isn't likely to give up; they've had bad press before, especially during Destiny, and they still came out the victors in the long run. They'll definitely find a way to entice players to sign up for PSN, just like Epic Games still gets haters signing up just to get the one (or two) free game(s) each month.

    In Sony's case, they'll probably take the community suggestions of PSN-exclusive Cosmetics, but maybe also go further with a new exclusive weapon, then include the note that they will eventually rotate into the regular game shop or future Season Pass months later, which can't be argued against given that it's free, it's optional (much like paid Season Pass weapons), and will come into regular rotation later on.
    Reply
  • usertests
    Gamers are the most oppressed minority. And Sony still sucks.
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    The biggest issue they had was trying to force that after the fact.

    Had they come out and made it very clear from the beginning this is the requirement and enforced that from the get go, that’s a different situation. But in the case where people bought the game and Sony wants to change the terms of the sale, you don’t do that.

    If they’d have required a PSN account at launch, then they’d also have had the flexibility to open it up to signing in from steam etc etc, then they would have come out looking more pro consumer and looked better as a company. Whereas now it’s great they did a U Turn, but now you likely have people out there who are fed up already and may be less likely to purchase other games from them in the future.

    If they really want to stoke good will maybe do a discount weekend or something where you can buy the game for 10 bucks or maybe people get a free copy of an older game during a 24 hour period or something.
    Reply
  • Crazyy8
    ohio_buckeye said:

    If they really want to stoke good will maybe do a discount weekend or something where you can buy the game for 10 bucks or maybe people get a free copy of an older game during a 24 hour period or something.
    Make the original Helldivers free?
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    Not a bad idea turn it into free to play like war thunder and then as they develop could always add stuff in that is paid.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    Great news! This is why review bombing and refunds are so important. Those tools are all gamers have to make their disdain clear. We do not have anyone in the gaming media/journalism space that will advocate for gamers. Big gaming sites are too busy letting their writers and editors dump on their audiences.

    There need to be new laws preventing companies from changing and enforcing new terms of sale. Whether it's Sony or Roku or LG, no company should be able to force a customer to adopt new terms after purchase or lose the use of what they purchased.
    Reply