Helldivers 2 PlayStation Account Requirement Controversy

Overview

Helldivers 2 PlayStation Account Requirement Controversy refers to the planned update on May 30th, 2024, that requires all Helldivers 2 players to create a Sony account to continue playing the game, regardless of which platform they play on. The aftermath of the announcement and planned update was swift, with gamers of all different platforms rallying against Sony and refunding the game on Steam while leaving negative reviews on it and review bombing. Many of the concerns voiced by opponents referenced the numerous hacks and data breaches impacting Sony and PlayStation in previous years.

Background

On May 3rd, 2024, the official Twitter / X^[1] account for Helldivers 2 posted an update to its Steam store page. In the update, titled "Helldivers 2 Account Linking Update," it was stated that initially, the game's stated requirement of linking to a PlayStation account has been optional due to technical constraints but that the requirement was going to go into effect starting on May 30th with players receiving login-prompts until June 4th, 2024.

This message, signed as "Sony Interactive Entertainment," acknowledged that it would be an inconvenience for players, but stated that it would be for the betterment of the player base (shown below).

The tweet announcing the account change garnered over 13.4 million views, 11,000 likes, 6,700 retweets and 10,000 replies in 16 hours.

Online Reactions

Reactions online were quick to form, with several people posting about the requirement and stating that they would be refusing to make a PlayStation account.

For example, on May 3rd, 2024, the online content creator and streamer PirateSoftware^[2] posted on X that forcing Steam players to create a PlayStation account is absurd and that he was not only uninstalling the game but leaving a negative review and refunding it, continuing on in another post to say that certain countries to do not have the ability to create PlayStation accounts and that it is directly geo-blocking them (shown below).

Later that day, the /r/Helldivers subreddit became flooded with different takes regarding the situation. For example, on May 3rd, 2024, Redditor u/tokata0^[3] uploaded a screenshot of the Steam game page for Helldivers 2, showing a recent influx of negative reviews including the one posted by PirateSoftware, with many of them claiming that they bought the game to play it on Steam and refuse to create PlayStation accounts to continue playing something they paid for (shown below).

Numerous memes also spread online following the announcement. On May 3rd, Redditor Time2121 posted one to /r/Helldrivers^[4] depicting Sony as another enemy faction in the game, receiving over 8,700 upvotes and 250 comments in 11 hours (seen below).

PlayStation Reversal

On May 6th, 2024, the official X account for PlayStation^[5] made a post stating that the company had heard the feedback from the fans and was going to be reversing course and not pushing forward with the requirement. The post, which received over 40 million views in 22 hours, was quickly met with fan appreciation and warnings to not try to pull stunts like this in the future (shown below).

In the aftermath of the reversal announcement, the CEO of Arrowhead studios, @Pilestedt^[6] posted about the event, saying that he was happy that more gamers will be able to enjoy the game, and even posted the Steam review chart, which showed three large negative red lines to show the overwhelming response the fans had to the initial announcement, claiming that it would make a great cape design and would be implemented into the game soon (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References