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Mike Straw·
NewsPCPS5
··1 min read

Helldivers 2 CEO Apologizes For PSN Account Requirement

Helldivers 2 PSN Account

Late Thursday/early Friday, it was announced that Helldivers 2 players on Steam would be required to connect to a PlayStation (PSN) account in order to continue playing the game.

The reaction from players to the news went exactly as you’d expect. As of publishing, the game has seen nearly 37,000 negative reviews on May 3 alone, according to SteamDB. It’s something that the Helldivers 2 developers at Arrowhead Game Studios are aware of, and it’s even got the attention of the studio’s CEO Jhan Pilestedt.

“Well, I guess it’s warranted. Sorry everyone for how this all transpired,” he said via Twitter. “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!”

As far as the decision behind the policy goes, the game’s community manager said on the game’s official Discord server that it was a Sony decision, not Arrowhead.

“First of all, it’s Sony’s decision, not ours,” he said. “Secondly, we don’t have all the details about region related issues yet. We’re chasing Sony to get more info.”

The new Helldivers 2 PlayStation account rules go into enforcement on May 6 for new players while current players on Steam will have to have their accounts linked by June 6.

What do you think of the negative reviews and apology surrounding the new Helldivers 2 PSN account policy? Will it cause you to stop playing?

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Mike Straw
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of gaming, Mike was a beat reporter for various outlets covering the NHL for years before moving to game journalism full time. When he's not writing, you can find Mike playing various turn-based strategy games and roguelikes.

32 Comments

  1. Saying you’re sorry, while continuing the unwanted behavior, is abuse.

    Push $ony to make this right.

    1. Push the company that fund the game to “make it right” (even if it’s just the not-so-smart who are complaining) yeah that’s great idea.

      Unwanted behavior for having to connect one thing one time LMAO, you are funny Alo, you should do so clown show

    2. Do you know how game publishing works? no? then shut up, they have 0 control over this legally, it’s like going to an independent repair shop and shouting at them for charging a ton to repair your iphone, it’s not their fault apple doesn’t sell stock parts at cost value.

    3. It’s not up to the devs. Sony(the publisher) is forcing it.
      He’s apologizing for something that’s out of his hands, how tf is that abuse?

  2. What’s the big deal anyway? Can someone explain to me why this is such a problem? I’m legit curious. It’s not like they’re forcing us to install their own crappy launcher.

    1. The game was sold in regions that people cannot register PSN accounts from. So they’ve taken money for a product that they will not allow to function.

      Also the general oh-no-not-another-account friction. And they’re using the stick instead of the carrot. Like if a game disabled your account until you activated 2-factor authentication, instead of a minor bribe to set it up.

      The first reason is fairly serious, but the second is mostly just people complaining.

    2. There are two reasons people are upset I think only the second reason is a really good one. The first one is easily fixed.

      The first reason people are upset is because people on PC, mostly just PC elitists don’t feel they should have to set up a PlayStation account to continue playing. They also say they’re worried that their data will be stolen or sold by Sony. The workaround is just to give them a bogus email.

      The Second reason is because people were able to buy the game on PC in countries that don’t have PlayStation network for one reason or another. For example the Philippines do not have PlayStation network. I’m not sure if it’s because of laws in the Philippines or if there’s some reason Sony doesn’t want people in that area able to access the PlayStation network.

      But now all those people that are in countries that cannot have the PlayStation network purchased this game and have played it for the last three months, they are well past the time limit for a refund, and they won’t be able to play the game since they don’t have the PlayStation network in their country. They could use a VPN but that breaks Sony‘s TOS and the account will just get banned.

      And that’s what arrowhead meant when they said they were still reaching out to Sony for information on how they want to handle the regional issues.

      I play on PC and I haven’t touched a Sony consul in years but I do have a PlayStation account so this didn’t affect me.

    3. Many of us would rather NOT be among exposed to Sony’s bullshit. They’re security is poor, their ethics are dubious, and they don’t care about anything but their own wallets. Fuck those guys.

    4. Google it. Some regions can’t have psn, they’ve been hacked in the past loosing trust, and for some people its the principle of the matter. They bought a game that explicitly stated it did not require that a psn account. Google it before opening your talkhole.

    5. People are crying over theirs “data” but will accept the terms without reading, do anything that their favorite companies ask them to do LOL

      It’s coast 0€ to make a account, you connect once ans basta. But “MY DATA!!!!1!1!!” (while trusting American companies will all theirs heelarts)

      Those specimens will always be funny

    6. PSN is only available in 69 countries in the world. Even European Union nations like Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are excluded. For gamers in these countries they have literally just been told that a game they paid for and have been happily playing for the past 3 months is now unavailable simply because Sony want to steal people’s data.

    7. that’s the thing, THEY WILL if you give them an inch…

      remember the $3 horse armor from elder scrolls?

      that one thing snowballed literally to now games having $50 cosmetics…

    8. Sony has a well earned reputation for having paper thin security for your identifying information and saved charge accounts. Signing up guarantees you are involved in a data breach.

    9. the issue is that the game was sold in regions where users cannot legally make a PSN account.

      many are also wary to give their data to sony after they had about half a dozen data breaches exposing PII of users over the course of the last five years or so

    10. I’m trying to figure this out myself as well. I haven’t read anywhere that they will have to pay or anything like that so they just need to make a PlayStation account? If that’s the case I don’t see what the big deal is, if they have to pay monthly and they are not Even on PS5 I can see why that’s a crock of shit, but if like the one guy below says I had to make a Microsoft account to play sea of thieves if I didn’t have to pay for Xbox live I don’t really see what the big deal would be

    11. I cant speak for everyone but I am just sick of having to sign up into so many different programs to just play a game I paid for. We have steam already, and for old school gamers who are used to having physical copies of their games that you can run whenever you want, on as many machines as you want, already having a plateform that controls what you want to do left a bad taste in my mouth. For example I have helldivers on my laptop running, and I just log into vampire survivors on another, an offline game and it shuts off my other game. Like why?!

      Steam takes care of the online negotation of multiplayer, just stop forcing me to do things to just play.

    12. In the last 6 or so years there have been a LOT of data breaches at Sony, so people don’t trust signing up and linking a PSN account to their steam account. PSN also only supports about 70 countries worldwide, so tons of people are going to be locked out of playing a game because Sony doesn’t support their country, and trying to use a VPN or using an account made in a supported region can/will result in a ban.
      I think someone also said that up until now any mentions of linking a PSN account to your game was always phrased as being optional until they made the announcement it’ll be mandatory.

    13. There are multiple reasons.
      1. Sony will use this for tracking and advertising.
      2. Having a Sony account has proven to be not safe, many times…
      > – April 2011: Hackers Access Personal Data of 77 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users
      > – May 2011: Personal Details on 25 Million Sony Online Entertainment Customers Stolen
      > – June 2011: Sony Pictures Website Hacked, Exposing One Million Accounts
      > – November 2014: Hackers Steal 100 Terabytes of Data from Sony Pictures
      > – August 2017: Hacker Group Accesses Sony Social Media Accounts
      > – September 2023: Sony Investigates Alleged Hack
      > – October 2023: Sony Notifies Employees of Data Breach
      3. They only included that this was needed in _some_ places, and even there in small print. Which we all now is on purpose and is disgusting corporate behaviour.
      4. People who have bought the game and can’t make a PSN account have now lost access to the game they probably paid full price for.
      5. In addition to those, imagine this new trend where each publisher is requires you to make an account within their systems and having to link them whenever you want to play their game.. That could mean you would now need an account for:

      EA, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Square Enix, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Sega, Konami, THQ Nordic, 2K Games, Paradox Interactive, Focus Home Interactive, Devolver Digital……. Etc….

      And that’s only a small portion of the number of publishers… It’s a trend that benefits the publishers only as they get to track users on a new level. Honestly boils my blood the amount of corporate greed were seeing in the gaming industry.

    14. Problem is I dont want to have to go make a damn sony account to play a game I already paid for on steam. End point. Point #2. Some Regions dont have access to a Sony Account and CANT make one so they will be locked out of a game they paid for. Point 3. People are TIRED of companies releasing games on Steam then FORCING you to link your account to some other shitty launcher. See EA, and Epic for this type of scummy behavior.

    15. PSN isn’t available in every country, so if you can’t get a PSN account in your country, tough luck, byebye you can’t even start the game that you bought and own

    16. Because people from the countries that aren’t covered by PSN already bought the game and will now be banned from playing the game they paid for.

    1. The problem is that this happens months after players have purchased the game. It’s like if you bought Sea of ​​Theves and months later Microsoft told you that in order to play the game you must be REQUIRED to log in to an MS account.
      And then it’s a bit of a hold-up by Sony to count Steam players on their PSN.

      1. it said on the store page and during first launch of the game that a psn account is required to play.

        doesnt make this less problematic in regard to users who cannot make a psn account due to regional policies.

  4. There are clear before and after imaged showing what was changed…I can see how people who bought the game feel bait and switched. The text pre Thursday clearly read that a Psn/Sony account was not required…then it changed today. They imo are rightfully upset. People go to Steam to escape all of this EPic/Sony/Ea/Ubisoft nonsense.

    I had an UBisoft game purchased on steam (Ghost REcon Wildlands) but because I had my other Steam UBIsoft games purchased with a dif email Ubi account I was told I couldnt play the game due to suspicious activity…took me FIVE weeks to fix with numerous emails and calls back and forth with Ubisoft. 7

    1. I hear you. My email and account info got messed up and I have called 3 times and still have yet for them to fix anything. I gave up. Ubisoft hasn’t been making anything good so I figure the company will go under before they fix my account.

  5. Was waiting on that game for PRECISELY this sort of reason. Sony just can’t fucking help themselves. It’s a pass from me dog.

  6. They have said multiple times that a PS acc would be required down the road. People that are acting shocked just simply never paid attention.

  8. What’s the big deal?

    PSN has been hacked and personal information compromised how many times now?

    Also, Sony obviously using this to pad their PSN account numbers with pc gamers that may not even own a sony console.

    Shady bait and switch tactics.

    To some people those are big deals.

  9. The other issue is that existing Steam players from various countries are not able to create a PSN accounts (examples such as Baltic states, all African countries excluding SA). These users would have to lie and use a VPN, if they are caught, in theory their access could revoked.

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