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Helldivers 2 has been removed from Steam in over 155 countries that do not offer access to PlayStation Network (PSN). The move comes after much backlash to Sony's announcement requiring players to sign in to a PSN to play. On Friday, 3rd May, Sony announced that PC players would need to link the game to a PlayStation Network account or they'd lose access to the game. The option to link the game has been around since the game’s launch in February 2024. However, according to GamesRadar, it had not been made mandatory till last Friday. Here is why players saw Helldivers 2 removed from Steam.
Helldivers 2 removed from Steam after a coordinated negative review campaigns
Sony’s announcement led to severe backlash from the Helldivers community since PSN is only supported in 90 countries, leaving those without access to it unable to log on. This led to numerous fans leaving negative reviews for the game on Steam, bringing down the overall rating to ‘Mostly Negative’.
Johan Pilestedt, the game director of Helldivers 2 and CEO of Arrowhead Game tweeted out about the negative reviews saying:
The announcement and negative reviews prompted Steam to pull the game from countries where PlayStation Network was not an option. According to GamesRadar, Valve also began issuing refunds to Helldivers 2 players who had put hundreds of hours into the game. Under normal circumstances, players can only claim a refund for a game on Steam if they have not exceeded two hours in-game.
Despite only launching two months ago, Helldivers 2 had become one of PlayStation’s all-time highest sellers, climbing to seventh highest revenue game ever in terms of lifetime sales, according to PCMag.
Arrowhead Game Studios CEO clarifies position on PSN requirement
According to Pilestedt, the requirement to connect the game to a PSN account was always on the books. When asked about the PSN requirement, Pilestedt clarified saying while he knew about the PSN requirement 6 months before launch, “When servers exploded on launch, quick decisions had to be made, such as turning off linking and Galactic war stats to be able to take the load off servers. We couldn't enable it again because of the risk to explode the servers again (and remember the negative feedback around that)”. Pilestedt also stated that, “the requirement to reenable came from PS(to help with moderation) - and we had to comply even though there were concerns there would be backlash.”
The developers are currently working on solutions with PlayStation, especially for non-PSN countries, with Pilestedt stating, “I am doing everything I can to speak for the community - but I don't have the final say.”
Following the backlash, Sony decided to update their Helldivers 2 account linking requirement, saying it will no longer be necessary.
