Whilst members of Helldivers studio Arrowhead Video games say that discussions round Sony’s controversial PlayStation Community check in requirement for Helldivers 2 on PC are nonetheless ongoing, it appears to be like just like the writer is doubling down on the transfer, halting gross sales of the sport in international locations the place it does not supply the service.
In idea, Helldivers 2 was at all times purported to require gamers to signal into the PlayStation Community in sport, however this was not required at launch attributable to community infrastructure limitations (keep in mind Helldivers 2’s early server woes?). Two days in the past, Sony introduced that it could start imposing that requirement in a month-long rollout.
Whereas merely an (admittedly odious) inconvenience for many gamers, PC customers in international locations not coated by PSN is likely to be locked out of the sport fully. This easy reality appears to have taken even Sony without warning, with an FAQ from the writer within the Helldivers 2 Discord seeming to direct gamers to set their PSN account to a rustic apart from the one wherein they reside, a violation of Sony’s phrases of service. Talking to the sport’s rioting group yesterday, Helldivers 2 group supervisor Spitz framed addressing this oversight because the developer’s primary precedence in discussions with Sony in regards to the requirement.
As shared by SteamDB early this morning, Helldivers 2 has been faraway from sale on Steam in 177 international locations and territories. Japan appears to be on the listing as an outlier, with the sport being changed by a unique model within the nation, seemingly attributable to localization causes. The remainder, although, are all areas not eligible for PSN entry, with this transfer seemingly in preparation for the worst-case state of affairs of a rollout the place gamers who cannot join the PlayStation Community are merely out of luck.
The Steam evaluation riot towards the transfer continues unabated, with over 211 thousand unfavorable latest critiques, bringing the previous folks’s champion of 2024 to general “Combined” standing on the platform. Nearly 130 thousand of these new unfavorable critiques have been up to now day alone—after I final checked in on Helldivers 2 yesterday, we have been sitting at 84 thousand.
And Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead may simply be one of many greatest victims of the scenario, having its pattern setting, GOTY shortlist labor of affection get proverbially drawn and quartered attributable to myopic Sony determination making. “We’re speaking options with Sony, particularly in non-PSN international locations,” Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt wrote on Twitter earlier right now. “Your voice has been heard, and I’m doing every part I can to talk for the group—however I haven’t got the ultimate say.”
Sony has been holding its hand to a scorching range for about three days now, all within the title of capturing new emails and customers into its PSN ecosystem, and whereas I am only a easy nation video games journalist, the good transfer would most likely be to cease proper about now. What’s extra, not making this variation would take much less effort: simply preserve Helldivers 2 operating because it has for the previous 4 months.
Whether or not Sony finally realizes this or not, it could already be too late. Just like how Tarkov’s $250 mode controversy was allowed to burn uncontrolled for six days, probably completely souring its group and driving them to options like Gray Zone Warfare, Sony and Helldivers 2 have sustained calamitous reputational harm over this check in debacle. The factor is, there’s simply nothing on the market fairly like Helldivers 2, which makes the prospect of its demise or diminishing all of the sadder.