Helldivers 2: Review Bomb Explained

Helldivers 2 has been extremely well received for the two months since it was released. Fans have been impressed with the constant updates, patches, and new content. It was going well for Helldivers 2 until Sony decided to demand that all Steam players have to link to a PlayStation Network account.

Without a PSN account, you won’t be able to play Helldivers 2 and it is not available to everyone in the world. Everyone agrees that there are too many countries that cannot create a PlayStation Network account for it to be mandatory.

It has caused an uproar among the fans and it doesn’t look like things are going to sort themselves out. The sheer amount of negative reviews that players have posted in the last two days shows exactly what they are thinking. At the time of writing, only 28% of 137,708 recent reviews have been positive. It might be difficult for Helldivers 2 to come back after such a blow.

Arrowhead CEO Responses to Controversy with Helldivers 2

With the negative reviews rolling in, Arrowhead’s CEO tweeted an apology about the situation.

Ouch, right in the review score.

Well, I guess it’s warranted. Sorry everyone for how this all transpired. 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!

-Pilestedt

The community of Helldivers 2 is banding together and posting negative reviews on Steam. Many are demanding a refund. Thousands of players who have purchased Helldivers 2 and have played for two months will soon be locked out. Pilestedt said this after his apology:

I understand that linking accounts and signing up for additional services may not be something that some users would like to do and that needs to be respected. While the Steam page has always shown the requirements on the game page, I wish we had been more clear with the long term intent to not disappoint any of the divers out there.

-Pilestedt

It is true that on Helldivers 2’s Steam page, there was always a message letting us know that a PSN account would be necessary but we cannot be blamed for not noticing it. There are a lot of people who are stating it shouldn't have been sold to anyone who cannot continue to play it. Arrowhead is trying to do what it can to make sure everyone can play Helldivers 2 but it seems Sony doesn’t want to budge on this demand.

Updates from Arrowhead about Helldivers 2 Account Linking

On Discord, members of Arrowhead Game Studios have announced that they are trying to fight this mandatory account linking for Helldivers 2. They are asking Sony for more information and are trying to be open with their fans. Spitz, a community manager, caused some backlash when he commented on how easy it was to make a PSN account before he was aware of just how many countries would not be able to do so. He later added this message:

Internal Discussions are ongoing about the mandatory linking change and while I can’t reveal details, the response from our dev teams has been pretty universally negative and we are looking for better options.

If a better solution isn’t provided for players who are in regions without PSN coverage, I’m assured that we won’t be making the requirement mandatory for those players. We’re not going to force people to either break Sony ToS or not play the game.

-Spitz on Discord

It seems that we have the developers on our side but it will depend on Sony if we will be losing a portion of our fellow players. That’s everything we know so far but we will stay alert about the situation. The new premium Warbond is coming soon and unless Arrowhead and Sony sort out this mess before it does, many people doubt it will be a great success. This could be the end for Helldivers 2, as many fans feel like they have no trust in the developers now.