If you even so much as consider gaming from time to time, you’ve heard about Helldivers 2. It’s a multiplayer PvE title that took the world by storm immediately after the tide of Palword let up for a single second. Lauded as containing some of the most innovative and fun gameplay crafted since the Left 4 Dead series, Helldivers 2 was seen by many as a huge potential contender for GOTY… before the first quarter of the year even concluded. So why is this universally acclaimed game sitting at Mostly Negative on Steam right now? How did the the devs fuck up this slam dunk? They didn’t. The publisher Sony has pissed people off by enforcing a previously unenforced rule: linking your Playstation account. 

Since the beginning, there has been a nasty little message on the Steam page for Helldivers 2 that reads “Requires 3rd Party Account: Playstation Network”. Nobody gave a shit though because Steam users were never forced to actually link their PSN account to jump in and play with others. In fact, you can disable crossplay in the game to stick directly with other PC users and not even interact with PS5 consoles. However, this means that Sony does not get much data from the insanely large player base of Helldivers 2 nor does it boost their active monthly PSN users count. That was a missed opportunity they were willing to deal with… until now. Sony must have run some numbers and realized the value of such a large number of players’ data going uncollected, therefore they changed their tune and have required PC players to start linking their accounts.

So is it really that big of a deal? Linking a 3rd party account is nothing new in the modern age of gaming. That being said, fans appear to be pissed off for three main reasons. First, Sony is a notoriously shitty company when it comes to digital security. Reports of a massive data breach involving consumer data release every few years. I’ve gotten multiple emails throughout my account being active that it may have been involved in a data breach. Don’t worry though, Sony apologized and said “we won’t let that happen again bud” so I’m sure my data will never be stolen in the future. Another big issue stems from a discrepancy between the number of countries Steam offers service to, and how many Sony offer service to. Steam has a broader list, which means some players from less established nations will not be able to link a PSN account as they don’t receive service in their area, and Sony states in their TOS that making an account and misreporting your location could result in a ban. I suspect that’s so Sony can comply with local laws to the nation but still, it’s a problem for some Steam players. Lastly, at the end of the day people will always be upset when you offer something, prove that way works and is possible, and then change that offering down the road without sufficient reasoning. It’s clear to everyone that there’s no reason for this change of attitude other than for Sony to harvest a ton more player data because the game has been working fine, crossplay or not, since fixing the servers at launch. It’s a move that weighs in favor against the community with no compensation to justify it.

Now that's a reversal.

Talk about a fatter article today, but I wanted to make sure I covered the main reasons I witnessed as to why this controversy gained so much traction. It’s not the biggest fuckover of a corporation to a community ever or anything, but it’s the fact it’s so blatantly unnecessary as far as I can tell. Are you familiar with Helldivers 2? Did you hear about this backlash? Do you think the fans are overreacting, or are justified in hating Sony’s new enforcement of linking? Grab your freedom dispenser, pack a flag, and spread democracy in the comments below!

UPDATE: In an unexpected move for freedom and democracy everywhere, Sony has announced they are discontinuing the PSN linkage requirement based on community feedback. This is a rare case where people banded together to protest something online that actually resulted in positive change for the ones affected. Congratulations to the community for garnishing enough pressure to force Sony into doing a double take. Nice move gamers!