Three days andover 260,000 overwhelmingly negative recent reviews on Steamlater,Sony announced on Twitterthat the May 30 update scheduled forHelldivers 2that would require Steam and PlayStation Network accounts to be linked for all new and current players will not be moving forward. According to the tweet, PlayStation is still learning what is best for PC players and the feedback has been invaluable in helping them reach this conclusion. After three days of hell for players andHelldivers 2developers, the only question remaining is: how did Sony expect this to go any other way?
Helldivers fans — we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward.We’re still…
Well, that was unnecessary
The originally planned update would forceHelldivers 2players on PC to create and link a PlayStation Network account to their Steam account to play the game at all.Sony claimed this was the intent since launch, but a plague of launch issues resulted in the linking requirement being dropped temporarily. Now that servers are much more stable, the plan was to once again require the account linking.
Fans were obviously upset by this move for many reasons. First off, some regions don’t even have the option to create a PlayStation Network account, which would have made it literally impossible for them to play post-update.According to PCMag.com, this led to Valve pullingHelldivers 2from the Steam store for certain countries as well as offering refunds for players in those regions regardless of previous play time.
Also, why was this even necessary in the first place? Players are playing on PC after all, not PlayStation. So why require them to have a PlayStation Network account? The whole thing seemed out of touch from the get-go, and even though Sony has done the right thing and backpedaled on its plans, it does feel like it left at least somewhat of a mark on player trust in Sony. As a PlayStation fan, but overall a PC gamer first, I’m thrilled that Sony is starting to bring games to PC. But hopefully this whole ordeal was a lesson well learned, not a sign of things to come.
