By Sagar V. Mankar 
On May 3, 2024, Arrowhead Game Studio, the developers of Helldivers 2, announced that all players of the popular co-op game would be required to link their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account.
This decision has sparked outrage within the Helldivers 2 community, with many players threatening to boycott the game over this controversial move.
Why Require PSN Accounts for a Steam Game?
According to the official announcement, the PSN account linking is necessary for several reasons:
- To protect players from harassment and griefing by enabling account bans.
- To provide banned players with the ability to appeal their bans.
- To facilitate cross-platform play between different gaming platforms.
While the developers argue that this step is crucial for maintaining a safe and fair gaming environment, many players are not convinced.
What are the Players’ Concerns?
The Helldivers 2 community has raised several concerns regarding the PSN account linking requirement:
- Privacy and Security Concerns: Some players are wary of linking their Steam accounts to PSN due to perceived security risks associated with Sony accounts, citing concerns about potential breaches and compromised personal information.
- Regional Restrictions: PSN is region-locked, which means players from certain countries (120+) where PSN is unavailable will be unable to play Helldivers 2. Whereas Steam is available in every country.
- Unnecessary Account Proliferation: Many gamers are frustrated with the growing trend of requiring multiple accounts and launchers for a single game, viewing it as an unnecessary inconvenience.
Boycott Helldivers 2 Started
Ever since the announcement fans took to social media and vowed to boycott the game if the PSN account linking requirement is not reconsidered.
Here is how fans react:
17,500 PC players gave negative reviews for Helldivers 2 on Steam due to the requirement to link a PlayStation account, “which is very easy and takes less than two minutes to create.” pic.twitter.com/usjEkRe0Kv
— 🅾️🔺️◻✖ (@0AOXO) May 4, 2024
We *chose* to play on PS5. PC players didn’t.#Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/O9irv4cNbB
— Helldivers 2 Media (@Helldiversmedia) May 4, 2024
I’m doing my part!#Helldivers2
📹idiot-thrasher pic.twitter.com/Y3XkckcgKJ— Helldivers Alerts (@HelldiversAlert) May 4, 2024
The Helldivers 2 situation in a nutshell. #Helldivers2 #PSN #Sony #YouRuinedIt pic.twitter.com/Wa1sW1z08z
— Exemplar Kyle (@ExemplarKyle) May 4, 2024
Arrowhead studios talking to sony after implementing psn on the only live service game they made work#helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/jf0ieiJMYv
— Reaver (@reaver_T) May 3, 2024
#Helldivers2 is probably the worst community @Sony could’ve pulled this with, we’ve been trained to fight fascism for the last three months. pic.twitter.com/ikOWzhFlHD
— Gruff Donaar 🌌 BOUNTY HUNTER VTUBER (@gruffdonaar) May 4, 2024
With all this Helldivers 2 controversy, I’m stopping by to remind that popular pressure works; when we come together, we have power, here and anywhere else. A bad decision is only taken seriously when it hurts the pockets of greedy shareholders. Fuck you Sony.#Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/cbwLunmcma
— Jub (@Juboz0) May 4, 2024
Reviews for #Helldivers2 on steam are now overall MIXED with a recently score of MOSTLY NEGATIVE.
Before this happened the game had only a couple hundred thousand reviews. This is depressing. pic.twitter.com/AqNpzrJdkz
— Momma Occo🐙 JuniperEN (@MommaOcco) May 4, 2024
Sooo. . . . Turns out that pissing off a community that will work together to knock over a 7 day order in 12 hours was a real bad idea. #Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/TZ9SLYHdO9
— Magz (@MagzGTV) May 4, 2024
Updated News on May 7th:
PlayStation has announced the cancellation of the planned PSN account linking update for ‘HELLDIVERS 2’.
“To the fans of Helldivers – we have listened to your feedback regarding the Helldivers 2 account linking update,” Sony stated in a tweet.
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…
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) May 6, 2024