Last week it was announced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the publisher of immensely successful Helldivers 2, that the cooperative democracy fest would require the linking of a PSN account on PC moving forward. It was explained that, while this requirement was supposed to be enabled at launch, it was benched for the time being as the developer was having a really tough time keeping all those features enabled with the crushing server load the game saw on launch.
Now that the server troubles have been ironed out, Sony wanted to reenable all these features, including the requirement of a PSN account to be linked to your Steam account when playing on PC. Previously, a PSN account was only a requirement if you enabled crossplay.
“Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.
As such, as of May 6th, all new HELLDIVERS 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account. Current players on Steam will start to see the mandatory login from May 30th and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4th.” – Sony Interactive Entertainment via the Helldivers 2 Steam Page
After a weekend of review bombings and criticism, it seems as if Sony has walked back on this requirement, further demonstrating that the requirement was unneccessary in the first place. It is important to note that, during this time, Arrowhead Game Studios, the developer of Helldivers 2, actively encouraged people voicing their grievances and criticisms of this change as the team was using them to talk to Sony about removing the PSN account requirement on PC.
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.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) May 6, 2024
We’re still…
It is worth noting that this change not only was frustrating for people who could have made PSN accounts, but it also meant that people who were in regions where PSN is not available would be unable to play the game. The solution is not as simple as making an account for another region either, as it goes against Sony’s Terms of Service which leaves the account at risk of random termination and making the game you play on PC effectively useless.
The game was already delisted in those regions, but would have still left the people who have already bought the game in a tough spot were this change to go through.
This is also failing to mention the fact that it adds an extra point of failure for platform that is, suprisingly, NOT Sony-related. Sony, out of all the major platform holders, is known as that most lacking in security due to the infamous PlayStation Network breach in 2014, and a myriad of stability issues since then too. Regardless, it’s good to see Sony walking back on this change, and hopefully there won’t be further attempt at this with future releases.
