PlayStation Backtracks on Helldivers 2 PSN Account Requirement

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In surprising, but not unwelcome news, PlayStation has announced that they're backtracking on the requirement for Helldivers 2 players to link their Steam accounts to a PlayStation account in order to keep playing. Although the requirement was initially outlined at the game's launch, the system wasn't ready yet, and Sony allowed players to play with just a Steam account, before announcing a few days ago that Helldivers 2 would soon require a PSN account if you wished to keep playing.

This led to a flurry of negative reviews on Steam, with what many have perceived as an overreaction to the news, as it's quite common for PC games to require 3rd party accounts or launchers. Likely it was a combination of Helldivers 2 being exceptionally popular, mixed in with the fact that the account became a requirement after the game's launch.

As you can see, the negative reviews came in thick and fast but quickly turned to positive ones once Sony backtracked on their PSN account requirement.

Not everything has returned to normal, however. One of the main issues with the game suddenly requiring PSN is that PSN isn't available in all of the countries where Helldivers 2 was sold, meaning a lot of players would suddenly be unable to play the game once the requirement had been implemented, thus Sony removed the game from sale in those countries, and, as of writing this article, you still can't buy the game in those countries. Hopefully, now that the PSN account requirement is gone, Sony will reinstate the sale of the game in those countries.

Arrowhead Game Studio's CEO apologized for the way the situation was handled and said that the negative reviews were "warranted". But in a lighthearted comment, he said that they might be making an in-game cape featuring the negative reviews graph shown above.

Helldivers 2 is playable on the Deck, as we mentioned in our review, but you should expect some performance dips here and there, and as it's an ever-evolving game, it's hard to keep up with how the game is running on the Deck.

HELLDIVERS 2 is available on Steam for $39.99 and is currently rated Steam Deck Playable.

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