A Helldivers 2 community manager claims they have been fired after encouraging negative Steam reviews in response to Sony‘s newly rescinded decision to mandate PlayStation Network account linking.
After it was announced last week that Helldivers 2 players on PC would be forced to link their PSN accounts to continue playing the game, an absolute tsunami of backlash hit both Sony and Arrowhead. As the din of protest continued to swell, community manager Spitz began to actively encourage players to make their voices heard, as it would give Arrowhead “more pull in discussions with Sony” to have the decision reversed. Well, more than 200,000 negative reviews were posted to Helldivers 2’s Steam page shortly after Sony announced the change, and ultimately the decision was reversed, but not without a key casualty.
Over on the official Helldivers 2 Discord channel, Spitz revealed they’re no longer an Arrowhead community manager, nor are they working for the studio at all. They also made clear this “was not” a voluntary exit.
“Generally it’s not a good idea to tell people to refund and leave negative reviews when you’re a community manager. TIL,” Spitz said. “I appreciate all the support and I appreciate even more that everyone can play the game again without restrictions. I knew I was taking a risk with what I said about refunding and changing reviews. I stand by it. It was my job to represent the community, that’s what I did.”
They added: “I wanted to work for Arrowhead because they’re my all-time favorite studio. I got that chance. I’m thankful for that opportunity. I’d happily continue working for them if I had the choice, but that isn’t up to me or anyone else in here. I can walk away happy and I don’t want anyone causing trouble on my behalf, especially not to people I still have a lot of care and respect for.”
Without knowing the full situation (I’ve reached out to Arrowhead for comment), it’s hard to say exactly what went into Spitz’s apparent firing, but if it was solely based on his encouraging players to leave bad reviews, I think it’s safe to say they went down fighting the good fight.