Helldivers 2
Everyone is temporarily distracted by Microsoft’s closure of major studios, making us forget the controversy of last week, Sony demanding all Helldivers 2 PC players link a PSN account in order to keep playing, including regions where that’s not even possible.
Players complained and destroyed the game with negative reviews on Steam in protest, and ultimately Sony was forced to relent and not move forward the with requirement, which was set to begin a few days ago.
The idea was that Steam reviews did not reflect anything about the innate quality of the game, but instead were being used as a protest vehicle. And as such, now that fan demands were met, there was a community call to reverse those negative reviews back to positive in order to support the game and developer Arrowhead going forward.
I did not know how that was going to go, as rallying fans to do something positive can often be tougher than rallying them to do something negative, but it’s working. In the past few days, 200,000+ reviews have been flipped to positive or added to the total, It has taken the game from sub-50% positive reviews all the way back up to 72% “mostly positive,” with recent reviews being mixed, not overwhelmingly negative as they were previously. This is still not as high as it once was, but it’s a huge swing, and yet another example of a frequently mass-coordinated community doing something like that outside of the game. For the second time in a week.
Helldivers 2
This situation is not totally resolved as of yet. Sony’s decision to pull the game from sale in 177 regions does not appear to be fully reversed yet, as that was a precursor step to the PSN linking, which did not end up happening. It stands to reason the game will be made available for sale again, but it was not an instant change once that declaration was made.
Additionally, it appears that the Arrowhead community manager to encouraged players to give the game negative reviews or ask for refunds as a means of protest has either been chastised, removed or potentially even fired from his role, as his most recent postings would indicate. His messaging about negative Steam reviews as a way to send a message to Sony was used by fans as justification for the campaign, and while he may end up punished, clearly he was right to some extent. Hopefully he did not actually lose his job over this.
As for Helldivers, it appears to be back to business as usual with new major orders and new gear and weapons on the way. Back to the galactic warfront with all that drama destroyed.
Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.