Another week, another embarrassing gaming episode. Fresh from Stellar Blade’s overblown “censorship” controversy, players on Steam have taken to review bombing one of the year’s biggest breakout hits: Helldivers 2. As we’ve already reported, developer Arrowhead is implementing a PSN login requirement in the coming weeks, which was communicated prior to release but wasn’t enforced due to technical issues. As it noted in a statement, that “grace period will now expire”.
Of course, this isn’t an uncommon practice at all – especially for crossplay titles. For example, this author had to create a 2K Sports account to play TopSpin 2K25 recently, while Microsoft requires you to login to its services to play Minecraft. While it can undoubtedly be an inconvenience – especially when servers go out or websites have poor user experiences – it generally only takes five minutes at most to make an account. It’s worth noting that no money needs to exchanged here: PSN accounts are free.
Sony obviously wants to benefit from Helldivers 2’s extraordinary PC success by adding those players to its monthly active users, but there are also potential benefits here: Ghost of Tsushima, for example, will add a PSN overlay on PC, allowing players to earn Trophies and connect with friends outside of the PlayStation console ecosystem. We suspect something similar could be achieved with Helldivers 2.
But that hasn’t stopped the game from attracting over 60,000 negative reviews in less than 24 hours, plunging the title’s otherwise extremely positive ranking. The studio’s flustered CEO, clearly devastated by the backlash, simply said on Twitter: “Sorry everyone for how this all transpired. I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience. I just want to make great games!”
From our perspective, this is one of the most overblown gaming controversies in quite some time. While there are some legitimate concerns, like the fact that PSN isn’t available in every country around the world, it really doesn’t legislate for the inane, borderline unhinged blowback. We suppose this is a testament to Helldivers 2’s overall success that it’s attracted this level of criticism – and, frankly, it should be noted that the title still peaked with over 100,000 players overnight. So much for the boycott, eh?
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
