PlayStation Nixes PSN Account Linking Requirement for Helldivers 2

PlayStation tweets: "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.

We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans."

[Christopher]

Now, will gamers take all this fervor and aim it at the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Take2, and others who have way more invasive and problem-causing apps for Steam games?

[Eonjay]

Sony is like a whipping boy for the industry and it's just lame at this point. This is like my Activision account I use for Call of Duty. I'm not a 'fan'' of Activision but it's free and it comes in handy. The PSN account would come handy if they decide to do cross saves and I'm sure some other stuff too. I have an account for practically everything, including this site. I need a Microsoft account to play some PS5 games. No one has been able to explain what the big problem with a PSN account was.

[blackblades]

They dont want one because they cant trust them with all the times Sony got hacked which makes no sense cause steam got hacked so does everythinv else in this world. Been with playstation and i never had a problem security wise. PlayStation doesnt hold SSN and you dont have to put you credit card on it either. Pc users just wanna cry, its a PlayStation game they should be happy Sony putting games on pc to begin with. Also funny they dont trust Sony but yet would play there games when on pc.

[redknight80]

Yes, people have explained the problem with a PSN account...there has been 15 million articles on it and surely you read a few and saw some comments...it is because PSN is not supported in a lot of countries meaning people in those countries can't create a PSN account and therefore would be unable to play the game at all.

[ChronoJoe]

On PS5 even crossplay doesn’t work with all PC accounts. I have plenty of PC friends where the invites never go through and theirs aren’t received. Crossplay without a unified account system is always a nightmare, none of us should be punching in friend codes in 2024.

They shouldn’t have tried to change this post launch but they should have had it in on day 1.

[VenomUK]

@redknight80. If the main complaint is that people in over 150 countries cannot create PSN accounts then Sony needs to get its programming/logistics/legal team to make it available. If that happens, the next time Sony releases a multiplayer game on Steam with a PSN account requirement would this stop a repeat of this backlash?

[thesoftware730]

Did they sell you CoD initially without needing an Activision account, and then locked you out of it because you could not get an Activision account where you lived?

smfh

[WelkinCole]

I see it as more like they listen to gamers complaint

[H9]

Christopher with all I do respect, your bias is showing heavily, be positive, congratulate people and ask for them to do more, no need for this passive aggressive bitterness

[jambola]

if they do he'll probably make the same comment but put world hunger in there

[Zeref]

He has literally failed articles based on whether or not it will upset Sony fanboys lol. We know where he stands and it's not neutral.

[Brazz]

You are the one showing bias. Christopher is 100% right here, all this HDII and PSN linking is a gigantic hypocrisy.

[Christopher]

Much need for it, because I know no one is going to turn any of this attention anywhere and it will just die out until the next Internet band wagon pops up. Gamers are proven to have power, they will then squander it rather than utilize it where it matters.

[thesoftware730]

H9,

Hahaha, His bias shows in every one of his post, anyone with half a brain can see his awful attempts to not come off like a Sony superfan.

It so cringy at times, like his above comment, Instead of saying good,Sony should learn from this, and not lock out players who already paid for their product and helped to make it a successful game, he points the finger at other companies who has nothing to do with Sony's terrible decision to screw customers over.

[H9]

@Swooldys did they just mark your previous reply as spam?

[The3faces]

Facts 💯

[notachance]

I’d argue there’s a better softer approach they could do, just make it optional with bonus for people who did it like some free cosmetics and make it required only for cross-play and cross-save purposes. That way the people who can do it have bonus incentives and people in countries without psn can still play without problems.

[Angyobangyo]

The difference is EA, Ubisoft, Take2, etc didn't release their games and then down the line implement forced account linkage under the guise of "security". Gamers know from when they buy EA and Ubisoft games that you'll need an account with those companies. Also when was the last time a company delisted an extremely popular game from over 100 countries?

[Extermin8or3_]

It was listed on the game as a requirement and it was a decision by arrowhead so that people could get into the game. In future companies won't be able to make such decisions and you will simply be left unable to play the game.

[Christopher]

Actually, all of them did this by adding their apps to existing games once they released their apps. So, no, they're not any different.

[-Foxtrot]

May aswell strike while the fire is hot

If not….then people are a bunch of hypocrites

[thesoftware730]

No, no, it's not about it having to be linked to PSN. The problem was that they initially sold it to customers, without the need for PSN(supposedly due to technical problems at launch), then added the PSN requirement for people they sold it to, that could not get PSN, essentially locking people out of somethin they already bought. Sony even delisted the game in a lot of places, what kind of fuckey is that?

And you response to them rolling back some BS, is to point the finger at other companies. That's the problem, it's always a finger pointing baby ass mentality with some people, oh, they did it so you should look at someone else, grow up. HD2 is huge right now, and many many people are playing it, and we are talking about SONY right now, not UBI, EA or anyone else, but Sony. The players of this wildly successful game is complaining, even the dev was clearly against what Sony was doing, so the uproar is from HD2 fans, not assasins creed or GTA fans.

[derek]

Nonsense this is just another extension of the console war bs now with the rage mob from the pc community. No you have playstation apologizing for putting their games on pc on their terms, lol. Sony made a fool of themselves by backing off this minor requirement.

[thesoftware730]

@ derek,

See you are missing the point.

It is not about PSN, it is that people bought the fucking game, and now with the PSN requirement cant play it at all! You know why?, because PSN don't exist where they live, not because they don't wanna sign up, they cant! Why do you people keep defending selling a product that people cant use?

Do you not see why this is wrong? They sold them a product that they cannot use, it's not fake outrage, it's literally fucking people over.

[--Onilink--]

They already do, its the reason why the Epic Games store is still losing money, why Origin failed, etc

This whole idea that PC gamers havent been fighting against separate launchers, mandatory accounts, etc up until now just because its Sony is just dumb

[Christopher]

Origin didn't fail, it's EA app now.

Ubisoft Connect/UPlay have been around since 2009.

Rockstar Game Launcher is required to play their games.

2k Launcher is required to play their games.

Kalypso launcher.

Red Launcher (CDPR)

Creative Assembly launcher

Bethesda accounts the exact same as PSN

Gearbox accounts the exact same as PSN

Microsoft games the exact same as PSN

What are you on about? PC gamers have been sleeping on this since 2009.

[--Onilink--]

Yes, and how many people dont play any game that forces those launchers?

How many people avoid any other store other than Steam or GoG like its the plague?

Yes, of course there will always be people that use then because they would rather play the games.

But the idea that its just now that PC gamers have complained or “boycotted” a game because it forces the use of another app/login/launcher is completely ridiculous, it has been happening since a long time ago.

And really? Origin didnt fail? It was supposed to eventually rival Steam. It was a complete failure as a storefront, all of them (EA, MS, Ubi, etc) all ditched making the games exclusive to those stores and put them on Steam precisely because they failed as storefronts because many people in the PC space are already against these kind of practices

[Goodguy01]

God I'd love it if the same would work for ubi, ea, and the likes

[FPS_D3TH]

Probably not because this was more about selling a game to countries they never intended on supporting than about forcing a new account registration on players.

[darthv72]

Sony should have limited the steam page to flag those countries where this issue would be a problem as "not available in your region". That would at least have been an up front addressing of the situation. But.... they took people's $$ anyway and let them play for the first 2-3 months before fixing their issues regarding linking.

[Inverno]

@Chris
I hope so, I'm hoping they can get Valve involved to force this sort of stuff to end all together. I've only 1 game that requires me to log into the EA app and it's a more miss than hit so I uninstalled it, I'm playing on the Deck btw. Something else we should take aim at is having to accept a TOS after purchase to be able to install a game. And push these companies to stop taking away access to games bought just cause servers are being taken down!

[Tedakin]

Those other companies didn't make logging in a requirement 3 months after the game came out in regions where they sold they game and you literally can't log in. Then they stripped the game from 177 countries. What Sony did was the most boneheaded thing.

[Spenok]

Hahahah!

You expect fickle gamers to be intellectually consistent? I'm confident they will not.

(I also realize you're being satirical with this comment)

[rlow1]

The fervor was because people in over a 100 countries don’t have access to PSN because Sony has no presence there. I would be pissed had I bought a game and couldn’t access it because I would have to move to another country just to continue to play it. Especially after a long playing it for months prior.

It was justified and Sony listened.

[Snookies12]

Thank you! I have a PS account, but bought this on PC. I just hate having to do stupid stuff like this just to get into the game I bought.

[just_looken]

You should try getting a resident evil MP working not as bad as making a sony account but its right up there i tried with a fake dump email holy spam batman. I never finished the account creation

[RaidenBlack]

DEMOCRACY WON

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Good stuff this is what the power of gamers can do.

[buffig]

I wonder if that "power" could do something useful?

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Lol it's useful that we can change stuff about these greedy companies

[Man_Among_Mice]

Yet this "power" hasn't changed any of the actually greedy stuff these greedy companies do...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Now if only it would show up more often, unfortunately the majority do not make a fuss often enough, hence why the industry is where it is now.

[Kinza55012]

But that power hasn't changed much see: online gaming behind paywalls, expensive DLCs, games being released unfinished day one, cut content being sold as DLCs, Games going digital, gacha games... i could go on.
Congrats on your "small" victory, I guess.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sounds like we need to do more, gamers we got united lol

[__SteakDeck__]

@XiNatsuDragnel Lol That wasn’t Gamers. That was whiney PC fans.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Gamers regardless lol

[isarai]

Dope

[Chocoburger]

Crisis averted, now we can all move on.

[INMATEofARKHAM]

Mission Complete! Now, our next Major Order needs to be reversing out reviews, so go write it with the joy you feel.

[Kaii]

😮
We somehow beat corporate maneuver, woop.

[shadowT]

gamers won

[Bathyj]

Sweaky wheels got grease.

[__SteakDeck__]

@shadowT No. Whiney PC fans did.

[HankHill]

Good job. The people who were defending this account bs are in shambles.

[Christopher]

Why would they be in shambles? Either way, they were going to play the game.

[HankHill]

You're a mod on this site. Why don't you tell me why I'd think fanboys would be in shambles. The dislikes speak for themselves.

[jambola]

the 4 dislikes speak for themselves? lmao
I never get how anyone can care about dislikes or downvotes
like how empty can your life be that you even notice?

[TwoPicklesGood]

You took the time to reply that you don’t care about dislikes lol

[HankHill]

I was talking about the dislikes on every comment celebrating the reversal decision.

How empty is your life that you felt the need to reply to my comment in the way that you did?

[jambola]

wow so you take the time to look at every comments dislike ratio? lol jesus

[HankHill]

I take the time to read every retarded reply of yours too. 🙄

[HankHill]

1,000 games played and 15,000 trophies. Now it all makes sense. Get a life fanboy.

[Christopher]

***You're a mod on this site. Why don't you tell me why I'd think fanboys would be in shambles.***

https://media0.giphy.com/me...

[jambola]

XD
I can't
don't even know where to begin with that one

[HankHill]

Must've bothered you since you removed your cloud7-7-7 gamertag from your profile. You've never even played Helldivers 2. What a clown.

[jambola]

Yes I never played it
Which is why I never commented on it 👍

[Furesis]

There's a reason why most stores hide this kind of info, and this is one of the reasons why people like steam and steam being as big as it is means people's opinions matter and publishers are inklined to listen (sometimes). This was a special case and the devs are smart and made the right choice... for now

[RhinoGamer88]

Bless the gamers... screw Sony!

[Eonjay]

The game wouldn't exist without Sony.

[Gravesinger_]

Doesn't give $ony the right to try and destroy it for a little statistical favor.

[Kayser81]

Eonjay
you mean sony wouldn't exist without the gamers .

[__SteakDeck__]

@RhinoGamer88 Bless the whiney PC fans.

[Thomaticus]

Democracy has seen you through!

[H9]

I hope people realize now that if they stick together they can get things done, congrats to everyone who stuck to their guns

[Terry_B]

Just as I wrote yesterday and got downvoted for it. "A solution will be found soon" ,,being right is my thing.

[Eonjay]

I read it and I upvoted you yesterday. I think a better solution would be for Sony to actually give people a reason to use the PSN such as enabling cross save with PC or offering discounts to people with an account.

[just_looken]

The reason in the first place was crossplay and it was a option just like dead island 2 epic account is not needed for mp but it is for crossplay epic-steam version.

[jlove4life]

#Free Stellarblade next her cakes nice enough for me ( won't complain if they get better ) I'm more into wanting the blood/ gore back the original vision restored for Democracy of course

[just_looken]

You should just get a disc version im waiting for mine not to play bit for resale value down the road like the deadpool game.

[Bathyj]

I knew it.

[Bathyj]

Sweet liberty, democracy prevealed

[Hofstaderman]

I'm a huge Sony fan but have to say that this is good. Theres some countries that do not have PSN access and support and this would have hobbled those that bought the game there. If Sony wanted people to sign up and log in with a PSN account they should have implemented it from the beginning.

[Eonjay]

They did implement it from the beginning. Arrowhead asked to disable it after launch because they had to many server issues and needed to start from scratch. You can say maybe Sony shouldn't have let Arrowhead disable it but Sony was just trying to help out. It is their game after all.

[just_looken]

It was there day one as a option/requirement for crossplay but it screwed up the servers so they disabled it and until the 3rd of this month it was still a option.

The new corpo crap sony made it a requirement out of the blue.

[Extermin8or3_]

Except you know the trailers 6 months before launch and the steam page that all stated it was a requirement to play the game and the Devs saying in multiple posts it would be returning as a requirement.

[MrBaskerville]

Would have loved this energy back when Doom Eternal forced you to login to Bethesda. Or Redfall, never tried that game because of the Bethesda login requirement. (Mostly because I was trying to login with a controller, couldn't remember password and Bethesdas password recovery was broken on console, might have spent 40 minutes in total trying to get access, two sessions. Would be easier on Steamdeck i assume).

This is not a Microsoft thing btw. Have been mad at Bethesda since doom 1-2 rereleased on Switch. Couldn't play because login was required and servers were down. Luckily they removed requirement later.

[aaronaton]

Ok, now let's put the same energy into hammering Netflix.

[gold_drake]

niiice, now bring the game bk haha

[JL2930]

Sony will do anything to push software right now, they have a big hole to climb out of.

[redknight80]

The damage has been done, they almost certainly knew this would be "controversial" and I am sure they pumped those PSN account numbers up as that was their intention from this all. But I am glad they changed course...and hopefully when other publishes pull stupid shit like this they get shot the frick down quick - so often we gamers think we can't do anything but clearly we have some say in things so hopefully we can keep up pressure on unfriendly consumer practices going forward.

[cell989]

It only happened for 2 days(over the weekend)

[redknight80]

Indeed...and look at all the outrage from people...that isn't just going to simply disappear overnight.

[romulus23]

What damage?

[redknight80]

Do I uuuhhh need to spell it out? I mean...you saw all the outrage from players and non-players alike...surely you don't think now everyone is just like oh wow look Sony really are the good guys here, we love them again now fully?!

[romulus23]

I think rational people thought there was a problem and rational people see that Sony has resolved it. You never answered the question, you claim some damage "has been done" suggesting it's too late to rectify it when in fact it has been so again, what damage? To answer your question, no I never think people believe Sony are the good guys or that they love them here.

[redknight80]

Oh, you must not be familiar with the phrase then - I mean that public relations damage is still there and people are still pissed to some extent that this was even discussed or brought up in the first place. You saw even articles being written on major news outlets and you know many non gamers will see only the negative take on this and not that Sony decided begrudgingly to address it.

[-Foxtrot]

See what happens when gamers go on about something when others thinking your just “whining”

Now imagine if people did this for all these kind of issues

[Christopher]

Imagine! Because I think it will only happen in our imaginations.

[cell989]

Blizzard, EA,MS,Activision has gotten away with so much because no one ever speaks out. The helldivers community is something to be studied

[anast]

They listen and are making the right choices.

[TwoPicklesGood]

Glad they listened but this should have never happened to begin with. Lesson learned, I hope.

[Battlestar23]

Now Sony bring the game to Xbox as it's ungamer to keep titles like this locked to PS5/PC.

[Elda]

Sony owns the ip, Helldivers 2 is a PS5 gaming console exclusive. Helldivers & Helldivers 2 will not be on an XB gaming console.

[Battlestar23]

'Sony owns the ip' Doesn't matter as we gamers have to demand that Sony make all their games multi platform as again it's unfair to gamers to locked us out from playing certain franchises because of silly exclusivity.

[Elda]

Sony PS is in the business to sell consoles due to that fact why would Sony take their owned ip & put it on a XB gaming console? That just wouldn't make business sense, especially when Sony PS wants to sell as many consoles as possible. The only Sony first party games XB is entitled to is The Show due to the game is licensed by the MLB & Destiny 2 because it was a multiplat game firsthand, all other Sony first party studios that make PS games are not entitled to be on a XB gaming console.

[romulus23]

Just buy a PS5.

[Battlestar23]

Why should i have to buy a low powered console like the PS5? Since MS is releasing their games on PS than us gamers should call on Sony to release their on Xbox as it's only fair.

[romulus23]

It has nothing to do with fairness it's business, one needs to release their games on another console to bolster sales the other apparently does not. PS5 is not a "low powered console", there have been plenty of benchmarks done showing cross-platform games are on par with if not running better than series x so just stop with the fanboy comments.

[babadivad]

Good. It was a stupid requirement from the beginning.

[derek]

Absolutely pathetic on Sony/playstations part. You got bullied by a vocal group of man babies even by the developers who you've funded for over a decade now. Now you cant implement your pc strategy for a platform that makes you next to nothing in revenue annually. Pathetic.

[Christopher]

WTF?

[derek]

@Christopher, what is Sony going to do the next time they try and make it a requirement to sign up for a psn account and you get this same outcry from the pc community?

[Christopher]

***@Christopher, what is Sony going to do the next time they try and make it a requirement to sign up for a psn account and you get this same outcry from the pc community? ***

Support the idea that people shouldn't be forced to jump through multiple logins to access a game not even on the platform from which the login exists and hope, once again, that gamers actually wield their ire to combat all issues and not just situational band wagon items popular on Reddit.

[derek]

@Christopher, lol. "Forced". Nobody is forced to buy any game or even register an account its always a choice. This nonsense is a fabricated controversy just like the dozens of other that seem to occur weekly. The dopes promulgating this behavior act like brats. All these angry gamers will have no problem setting up an account accept for a psn account.

[melons]

Nixxes is the company, you mean nixes with one x

[Christopher]

Thanks! My apologies.

[PhillyDonJawn]

We hold the power, gamers win when we demand better. To those that defended it you're no longer welcome

[DustMan]

I'm a pc player nearly 100% of the time, but have owned a PS3 & 4 so I've already had a psn account set up. This wouldn't have bothered me at all. Everything is susceptible to being hacked now. Every app on your phone, any email address, basically anything that can leave a digital footprint. Hell your phone even gives away your physical location. This became so overblown it's ridiculous. It's crazy that something as simple as having to follow steps similar to play games on the XBOX, Blizzard, Ubisoft (shudder), Rockstar, EA, GOG, Epic....etc etc. Absolutely nothing new, and just don't understand the fervor behind the backlash. One of the most played & popular games of the year, and it sits with Overwhelmingly Negative reviews on steam. Which does not represent the quality of the game itself.

[blacktiger]

That's a customer service right there, mistake? correct it for the gamers not shareholders

[babadivad]

Good on Sony. At least we know they aren't COMPLETELY tone deaf.

[Knightofelemia]

Should never have brought it in the first place unless you are playing on a Playstation