Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead recently announced a mandatory PSN account link requirement, and it has been met with a negative reception.
Helldivers 2 launched with the ability to link PSN and Steam accounts, which the developer stated is due to some technical difficulties. The game turned out to be a massive hit post-launch and has continued to enjoy success and positive reception from players.
“Due to technical issues at the launch of HELLDIVERS™ 2, we allowed the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. That grace period will now expire, ” reads the official message shared by the developers.
The statement further adds that creating a PlayStation Network account is free and points the user to the page where they can create one. The reason given by Arrowhead is related to security issues mostly due to the ability to have crossplay between PC and PS5.
“Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal, ” says Arrowhead.
If you want to create a PSN account, they have also provided a link to do so. But it is obvious that this decision did not sit well with the players who had already purchased the game on PC and they feel annoyed as a result.
This is not necessarily a new thing for PlayStation games on Steam, but the nature of the issue here is that this requirement happened quite a little later after the launch of the game. This is one of the reasons there is a huge backlash against this change, not only just on Steam but on other communities like the Helldivers 2 subreddit as well. There is a growing surge of negative reviews from players, even those who have spent a considerable amount of time in the game.
Helldivers 2 is available for PS5 and PC. The game also supports crossplay between these platforms, which might be one of the reasons why these requirements were brought up in the first place. While Arrowhead might be clear in its message and has been stating that technical difficulties led to the delay in this integration, nonetheless, it hasn’t received the most positive response from the PC community, which constitutes the majority of the Helldivers 2 player base.
