Nearly three months after the massive launch of Helldivers 2, it’s finally forcing players to link up their Playstation Network accounts—lest they be locked out of their accounts. And to nobody’s surprise, people are upset, going onto Steam to “review bomb” the game.
According to the announcement post on Steam, developer Arrowhead Games allowed a “grace period” for avoiding this linking due to alleged technical issues at launch. However, that grace period will end for current players on May 30th, with new players being mandated to link after May 6.
“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,” the post explains. “This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.”
Technically, the warning for the mandatory Playstation Network account linking has been on the Steam page since the launch of Helldivers 2, and the option is prompted upon first launch.
Aside from having to make a third-party account for Sony at all, one issue players have pointed out is that the Playstation Network doesn’t include all countries, and therefore, Sony could unintentionally “region-lock” certain players out. However, Arrowhead CEO Pilestedt has stated on X/Twitter that the team is looking for a solution (and seems to also be acknowledging the review hellbombs himself).
Agree that it's an issue. We are looking into solutions on how to get around the country drop down menu if your country isn't listed.
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 3, 2024
It’s definitely not the only game on Steam, by far, requiring a third-party account, even for a non-Steam platform. For instance, Sea of Thieves’s Steam release (and even its new Playstation 5 release) requires an Xbox account, and Destiny 2 previously required Battle.net via Blizzard.
Still, it’s one of the few, if only, that required such this late into its release, which is especially notable as the game reached unprecedented levels of popularity very quickly.
