Sony abandons new policy
THE towel has been thrown in over Sony’s week-long battle against players of Helldivers 2, proving once again that protests sometimes work.
On April 30, Sony announced that those playing the game on PC through Steam will need to link their Helldivers 2 account to a PlayStation Network account, a new requirement that was supposed to take effect on May 6.
“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,” PlayStation posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Upon the initial announcement, backlash came swift from the popular game’s fanbase. A primary reason is due to the fact that many PC players are located in countries where they are either not allowed to make a PlayStation account or face service restrictions, such as the Philippines and Russia.
Other complaints ranged from not wanting to hand information to Sony and not liking how PC users had to follow another platform’s rules. Players then began flooding the game’s Steam page with scathing feedback.
Over the May 4 weekend, Steam had recorded over 270,000 negative reviews.
As PlayStation Network is not available in over 150 countries where Helldivers 2 was previously purchasable, the game was delisted in those countries on May 5 due to the growing backlash.
With Sony backing down, like in the game, democracy has prevailed.