What happened to Helldivers 2: A timeline of the controversy surrounding PSN and Steam players

Over the course of a single weekend, Helldivers 2, one of the most successful PlayStation games of 2024, suffered a major setback. The Arrowhead Game Studios title was the first PlayStation release on both console and PC, which led to a surprising success in terms of players and sales. However, a major change led to a sinking experience (and reviews) on Steam.

Server problems, account connection, and how did we get here?

For starters, we have to go back to the eventful launch of Helldivers II in February of this year, which even surpassed the first viral title of 2024, Palworld. The launch of the title suffered from one of those “happy accidents” where the massive amount of players wanting to get into the game to bring democracy to space led to both the studio’s and PlayStation’s expectations being exceeded. The Arrowhead team worked on “rapid fixes” to solve the problems that arose, such as server capacity and login issues. One of the existing requirements on PC, linking a Steam account to a PlayStation Network account, was temporarily made optional.

Time passed and the problems with access to the game were solved, leading to a stabilization of the number of players and even allowing the studio to continue its original plan with the game, maintaining a game with a vibrant community and enough reasons to return to continue fighting bugs and robots throughout the galaxy. This led analysts to estimate that Helldivers 2 had reached 8 million copies, in the first quarter of a year with titles such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Tekken 8, and Rise of the Ronin.

Helldivers 2 controversy begins on Steam

However, it was on May 2 that through the Steam site of Helldivers 2, the announcement was made by Sony Interactive Entertainment, where the requirement to connect a PlayStation Network account returned to the Steam version, with a start date of May 6, becoming mandatory on May 30, with a grace period until June 4.

As a result, Helldivers II on Steam began to fill up with negative reviews. While some complained about having to create an additional account to play Helldivers 2, others complained that their country did not even have access to create a PS Network account. Remember, only 70 countries have access to legally create an account. This quickly reached the people at Arrowhead Game Studios, as its CEO, Johaan Pilstedt, apologized for Sony’s action and even referred the angry players to the official information on account creation.

On the other hand, and amid the confusion and fans upset by these actions, Helldivers II has been delisted on Steam from approximately 177 countries where PSN access is not available.

Meanwhile, on the morning of May 5, Johaan Pilstedt continued to empathize with players and users, mentioning that they are already “talking solutions with PlayStation” regarding this situation with the game.

The drama finally came to an end last night. The fans, who have been exercising democracy over the past few months, emerged victorious as PlayStation decided “not to proceed” with the plan to integrate these changes. “We are still learning what works best for PC gamers and your feedback has been invaluable. Thank you again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we will keep you updated on future plans.”

It is not often that publishers listen to the fans so quickly, so it is cause for celebration that democracy has indeed won.