Sony backtracked on Monday after players of its popular cooperative third-person shooter game “Helldivers 2” pushed back against a requirement to connect to the PlayStation Network platform.
“Helldivers fans — we heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account login update,” Sony said on its X account, formerly Twitter, for the PlayStation game console.
The Japanese company sparked outrage after announcing last Friday that it would require PC players of “Helldivers 2” to link their Steam account to the PlayStation Network.
Steam is a popular platform for playing video games on computers, tablets and phones, while PlayStation Network is a similar platform for PlayStation users.
Sony said a planned May 6 update that required new users to link their accounts has been scrapped, along with one planned for the end of the month that would have required existing users to do so.
‘Everyone is vulnerable’: Fake US school audio triggers AI alarm
Linking accounts allows PC and PlayStation players to play together, but PC players felt they were forced to do so as a move by Sony to artificially increase its online player numbers.
In addition, players in 177 countries where it was not possible to open a PlayStation Network account saw their access cut over the weekend, according to the SteamDB database.
“I lost access to my main Helldivers 2 account because I live in the Philippines,” Zanny, a YouTuber with 2.3 million followers, told X.
Fans quickly made their displeasure known, posting 200,000 bad reviews of the game on Steam within three days, lowering its rating and prompting Sony to react.
“We’re still learning what’s best for PC players, and your feedback has been invaluable,” Sony said on the PlayStation X account.
“Helldivers 2,” released in February on both PCs and PlayStations, lets players play soldiers sent from planet to planet to battle hordes of insects and giant robots in an atmosphere similar to the 1997 action film “Starship Troopers”.
TikTok reaches music licensing deal with Universal, ending controversy
Developed by Swedish studio Arrowhead and published by Sony, the game has proven extremely popular, with PC sales helping it become the seventh highest-grossing game ever, according to analyst Mat Piscatella at market tracker Circana.
Analyst Doug Creutz at TD Cowen estimated that 8 million copies of the game had been sold by mid-March.
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt told X that he was “impressed by the willpower” of the Helldivers players.
He also thanked PlayStation “for quickly and efficiently making the decision to leave the PSN connection optional.”
Source: AFP