Helldivers 2 controversy is the definitive proof that review bombing is necessary

Table of Contents

Intro

Helldivers 2 players on PC got their wish and will not have to link their accounts to PSN ones, despite the boneheaded goals that Sony outlined recently.

Sony backpedals on PSN linking

Less than a week after the official announcement that PSN linking would become mandatory in Helldivers 2, Sony relented and backpedaled on the decision after massive backlash from the PC fans.

This came as a result of combined pressure from players, Steam and the devs, Arrowhead Game Studios.

Player pressure

In the case of player pressure, it manifested through review bombing on Steam, as is the custom by now. From the announcement on May 3 to the early minutes at the start of May 6, 2024, Helldivers 2 collected 194,333 negative reviews on Valve’s platform, resulting in the single biggest review bombing event to date.

Following the announcement that the update would not go through, the negative reviews continued coming as players were still not entirely up to speed with the latest developments but in the 5 hours after the post on Steam, positive reviews started pouring in and outweighed the negative ones (16,488 to 15,169).

Giant corporations would love to make you believe review bombing is nothing but a hate tool from toxic gamers but in reality, it is one of the precious few ways a customer’s voice can be heard anymore. The condensed timeline above should be the definitive proof but we are sure corporations will find new ways to smear the process in new ways quite soon.

While such a large number of players coming together played a crucial role in reversing Sony’s appalling decision, let’s not discount the roles of Steam and Arrowhead.

Steam and Arrowhead efforts

Over the turbulent weekend, Steam reaped another massive chunk of goodwill from the user base. As the review bombing took to unprecedented heights, the store removed the purchase button for Helldivers 2, instantly cutting off the possibility of the popular game’s growth for the time being. On top of that, players were able to successfully refund their purchases even if they had hundreds of hours of play time prior to the unsavory clash with Sony. This is something Valve doesn’t do often nor lightly and the fact that they processed such refunds was a clear signal Sony’s corporate shenanigans would not be tolerated.

Meanwhile, Arrowhead CEO was the first to respond to the backlash. While moderators in Helldivers 2 social spaces attempted to play it off as nothing but a minor inconvenience, the man in charge of the dev studio saw the actual plight of the players. Over a series of tweets, he kept the community updated, took the blame that was on Arrowhead’s part of the fiasco and noted he would speak with Sony in an attempt to get them to see reason. Since those talks were not public, it is impossible to definitively say how much of an impact they had but it certainly looks like the player base had an unexpected representative in this particular kerfuffle.

Why PSN linking was so controversial

You might be thinking “It’s just another account. Link it to Steam and forget it, what’s the big deal?”. This was the main excuse for the Sony apologists.

Such an argument falls apart the moment you get to know PSN accounts are available in only 69 countries across the world. Helldivers 2 was sold globally on Steam. Connect the dots and you have a situation where people not from those countries would be locked out of their game after PSN linking became mandatory. This could be considered fraud everywhere except the gaming industry because the moment you agree with EULA and Terms of Service, you acknowledge that the company can take your copy away at any time for any reason. Although indirectly, Sony was willing to do just that.

“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. See details below in this post.”

Neither Sony nor Arrowhead declared from the beginning that PSN accounts would be necessary, which is why the “technical issues at the launch of HELLDIVERS™ 2” excuse is on shaky legs. If the issues were there from the beginning, they should have been disclosed. If the plan was to make PSN linking mandatory, it had to be disclosed to the buyers, especially if it meant locking them out of their game later on. The way this was handled hints at an attempt to pull the rug from under the players’ feet with just a month’s notice.

Why Sony wanted to introduce PSN linking

Sony’s official reason for the PSN linking attempt is cheaters and in-game abusers.

“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 behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.”

However, many theories allege that the primary reasons are data harvesting and pushing the players into Sony’s ecosystem. Xbox has been trying to cultivate its own ecosystem for years and it would make sense for Sony to do the same, although it would have been a much better idea to do it without stepping on everyone’s toes.

As for data harvesting, it is nothing new at this point but it is still lucrative for those who sell the info. As everyone should know by now, companies see buyers as numbers rather than people so forcing hurtful but profitable practices against their will is only bad if it hurts the sales. In this case, those Steam refunds must have hurt quite a bit and without the review bombing, would the refunds and a massive PR stain ever happen? Hardly.