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Arrowhead CEO Johaan Pilstedt has released a statement apologizing to disgruntled Helldivers 2 fans in the wake of Sony forcing Steam players to link their accounts to a PlayStation Network Account in order to continue playing the wildly popular third-person shooter.
Earlier today, Sony released a statement announcing that new Helldivers 2 PC players will be asked to link their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account on May 6 in order to continue playing the game. This, in turn, sparked outrage from players on social media, with fans threatening to quit the game cold turkey over the new mandate, demand refunds, and flood Helldivers 2 with negative review scores.
Helldivers 2 received over 14,000 negative reviews today due to an update that will require PSN accounts next week.
In case you missed it, SteamDB now has daily reviews on the charts page. pic.twitter.com/qRzeZjcLWy
— SteamDB (@SteamDB) May 3, 2024
According to Helldivers 2’s Steam customer review tab, the game has received thousands of negative reviews in response to Sony’s announcement, dropping its “mostly positive” review score to “mixed.” Helldivers 2’s subsequent review bombing led Pilstedt to apologize on his personal X/Twitter account.
“Ouch, right in the review score. Well, I guess it’s warranted,” Pilestedt wrote. “Sorry everyone for how this all transpired. I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience. I just want to make great games!”
Ouch, right in the review score 😢🤕
Well, I guess it’s warranted. Sorry everyone for how this all transpired. I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience.
I just want to make great games! pic.twitter.com/EPO7apDUlc
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 3, 2024
Pilestedt’s apology follows a previous tweet in which the Helldivers 2 boss directed disgruntled players to PlayStation Support if they had any questions about account linking rather than reaching out to Arrowhead.
In its statement, Sony rationalized its new Helldivers 2 account linking requirement as a safety and security concern, saying, “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.”
According to Sony, “technical issues” were to blame for Helldivers 2’s account linking being temporarily optional on launch. Come June 4, all current Helldivers 2 players must link their accounts in order to continue playing the game.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.