Sony is apparently not backing down (yet) from the PSN requirement.

Within the past few hours, Helldivers 2 was delisted and pulled from dozens of countries where PlayStation Network is not available. This comes after nearly two full days of a full-on bombardment of negative Steam user reviews for Helldivers 2, complaining about a "new" requirement to sign in to a PlayStation Network account.

The change was made apparent to all via SteamDB. According to a new store page update made around 6PM (ET), Helldivers 2 was pulled from numerous countries and regions around the world. The only thing these regions have in common is the fact that PlayStation Network is not supported there. Though unconfirmed, it is speculated that the publisher of Helldivers 2, PlayStation Studios (Sony Interactive Entertainment), are the ones who pulled the game from sale in these locations.

At present, it is unclear if this will be a permanent change or a temporary one.

If this is indeed Sony's doing, it seems to suggest that the company is not backing down from requiring a PlayStation Network login to play Helldivers 2 on PC. This is a requirement that has apparently come as a huge shock to the PC Helldivers 2 fanbase, despite the requirement being stated multiple times on the Helldivers 2 Steam page for several months ahead of the game's launch.

The requirement has only recently come to draw the anger of players because of an announcement made on May 2 by Sony Interactive Entertainment saying that the requirement will start to go into effect by May 6. The announcement says that if you do not connect your Steam account to a PlayStation Network account, you will no longer be able to play Helldivers 2, at least not online.

As has been noted prior, this need to have a PlayStation Network account for Helldivers 2 is not anything new. The Steam page for Helldivers 2 had the requirement on the page as of December 2023, roughly two full months before Helldivers 2 was released on February 8, 2024. There were also several pre-release news announcements made to the Helldivers 2 Steam page ahead of release that also stated very clearly that a "PSN account (is) required." To say that this is a "new" requirement is a flat out lie being spread by several bad actors. Several media outlets have also labeled the May 2nd announcement as "new" or a "surprise" when it is anything but.

If this isn't a new requirement, why are people so upset then? There are a few reasons for the anger. First, you have a significant number of people that just don't like third-party logins for whatever reason. These are the people that failed to read that a PlayStation Network account was required before they spent $40 on the game. These are the people that somehow feel tricked, despite having ample warning of a third-party login requirement ahead of release.

There are others that are upset because after the major technical and server issues were ironed out after the rocky launch, the game ran just fine without needing a PSN login. I'd say that this is a totally fair reason to get upset over this requirement coming back into play now. If the game runs fine and you can play it online on PC without a PSN login, why stick to having it be a requirement? Let the PSN login be optional for those that want to engage in cross-play. It's a win-win for everyone, right?

The people that fall into the above group have also raised a valid point about how this PSN requirement is only necessary so that Sony has access to more user data. They also take issue with how Sony isn't exactly leading the charge when it comes to cybersecurity, having experienced multiple data breaches over the past several years. The most damaging of these hacks, as far as user data is concerned, came in 2011 when the personal details of about 77 million people were compromised. More recently, Sony owned Insomniac Games suffered a massive security breach that resulted in over 1.67 terabytes of data being shared online by a ransomware group. Again, these are very valid concerns to have.

The last group of Helldivers 2 PC players that are upset about this are those who live in countries or regions where PlayStation Network just isn't available. These are the people who, even if they wanted to, literally cannot log in to a PSN account. From what I gather, it is possible to create a PSN account in these areas, but they would have to select a country where PSN does operate when registering an account. I'm not sure how above the board this would be, but I have heard that it's something that you could possibly do in order to get around this issue.

I feel as though it's this last group of people that are really getting the short end of the stick in this mess. Making matters even worse are the actions taken this evening by Sony (so assumed), when they pulled Helldivers 2 from Steam in dozens of countries where PSN does not exist. Below are all of the countries and regions where Helldivers 2 was delisted on Steam, as shared by SteamDB.

Helldivers 2 on Steam has now amassed almost 193,000 negative user reviews since the announcement was made on May 2nd. The recent review average on Steam sits at "Mostly Negative" while the average of all reviews since the game's launch went from "Mostly Positive" before the 2nd to "Mostly Negative" here at the end of the day on May 4.

As it is the weekend, there probably won't be any official statements issued by either Sony or Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Games until Monday at the earliest.