I got to tell you, I’ve been a gamer my entire life and the last few days have been the biggest rollercoaster I’ve ever been on with a video game that has nothing to do with playing the game itself. Despite there being plenty of drama about a game outside of the game itself, I never got to be part of that drama until I decided to buy Helldivers 2.
Over the last weekend, the entire Helldivers 2 community was thrown into chaos when Sony announced that PC players would be required to link their game to a PSN account. While that doesn’t sound too terrible at face value, it became an enormous problem due to the fact that a lot of PC players of the game live in countries where Sony does not currently support the PlayStation Network.
This effectively meant that if you lived in one of those countries and bought the game, you were out of luck when the requirement went into effect. Did you love the game? Too bad. You’re not playing anymore. Worse yet, the CEO of Arrowhead Studios — the maker of Helldivers 2 — admitted that they knew this requirement was coming and decided to launch the game in those countries anyway.
The Helldivers community is a unique one in that everyone actually feels like they are fighting alongside their fellow Helldivers. This is actually by design — the game is made in such a way that everything you do has an impact on all other players of the game. This feeling of togetherness extended from within the game to beyond it, so when Sony revealed a requirement that would result in losing a large swath of the community, the Helldivers joined together and retaliated in the only way it knew how: review bomb the game on Steam and refuse to play the game.
The impact was swift and debilitating to the game. It received over 84,000 negative reviews on Steam in one day, and by Sunday, the game’s rating was Overwhelmingly Negative.
There were also a ton of fantastic memes. Personally, this one is my favorite:
After a few days of review bombing that impacted Helldivers 2, Helldivers, and other Sony games on Steam and other platforms, as well as a wave of rage voiced on social media, Sony has officially backtracked on the plan that was supposed to go into effect today. The company says it will continue talks to figure out ways to ensure the company can properly moderate the game on PC, but PC gamers will no longer be required to link a PSN account.
This is a huge win for the Helldivers 2 and the gaming community in general. Large studios rarely backtrack plans that their community may be unhappy about, but Sony actually did the right thing and listened to the community here, so props to them as well. It’s in some ways not surprising, though. Helldivers 2 has gained such mass popularity that the entire debacle made its way into mainstream publications like Forbes.
Now that our fellow Helldivers remain free, we can finally get back to the task at hand: spreading democracy across the galaxy. Oh, and also remember to change your negative review back so the game can continue to recruit new Helldivers to the cause. Major Order Completed.