Over the past three days, Helldivers 2's Steam ratings have plummeted to an all-time low: "overwhelmingly negative." Players have been criticized for requiring them to link their PSN account to their Steam account, otherwise they would be unable to play the game in the future.
Helldivers 2 now requires a PlayStation account 😡
"The bigger problem is that PSN is old and only lets you create accounts in specific countries, not worldwide. It's a huge problem," one Reddit user expressed. "They started advertising it in various places as specifically not needed, the login made it seem like you never really needed one, and they sold it in regions where it wasn't even possible to create one," said another, who felt that Helldivers 2 made it "optional" to have the PSN link and that they were deliberately misleading gamers.
The developers released a message on May 3 informing players that the "grace period" for linking their Steam accounts to the PlayStation Network was coming up. The announcement caused many players to rush to comply, expressing their outrage on social media and fearing the potential loss of their access to the game.
As a result of Arrowhead's decision, Helldivers 2 will no longer be available in 177 countries, including Japan, the Maldives, and many more countries where PSN is not available for purchase, according to SteamDB.