Helldivers 2 was banned from 177 countries and territories on May 5. Many speculated that this was Valve's decision to prevent players outside of PSN coverage from accidentally locking themselves out, but a response from Steam Support appears to confirm that it was indeed Sony who made the decision.

This came in response to a refund request from a player, who asked for his money back after Sony introduced mandatory PSN logins for new and returning Helldivers 2 players. "This game is currently unavailable on Steam for specific regions, as decided by the publisher," the support agent wrote, suggesting that it was Sony, and not Valve, who made Helldivers 2 region-locked for PSN-supporting countries. They also said that they have no further information to share on the matter, nor do they know when the game might be available again in said regions.

In addition to Helldivers 2, Sony's upcoming Ghost of Tsushima PC port has also been delisted in 177 countries and territories that don't support the PlayStation Network. While there has been no official confirmation of that game's removal like there was with Helldivers 2, the refund confirmation message implies that Valve has followed the publisher's request in this case as well.

Helldivers 2 faced a massive review-bombing campaign following Sony's announcement of mandatory PlayStation Network account linking. The game briefly became the lowest-reviewed game on Steam, "surpassing" even Overwatch 2, though it recovered significantly after the Japanese publisher backtracked on its announcement. However, even with Sony's decision to discontinue PSN account linking, Helldivers 2 remains unavailable for purchase in 177 countries and territories, including several European Union member states and overseas territories of the United States, among others.