It’s been a horrible day for Helldivers 2 and the staff behind it. Indignant gamers swarmed the co-op shooter’s Steam web page to review-bomb it like a large hive of Terminids after a PlayStation Community login requirement was reinstituted on PC. “Ouch, proper within the assessment rating,” Arrowhead Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt tweeted after the hit recreation’s score turned to “combined” on the Valve-owned storefront.
“Nicely, I assume it’s warranted,” the top developer continued. “Sorry everybody for a way this all transpired. I hope we are going to make it up and regain the belief by offering a continued nice recreation expertise.” The assertion got here after a extra formal acknowledgement of the state of affairs earlier within the day that merely advised gamers to contact Sony’s help staff if they’d any questions. 1000’s extra adverse opinions had poured in since.
The outrage started final evening when gamers on PC seen that the Sony-published recreation’s PSN login requirement had returned. Initially eliminated amid huge server pressure in Helldivers 2‘s early launch interval, it was the primary time many new gamers had been seeing it. Regardless of being a comparatively fast and simple course of, the concept of getting to create a second login and hand over their info to the PlayStation 5 producer didn’t sit effectively with many. It’s even brought on a mini-civil battle between gamers on console who don’t suppose it’s a giant deal and people on PC irritated they now must play by one other platform’s guidelines. There are additionally a variety of locations around the globe the place PSN isn’t supported, probably locking these gamers out of the sport.
Steam’s combination assessment scores could make or break a recreation’s gross sales prospects. Whereas Helldivers 2 has already secured its standing as one of many top-selling video games of the yr, anybody new stumbling upon it for the primary time would possibly mistake the combined score for a sign that there was really one thing functionally fallacious with it. Valve has struggled to take care of review-bombing campaigns for years, trying to extend the necessities for leaving opinions and filtering out bogus complaints to guard the integrity of its retailer scores.
Pilestedt’s earlier tweet was hit with a “neighborhood word” claiming that the shopper help web page he referenced mentioned PSN logins had been elective on PC whereas the one for Helldivers 2 was obligatory. Among the outpouring of frustration has additionally resulted within the recreation’s neighborhood managers being focused on-line for harassment by offended followers. Not everybody’s upset. “So long as I don’t must obtain a launcher I’m good lol,” wrote one participant in help of Pilestedt and his staff. “Thanks for the wonderful recreation!”
Replace 5/5/2024 10:08 a.m. ET: Over 48 hours later, Helldivers 2 continues to be getting bombarded by adverse consumer opinions on Steam after it re-implemented its controversial PSN login requirement. The net shooter now has a score of “overwhelmingly adverse” from greater than 150,000 latest complaints. Democracy manifest, I suppose.
Valve additionally seems to have begun processing refunds for some gamers in areas the place PSN accounts aren’t supported, even when they’d dozens of extra hours of playtime within the recreation than the standard two hour restrict. The corporate behind Steam has additionally pulled Helldivers 2 from sale on the digital storefront in these nations, together with locations like Egypt, Serbia, Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Concurrent participant numbers, whereas down barely from latest weeks, seem to stay principally unchanged, nonetheless. One participant requested Arrowhead Studios what they need to do now that the sport just isn’t supported of their nation. “I don’t know,” replied Pilestedt.
“Waking as much as the sunshine of yesterday changed with a dreary drizzle and shivering winds makes me mirror on how I spent my time these uncommon few moments when all was excellent,” he tweeted earlier right this moment. “But rain is important to development and is what modifications spring into summer time. I’ll simply have to attend for sunshine to return.” In a while, the Arrowhead CEO wrote that the studio was “speaking options” with PlayStation, particularly for non-PSN nations, including that gamers’ voices have been heard however he and the event staff don’t have the ultimate say.
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