Helldivers 2 received over 14,000 negative reviews today due to an update that will require PSN accounts next week.

I feel sorry for the Arrowhead devs. They made a spectacular game that was revered across the entire industry and loved by its fans, and their overlords at Sony went and caused so much damage to their reputation overnight. Literally just 24 hours ago people were writing articles about how Helldivers 2 is the right way to make a game and should be an example for the rest of the industry, and then Sony calls in a hellbomb on the reviews.

I feel sorry for the Arrowhead devs.
After seeing a community manager on Discord mistreating on people who voice their concerns with this change, I certainly do not feel sorry for the Arrowhead devs.
- my man genuinely doesn't understand how steam usernames work
  also the implication that steam reviews don't matter? then why are you mad about them?
- So how does Steam tell their own users’ usernames apart if they’re mostly duplicates? Something smells like bullshit.
- Why can't they make a unique username when you create a character the first time that is just your "account name"? That would give you the samw powers as a psn username when it comes to banning. Edit:spelling
- I really like the community manager's reply in the first one, pretty funny
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cjyll7/some_discord_updates/
- Bro, Bungie is owned by PlayStation and even they have made cross-platform, Bungie-specific accounts the norm. I don't see why Arrowhead couldn't go with Arrowhead accounts, unless it's a cost issue. Otherwise there really isn't an excuse
- That third comment aged like a nice, fine glass of milk.

I've never understood why players can't demand a refund when a fundamental aspect of a game changes.

Well, to be fair, they did write - in bold letters - on the Steam page that a Playstation network account is required to play.
They simply didn't enforce that rule up until now.
- Also locks out anyone not living in the 66 countries serviced by the PSN.
  Also now requires giving your personal info to yet another third party and their friends. A third party which has a storied past of losing user data.
- The game was sold other places (like the Humble store) without the PSN warning.
  Also it’s been sold in countries that the PSN doesn’t support.
- I thought someone had gone to the waybackmachine and confirmed that it said it was optional initially and changed it when they made this decision?
- Not having a system up to spec, I didn't look at the Eula. That's bizarre.
Greed
EULA
- It's not in the EULA at all. A major problem with this change is that PSN is only available in about 66 countries. Locking out the rest of the world from playing without fear of repercussions due to falsified account info.
  Also just the shitty problem of having to give your personal info to yet another third party. One who has a long history of losing personal data of its users.
I partially agree, but would you expect to be able to return a sandwich if you're nonlojnger hungry by the time you finish it? Not really the same, but I haven't played this game in weeks. This annoys me, but not really because I'm playing the game and more because it's a dick move. If they let me refund I would, but it'd be a little fucked up if I did because I've already had my fill of the game.
- Idiotic analogy
  If you bought an electric car and the company recalled it and changed it to a petrol motor, would you be a Tesla owner and just roll over and lube up your sphincter?
  Ha ha yeah I actually typed that 😂
- This is a good analogy if you think of video games as a consumable product.
  It's not a good analogy if you see video games as art. Like if you buy a portrait from a painter and two weeks later they come to your house and paint over it to be a stick figure. Especially if it's just because they want more money from you.
  It's also not a good analogy if you see video games as rented or leased goods, like most game studios execs want video games to be. Imagine renting a car for your trip across the country and half way there, you wake up at your hotel, look out the window, and the rental company swapped it out for a tractor in the middle of the night. Hope that works for you!
  Sure, it's in the contract that they can do that. And maybe you finished the trip so it doesn't really affect you. But it's happening to other people, and we shouldn't trust the company going forward because one day it could be you that's screwed out of what you paid for.
- I would expect to be able to return a sandwich if halfway through eating it, the owner came up to my table and put cheese on it after specifically asking for no cheese because I'm lactose intolerant.
  Or in the case of discontinued online games, it would like eating half the sandwich and having it taken away.

Game companies sure are completely disconnected from their audience these days.

When I was growing up, game companies were happy that their games became popular. There was none of this shit going on.

I don't know when you grew up, but game publishers have a long history of fucking things up. Rushing development, buying studios and firing the core staff were and are frequent stories.
- Yeah you need to just read back into the history of Atari
Just a few weeks ago helldivers was one of the poster child dev teams that got gamers and therefore deserve their success. What a turnaround...
- Well they still are beholden to Sony executives that have no idea what gamers want unfortunately.
- their decision to use an unnecesary intrusive rootkit ai should have clued players into how little the devs care about the players
They don't need to be connected to their audience. Dumbass people continue to buy loot crates, battle passes, unfinished early access games, overprices skins, etc...

Anyone wanna tell me what publishers do and why anyone does business with them?

Afterwards, who wants to crowdfund a super generic 'just gets the job done' publishing company that touches nothing else?

They fund game development where the studio can't afford to, and advertising which makes the difference between being an overnight success, and disappearing onto page 37 of an app store where it will never be seen again.
Like, sure, you don't need them, but the big indie games who made it without them are the exception to the rule.
- There's no rule. Those games that disappeared in your app store disappeared because they suck and went into an app store.
I sort of work in the industry so I feel like publishers are pretty important in getting your game out there. You, as a developer, want to focus your energies in making the best game possible. To make a game successful, there is a whole gamut of tasks which are necessary but are a pain to do such as finding a QA team, finding someone to do localisation, porting your game to other platforms if needed, marketing, and in a good bunch of cases providing funding.
The last part is where things get ugly. Because publishers are the ones who are giving you the money to complete your game, you are naturally beholden to the timelines and goals that they set. Good publishers listen to the developers because good games make good money. Then there are fucks like Sony management here and whoever was at embracer group who have never played a game in the last ten years and are in the position because of their MBA degree. There are a bunch of decent publishers out there like Devolver but naturally they are going to be picky with their titles. For the vast majority, going with whoever is going to give you the money and support is the way forward.
- QA team, finding someone to do localisation, porting your game to other platforms if needed, marketing
  All of this will be done for free by fans of the game if it's a good game and there isn't a publisher to slap on DRM. Otherwise, how am I playing Seiken Densetsu 3?
They find funds and provide marketing, which is astonishingly expensive. I'm not in games, but I do work in a marketing adjacent function. The budgets needed even to do very small marketing exercises are really unbelievable. Campaigns exceed my yearly salary regularly, and we are not doing anything like consumer marketing which I imagine is significantly worse.
Not to justify publisbers' behaviour, but this is partially why they have such stringent demands, I suspect. I assume they are getting some kind of funding or something from the PSN connection, which funds both the game and the marketing needed to make it a success.
- So PSN gives them the money needed to make up for the damage caused by PSN?
- Imagine a publisher established on actual good will though.
I love how your claim to fame is being ignorant about the gaming industry, and being on online forums all the time.

It's 62,477 negative for the May 3rd, and 18,604 negative so far today

Steamcharts doesn't show a nosedive I've expected, but we'd see: https://steamcharts.com/app/553850
- I suspect since it hasn't gone into effect yet people are still playing the game as normal, some hoping they change their mind, some not realizing it's even happening and some getting the last bit of the game before quitting.
  Once it goes into effect, that's when the dive will happen.
- Wait till it hits people who "just play the game" when they actually enforce it.
- This is exactly what I expected. People are liars and slacktivists.

Fans: "This sucks" Developers: "It wasnt our choice, it was sony" Sony: "Hahaha deal with it and give us your money" Fans: "Fine, okay"

The fans are fine with a $40 always online game with kernel level anti-cheat, a battle pass and micro-transactions. Somehow I think they will suck it up as usual and keep playing the game. Gamers are absolute pushovers and negative attention like in this case, is entirely random. If they would have enforced this from day 1, none of these people would have cared.
- I think the people who live in the 100+ countries that the game just got delisted, are not supported by PSN, and Sony, the publisher, failed to region lock the game from being sold into, are rightfully pissed a game they bought up to 3 months ago is suddenly bricked because a corporation lied and wants to force a 'feature' onto an exsisting game just so they can get better internal metrics on people playing the game to bombard them with more advertising.
- If they enforced it from day 1 then you're right, no one would have cared. At day 1 it would be upfront and everyone would know what they're getting and far fewer people would have bought it. Enforcing it at day 40 or whatever is not cool. I, along with many others by the sounds of it, was looking forward to finally buying this game and now I won't be. In general I am so fucking sick of good-sounding games coming along just for them to be fucked in one way or another, i.e., missing content, under developed/tested, broken promises, "we'll patch it later", etc.
- My entire extended friend group has refunded. It hurts em

Based, fuck Sony and the power trip happy community manager at Arrowhead that wants to ban people easier.

I'm doing my part.

/insertmeme

I haven't tried the account linking process yet but I wanted first to log in to PSN through their website and I can't, not even from different devices.

Anyone else having a similar issue?

Stop advertising this game

You're just salty