You may have seen over the weekend that there was chaos surrounding the PC version of Sony's Helldivers 2 after it was announced that all players would be required to link their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account.
This resulted in extremely negative reviews - including from regions that didn't have access to the PlayStation Network - and it resulted in Sony backtracking earlier today and confirming that the decision had been reverted.
"Helldivers fans — we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward."
"We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans."
Of course, Xbox has made its own controversial decisions in the past - particularly in the case of the heavily botched Xbox One launch in 2013. This time around, it's been pointed out by plenty of commenters that Sony could have avoided so much negative press if this requirement had simply been communicated better ahead of time.
Interestingly, former Xbox exec Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) mentioned how this used to be a "mantra" of his:
The reality is that Xbox, PlayStation and even Nintendo will likely keep making mistakes from time-to-time, but hopefully all three brands are learning from each other that good communication is extremely important in situations like this.
None of this takes away from how great of a game Helldivers 2 is, of course, and we're still holding out hope that it might arrive on Xbox someday. Phil Spencer definitely wants to bring it over, and we believe he can get the job done!
Did you see all the madness about this over the weekend? Let us know your thoughts down below.
Comments 12
Was never coming to xbox what gave that silly idea
@Noconsolewardweebs yeah. it’s a PlayStation IP published by PlayStations/sony.
If they’re not letting go of their quantic dreams games, bloodborne and Death Stranding they’re also not letting Helldivers 2 coming to xbox.
These are all sony owned IPs regardless of them being third party developed.
Good. While I have a PSN account, it is absolutely wild and to require it after having sold the game. Especially with how few places PSN actually works.
That was quite the blunder by Sony. If they stuck to having it mandatory day 1 then I doubt people would have thought twice about it. They demonstrated that the game worked just fine without it and adding it in later is going to receive a lot of hate. They earned those negative reviews.
Selling it in regions where psn doesn't exist but still planning on enforcing the requirement should not be legal. I wonder if they were looking down the barrel of a few lawsuits and that caused the uncharacteristic reversal from Sony. It was pretty shocking to see them publicly recommending people in those regions register under a different region which would put those users in violation of Sony's terms of service.
I do appreciate this about the pc model. Playstation, nintendo, and xbox are used to just saying this is how it is deal with it on their platforms. If steam does something BS, users can buy games in other places without having to buy a new piece of hardware. If a developer/publisher does some bs, then they can pick another of the 15,000 games released on Steam per year.
That's why I switched to Microsoft/Xbox in the first place. Sony is one of the most anti-consumer corporations on Earth and I got sick and tired of their constant b*llsh*t. Don't get me wrong, Xbox isn't a saint but compared to these guys, they're more than alright. Poor Arrowhead, I just hope they find a way to escape Playstation's grasp.
@UndyingInsurgent95 "Poor Arrowhead, I just hope they find a way to escape Playstation's grasp."
They are a independent studio, they are working with Sony of their own free will. If they choose they can make 10 Xbox exclusives in a row
@Tecinthehead That's true. What I meant is, I hope they manage to snatch away rights to Helldivers 2. Kinda like Remedy did with Alan Wake.
Yeah because we’ve never got in a situation like that with Microsoft right? /s
In fact since last year there’s an ongoing miscommunication with MS as Xbox is indeed moving multiplatform while claiming it’s only a few games when we all know there’s more coming if not all.
Nobody is worse at communication than Xbox. Phil Spencer can talk for an hour straight and still say nothing of substance. Maybe that's why Major Nelson left?
@IOI nobody actually knows that, however likely it might be. They might scrap all those plans. So the 4 games so far…is true.
Been enjoying watching Sony getting slaughtered over on the PC side over the last few days. Good on PC players getting them to reverse the policy. They ain’t like the PlayStation community who’ll do anything when Sony drop their pants.
@Tecinthehead Sony has always kept those second party studios locked down in publishing deals.
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