Do you guys not have PSN accounts?
After Sony’s second bait-and-switch announcement in a single week, which involved forcing Helldivers 2 players on PC to create a PlayStation Network account to continue playing the game, the community responded in kind.
Once hailed for its apolitical stance and avoidance of corporate shenanigans, Helldivers 2 faced backlash from its player base.
Players are rightfully angry at Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios, expressing their frustration across various social platforms. However, the most blatant display of discontent has been seen in the Steam review score for Helldivers 2, which has significantly plummeted.
Once boasting a Very Positive aggregate user score, the game’s rating has now nosedived to a Mixed reception for overall reviews, with a 67% rating. Recent reviews paint an even bleaker picture, with the majority being Mostly Negative. In just over a single day, over 65,800 negative reviews inundated Helldivers 2 on Steam and show absolutely no sign of slowing down.
And why would they ease up? The reimplementation of the third-party requirement of a PlayStation Network account serves one purpose, to exert control over PC players.
Given that the game is cross-play compatible between PC and PlayStation 5, this move allows for an easier monitoring and moderation solution for Arrowhead Game Studios’ to purge problematic users, facilitating swift bans as needed.
The team attempted to address the PR backlash by stating that the mandatory linking of accounts to Sony is meant to “uphold the values of safety and security” to deter griefers and malicious users.
As we mentioned previously, if every user, regardless of platform, were linked to a Sony network, many would face bans from playing their $40 live service game, leading to the need to appeal their bans.
It’s well-known that, akin to Microsoft’s XBOX Live service, Sony adopts a strict stance on profanity and “hate speech”. Their policy explicitly states that there are no exceptions for the use of hateful language or slurs in any form on the PlayStation Network.
This applies even in lighthearted contexts, as the PlayStation code of conduct prohibits slurs and profanity, even among friends.
Sony explicitly defines hate speech to include sexist, homophobic, ableist, ethnic, or racial slurs in any form, targeting anyone based on their gender identity or expression.
Considering the community manager for Helldivers 2 described the game as “woke” and the studio aimed to ban “bigots” in response to requests for LGBT-themed capes, misgendering one of the esteemed trans community managers for Helldivers 2 would certainly result in a ban.
Sony’s terms of service also prohibit insulting or name-calling based on perceived mental or cognitive ability. While not as extreme as Electronic Arts banning a player for saying “shut the fuck up”, calling somebody a retard in-game would violate Sony’s terms of service and may lead to a ban.
Glorifying violence or brutality towards a group or person is also a punishable offense, though it doesn’t specifically state whether this applies to journalists or the individuals at Sony who conceived this mandated account linking.
Moreover, aside from the fact that linking to a PlayStation Network account is essentially a tactic to pacify and potentially restrict players’ ability to access the game due to their behavior, the PlayStation Network is only available in 69 countries, while Steam’s global reach is much wider.
This means many customers who purchased the game will soon find themselves locked out of playing outright unless they are willing to register as being from another country, which carries the risk of being banned from the PlayStation Network.
I should know, one of my Steam accounts was given the axe for “abusing regional pricing.”
Sony also committed the error of quietly modifying their PlayStation Network FAQ after announcing the reinstatement of mandatory account linkage for Helldivers 2.
In an attempt to conceal their actions, Sony discreetly removed the section titled “Do I have to sign in to PSN to play a PlayStation game on PC,” which previously stated, “Signing in to PSN is optional when playing a PlayStation game on PC.”
However, following Arrowhead Game Studios’ announcement, this has been retroactively altered to “Some PlayStation games may require you to sign in and link to an account for PSN.”
To provide additional evidence, you can compare the current version of the official Sony PlayStation webpage with a Wayback archived link from February 13th.
It goes without saying such an altercation like this can potentially be considered illegal, though of course it’s not like Sony themselves are concerned about that considering how the company has been rather gung-ho in terms of fucking over consumers as of late, censoring Stellar Blade with a day one censorship patch and then throwing a tantrum over Tsukihime’s artbook.
Sony is rolling out a PlayStation UI overlay with Ghost of Tsushima, offering players the option to integrate PlayStation features such as account connectivity, friend lists, and in-game trophies. While currently optional, I have strong suspicions that this may change in the future.
Sony’s actions in butchering the stellar reputation of Helldivers 2, one of their most popular and profitable games, raise doubts about the future of PC gaming for Sony published titles.
It seems they’re pushing players to transition by linking their Steam accounts to PlayStation, likely driven by the convenience of data monitoring and moderation. This shift towards linked accounts could signal the future of digital gaming, where consumers are compelled to create accounts for various publishers like Ubisoft Connect, EA’s Origin, Activision’s Battle.net, and many more.
Phil Spencer advocates for linked accounts, aiming for universal blacklists to manage problematic gamers. If you’re banned on XBOX Live for infractions like hate speech, you could face bans on other platforms.
While the mandatory PlayStation account requirement for Helldivers 2 serves to moderate and enforce bans on Steam users currently, if the gaming community doesn’t push back against this now, we’ll all suffer the consequences in the future as even causing someone emotional distress invertedly will result you getting the short end of the stick.
Given Sony’s track record of imposing censorship on Asian developers while allowing sexually explicit games that cater to queer audiences or were made by Western developers, along with their history of increasing subscription costs despite a lack of exclusive titles for their console, it wouldn’t be shocking if Sony attempted to coerce PC players into buying a PlayStation Plus subscription to access online functionality for Sony published titles in the future.
Because they’ve done irreputable damage to one of their most esteemed games purely out of corporate greed, it’s bullshit like this is why gamers are turning away from buying conventional home consoles.
