Sony fumbles Helldivers 2's success streak, PSN requirement leads to 98,000 negative reviews

Like the orbital arrays that drop bombs on alien infestations, gamers have dropped heavy artillery on Helldivers 2's review score.

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Once the darling of PC gamers, Helldivers 2 is now getting review bombed on Steam due to a controversial decision from Sony. Helldivers 2 will now require a PlayStation Network account to keep playing. Users have until June 4 to make their PSN accounts and sign in.

Predictably, PC gamers weren't happy with the situation, especially those who live in the dozens of countries where PSN is not supported. It's especially frustrating to gamers in the UK who have to provide a form of ID in order to make a PSN account. The news caught some by surprise, especially since Helldivers 2 didn't require you to make a PSN account to play before. This was temporary, and the game was always designed to require a PSN sign-in at the behest of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Helldivers 2 is a live game and provides a multitude of interesting user data metrics to analyze and add to PlayStation's total monthly active users (MAU) count, as well as fill out Sony's new Other Software segment, which tracks PC game sales and revenues.

"Due to technical issues at the launch of HELLDIVERS™ 2, we allowed the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. That grace period will now expire.

"Current players on Steam will start to see the mandatory login from May 30th and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4th."

Steam users have responded by review carpet bombing Helldivers 2.

At the time of writing, Helldivers 2 has over 98,000 new negative review scores on Steam. That means 34% of Helldivers 2's reviews are now negative (148,135 negative reviews out of 427,945 total reviews).

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