I find it fascinating when developers suddenly introduce third-party requirements for their games, especially if that game had been hailed as a darling by consumers for lack of predatory practices for months on end.
Since its release on February 8th, the no-frills live service game Helldivers 2 has captivated the world by offering pure enjoyment without succumbing to arbitrary political pandering or overtly predatory microtransactions. The game has maintained a sizable player base, peaking at over 115,000 concurrent players daily all those months later.
However, it seems that its time in the spotlight may be waning.
We previously covered the controversy surrounding the community manager of Helldivers 2, who openly labeled the game as “woke” and sparked outrage by banning individuals deemed “bigots” amid calls for the inclusion of LGBT-themed capes. Despite initially being praised by gamers for their neutrality, the actions of the Helldivers 2 community manager suggested otherwise.
Now, players are in an uproar as Arrowhead Game Studios plans to mandate that players create or link a PlayStation Network account to continue playing.
The necessity of a PlayStation account was initially part of Helldivers 2, but it was quickly withdrawn after the game’s tumultuous launch, which saw an overwhelming number of players overwhelming the server capacity.
Now, several months later, the “temporary” removal of a Steam to PlayStation linked account requirement has expired.
Starting May 6, new Helldivers 2 players on Steam must link their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account. Current Steam players will begin to encounter the mandatory login requirement from May 30 onwards and must link their Steam and PlayStation Network accounts by June 4.
Why is Sony forcing consumers to create a PlayStation account or link their Steam profile to their PlayStation one? Safety and security are cited as the primary reasons.
“Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games.”
Though of course we’re just going to overlook the infamous incident in early 2011 when 77 million PlayStation accounts were compromised, potentially exposing millions of users’ credit card details. Sony is a trustworthy company, you can certainly trust them with your data.
Another major concern arises from the fact that there are 60 different countries where individuals are not permitted to create a PlayStation Network account.
If you reside in a region not supported by Sony, creating an account and falsifying your region would constitute a breach of Sony’s terms of service, potentially leading to account termination.
Some countries may require government ID to setup an account with PlayStation, providing you’re in one of these countries that requires actual verification, you’ll have to provide government issued ID and a facial scan to Sony to play your game.
Consumers have valid reasons to be apprehensive towards the requirement of creating a PlayStation account to play their game on PC. Just a week ago, Sony doubled down on its anti-Asian censorship policies by implementing a day-one censorship patch for Stellar Blade.
Considering how Stellar Blade was among the most anticipated titles of this year, it’s ironic that Sony’s only game for their PlayStation 5 is censored.
Many players are expressing surprise that playing Helldivers 2 on Steam without linking to a PlayStation account was considered a “grace period.” This is understandable, given the game’s surge in popularity upon release. Helldivers 2 is truly a success story for smaller development studios, reminiscent of Pocket Pair’s Palworld.
According to industry expert Mat Piscatella at Circana, Helldivers 2 is one of the highest-grossing games ever published by Sony. Surprisingly, more than half of the game’s sales have come from the PC platform.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that Sony sees it fit to integrate account linkage, even if it means potentially alienating PC players. Without the support of PC players, Helldivers 2 wouldn’t have achieved the same level of success and prominence.
With the option to simply “skip” linking an account, it’s likely that many players brushed it aside and forgot about it, focusing instead on enjoying the game. However, whether they were aware of it or not, players are understandably upset.
They are now compelled to link their Steam account to a PlayStation account to continue accessing the game they paid for. This feels like another bait-and-switch tactic, especially considering the game’s release back in February.
As a result, players are doing just about everything they can possibly do with what little power they have opposed to developers, a large number of users have begun to flood the game with negative reviews, citing how the robots (automatons) have taken control over Helldivers, which I honestly find hilarious. Many others have flooded the games forum, replied to the games announcement thread with their disgust and apprehension towards Sony’s demands.
There’s another reason why some might hesitate to create a PlayStation account, aside from concerns about data privacy. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer once expressed his desire to see problematic gamers “banned everywhere.”
For example, if someone was banned from Xbox Live for “hate speech,” Microsoft considers this offense far more severe than cheating. Consequently, the ban would extend to other networks too.
This is the future of digital entertainment. Your accounts will be interconnected, and if you step out of line even once, your access to games on XBOX, PlayStation, Nintendo, or even Steam could be revoked. That’s the vision Phil Spencer has, and it’s what you’ll get soon enough.
That’s another reason why nobody wants to be compelled to create a PlayStation account to play Helldivers 2 and link it with their Steam account. Doing so makes them more vulnerable to having their game revoked for violating the terms of service.
Helldivers 2 supports cross play between PC and PlayStation 5. If all users on all platforms are required to have a PlayStation Network account, and if you happen to be “toxic” on the microphone, your newly created PlayStation account could be banned.
Considering how Sony records and monitors online voice chat, similar to Microsoft, this scenario could result in losing access to the live service game you purchased because your Steam account is linked.
This is the primary reason why nobody wants to be mandated to link their accounts. Steam is filled with individuals who cherish their anonymity, and they won’t be able to play the game they purchased as they please.
They might want to keep usernames like “CunnyRapist1488” or any name that may be consider offensive or racist, and being forced to link accounts could take that freedom away from them.
One might argue that individuals who exhibit such behavior don’t deserve rights, but that logic would apply to everyone, including you. It’s common to encounter people who believe that bigots don’t deserve human rights, but when corporate tyranny starts affecting your livelihood, you might find yourself complaining about it.
In which case we’ll all be laughing to the grave.
The same argument applies to censorship as well. Just because you’re too thick to understand the far-reaching consequences that colonizing localized translations have upon Japanese games, which now cater to Western customs and agendas, doesn’t mean we should overlook the issue.
If modern game developers were to impose censorship on elements cherished by terminally online Twitter activists, such as Baldur’s Gate 3’s penis physics, would there finally be a call to remove censorship? Yes, absolutely. Because it’s illegal to remove content that panders to queer audiences.
Essentially, this situation boils down to reducing power for the end user while granting more control to the corporation. Requiring players to create an account six months after the game’s release is a clever move. Not only does Sony gain a surge of new users to monitor, but they also have the ability to ban problematic individuals, which might please individuals like the community manager for Helldivers 2.
This scenario epitomizes the essence of what gaming is today and what it’ll be tomorrow, conformity with zero privacy. It’s regrettable that Helldivers 2 is a live service game, as it means you can’t pirate the game even if you wanted to.
And to think that Sony’s slogan for the PlayStation is “Play Has No Limits.”
