Helldivers 2 fans congratulated each other on a job well done, over getting Sony to make a change on the game. But they may have some unfinished business on this account.
Just to briefly review, Sony revealed before the weekend that they would require Helldivers 2 players to log in to a PSN account so that they could keep playing the game. When it came to light that PSN isn’t actually available in many countries around the world, Sony then moved to delist the game in those countries.
So, yes, Sony backtracked and will no longer require a log in to PSN to play Helldivers 2. But they still haven’t relisted the game back to those countries.
Now, before Sony made their announcement, Johan Pilestedt, creative director on Helldivers 2, made an announcement of his own:
“On serious note: We are talking solutions with PlayStation, especially for non-PSN countries. Your voice has been heard, and I am doing everything I can to speak for the community – but I don’t have the final say.”
Responding to a fan, Pilestedt then revealed that he was partly at fault for creating the mess that Sony and Helldivers 2’s studio, Arrowhead, found themselves in. He said:
“I do have a part to play. I am not blameless in all of this – it was my decision to disable account linking at launch so that players could play the game. I did not ensure players were aware of the requirement and we didn’t talk about it enough.
We knew for about 6 months before launch that it would be mandatory for online PS titles.”
When another fan probed further why Helldivers 2 was sold in countries where it wasn’t intended to be sold, he replied “We do not handle selling the game.”
Yours truly happens to live in the Philippines, one of the countries where it is not possible to make a local PSN account. While PlayStation is a hugely popular platform here, Filipino PlayStation owners make US accounts to play on their consoles. We also lost access to the game over the weekend.
As of this writing, we can look at the store page for Helldivers 2, but it is not possible to buy the title. We also checked the SteamDB record for changes made to the game. So far, there has been no log of any changes made since May 4, 2024, which is when they delisted countries like ours.
We have yet to receive a follow up on Arrowhead Game Studios or Sony Interactive Entertainment on what they are actually doing in regards to this issue. Some fans are now ready to give Sony and Arrowhead the benefit of the doubt, and wait for an announcement.
But we have to point out that they didn’t clarify this issue when they backtracked at the start of this week, and they also have yet to actually tell us what they plan to do. And until they make an announcement or a change, the situation actually hasn’t changed for gamers in those regions.
