Helldivers 2 is no longer purchasable via Steam in numerous countries following the news that having a PSN account will become mandatory.
As covered some days ago, PC players will soon be required to create and link a PSN account in order to keep playing Arrowhead's hit title. Although this mandatory PSN creation was already announced back in January of this year, the 'news' didn't sit too well with the community - Steam reviews have since crashed with the title racking up over 55.000 negative reviews in just a couple of hours.
Creating and linking a PSN account for PC players seems easy enough to do, but numerous countries don't have the ability to create a PSN account, making it impossible for those affected to play the game they purchased. As such, it's now no longer possible to buy the game in non-PSN countries. Affected countries include (but not limited to) Afghanistan, Albania, Netherlands Antilles, Azerbaijan, Congo, Cuba, Curacao, Egypt, Gambia, Jamaica, Morocco, Monaco, Philippines, Pakistan, Suriname, and many more. On Discord, Arrowhead community manager 'Spitz' wrote the following, after first saying that players shouldn't make such a big deal about the mandatory PSN linking.
"Yeah, I was completely unaware how many countries didn't have the ability to make a PSN account when I made that statement, Spitz wrote. "I deeply regret implying that it was so easy for everyone to just sign up and not have to worry about it. It's absolutely not our intention to force people to break Sony ToS or just not to play the game if they're in a restricted region. There needs to be a better solution."
In addition to making it impossible to purchase Helldivers 2 for non-PSN countries, Valve is now also offering refunds for the game, even for those who have played Arrowhead's shooter for more than the usual two hours.
Refunds on Steam work!!
Here is good guy Steam accepting simple, straightforward logic.#Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/IajnG0udjO
— Helldivers 2 Media (@Helldiversmedia) May 4, 2024
It will be interesting to see how this matter will evolve, and whether Sony will back-pedal on the need to create and link a PSN account in order to keep playing (and buying) the game. After all, it's clear that this matter is greatly impacting game sales and community reception.
We'll update you as soon as we learn more about this matter.
Helldivers 2 is available now for PlayStation 5 and PC. The game was released back in February of this year and has been topping sales charts since its launch.
