Helldivers 2 Complete IRL Major Order – Consumers Once Again Make Billion Dollar Corporation Blink
Helldivers 2 players stared down multi-billion dollar entertainment giant Sony Entertainment, causing the reversal of a controversial decision.
It has been a rollercoaster of a ride for Helldivers 2 players over the last week. But one that ended in victory for managed democracy, as players’ collective action and willpower caused Sony to reverse a controversial decision.
If you haven’t been following the story, it all began on May 2nd, when Helldivers 2 developers at Arrowhead announced that a coming update would require PC players to link Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account, a move that had been optional at launch, but three months in was going to be mandatory.
This raised a host of issues for many players, but especially those who purchased the game residing in countries where PlayStation Network isn’t available. A now-cancelled update was due to release today, May 6th, requiring players to link an account.
What followed is a perfect example of what collective action can achieve.
Helldivers 2 Players Get Sony to Back Down
Over the next three days, players took to social media platforms, like Twitter, Discord, and Reddit to voice their concerns and complaints. But more importantly, players collectively voiced their displeasure in places where it could affect the game’s bottom line.
Within hours of the news hitting, Helldivers 2 dropped from “overwhelmingly positive” on Steam, gaining more than 14,000 negative reviews. In the ensuing days, that number expanded out to more than 200,000 negative reviews. Helldivers 2 then hit “overwhelmingly negative”.
And then yesterday, with hours to go, the game was delisted on Steam in the 177 countries where the PSN wasn’t available, causing many to question why Sony chose to sell the game in places where players wouldn’t be able to play the game once the account linking became mandatory.
It’s worth mentioning that this is Sony’s biggest ever launch on PC, and the hue and cry left its mark. As of today, Sony has issued a statement saying that they’ve heard the feedback and
would no longer be requiring the PSN account.
We’ve Seen This Before…With WotC
It’s a community move that evokes January 2023 when WotC was on track to revoke/”deauthorize” the Open Gaming License that had previously been powering D&D’s third-party market. As executives pushed to make an unpopular decision, players collectively voiced their concerns and then, more importantly, took actions which affected WotC/Hasbro’s bottom line, with mass-cancellations of D&D Beyond accounts happening at a volume so great the servers temporarily couldn’t handle it.
The end result of the OGL Saga and the Helldivers 2 PSN Saga is the same. The collective action of your users/customers/the people, is mightier than the corporation. When acting together, people can make companies with superior resources blink.
Imagine if gamers were to ever discover they could do the same to other systems, like healthcare. What a world.
