Helldivers 2: Controversy over Forced Account Linking – Arrowhead Studios Crisis Explained

2024-05-04 06:11:04

“Helldivers 2”, which has been praised and supported by the foreign community, officially announced yesterday (3) that it will be linked to a PSN account. Now the rating situation on Steam has collapsed and Arrowhead Games has also lost because of this. The community manager’s blunder caused a public relations crisis and the CEO once again apologized to the players.

According to the “Bad Soldier 2” Steam store, nearly 37,000 negative reviews poured in on May 3 to oppose the PSN’s binding decision. To this day, negative reviews continue to pour in, which also affects. the recent review of the game caught in mixed reviews.

Players unhappy with the forced account linking asked questions on the message board and on Discord, but Spitz, the community manager for Arrowhead Studios, responded that as a secondary studio for PS5 exclusive games, “Battlefield 2” requires bonding from the start. . PSN, pointed out that the Steam store page already has a sign saying “Requires third-party account: PlayStation Network”, but it could not be implemented due to previous technical issues.

However, players still criticized the manager because they were bothered by the need to request additional accounts or identity authentication. In fact, Spitz repeatedly emphasized that linking PSN accounts was a done deal before the game launched. Members knew that players might object, or not want to, and that they still couldn’t. not change the decision.

Faced with some players starting to attack the Arrowhead Studio team and threatening refunds, Spitz alone persisted in communicating despite a large number of criticisms and questions from players, saying that players are welcome to go to Steam and leave negative reviews to express their dissatisfaction. , but emphasized that they should attack the team. Members were not helpful and even accidentally responded to a player with “I thought you had already refunded the money and stopped playing”, which caused anger.

I understand that linking accounts and signing up for additional services may not be something some users would like to do and should be respected. Although the Steam page has always shown the requirements on the game page, I wish we were more clear with the long…

– Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 3, 2024

Given the continued spread of negative comments, Spitz’s manager later deleted the statement, believing his sarcastic statement to be inappropriate. He only wanted to protect the members of Team Arrow before explaining himself. He also admitted that he didn’t do it. likes to link accounts, and once again emphasized that posting in Discord attacking the administrator or himself cannot change the decision to link a PSN account.

Arrowhead Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt came forward via X/Twitter about this situation. First, he apologized to players for not clarifying the process of linking PSN accounts when the game launched. They also understand that Steam players don’t want additional accounts. connect another account to play the game.

Finally, Pilestedt emphasized that he would make amends and continue making good games to regain the community’s trust, while manager Spitz revealed that he might offer in-game cosmetic rewards, but nothing has happened. yet been finalized.

Ouch, straight to the review score 😢🤕

Well, I guess that’s justified. Sorry everyone for how this all went down. I hope we catch up and regain trust by providing a continued great gaming experience.

I just want to make good games! pic.twitter.com/EPO7apDUlc

– Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 3, 2024

Unfortunately, due to the forced linking of PSN accounts, the democratic and community atmosphere originally created by “Bad Soldiers 2” has obviously been seriously damaged, both for Sony and Arrowhead Studios. A serious situation that cannot be underestimated.

Starting May 6, all new Dead Rangers 2 players on Steam will need to link their Steam account to their PlayStation Network account (You can apply directly on the official PSN website), and existing Steam players initially received a forced login prompt on May 30, and the grace period ran until June 4.

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