Helldivers 2 Community Manager "Almost" Fired For Encouraging Review Bomb
Helldivers 2 dropped to 'Mostly Negative' this weekend after announcing that players would have to link their PSN and Steam accounts to keep playing, making it so that the game couldn't be accessed in over 150 countries. This was partly spurred on by community manager Spitz, who mysteriously disappeared from the Discord server on Saturday.
The review bomb even spilt over to other Arrowhead games like the first Helldivers.
As reported by PC Gamer, this was because they "almost" got fired. "Turns out that telling people to review bomb and refund a game isn't a popular decision with the publisher," Spitz wrote. "But I'm still here and I'm glad that we all made a difference."
Ultimately, Sony did cancel the PSN account linking update, so the review bomb worked. The community is calling on players to remove their negative reviews to prove as much. But a community manager egging it on was a step too far for PlayStation.
When the PSN account linking announcement was made, the backlash was immediate, as many voiced their frustration across Reddit, Twitter, and Discord in viral posts that captured the sentiment across the entire community. But Spitz called on players to do more, arguing that speaking out wasn't enough to change Sony's mind.
"Players making their displeasure known through reviews, refunds, etc. gives us more pull in the discussion with Sony," Spitz said. "It hurts to see the game's popularity suffer in ratings, but discussions are ongoing and on the side of players in this fight."
The outpour of negative reviews led to the quick walkback of the update, so Spitz was right in the end. Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt even applauded the community for its response, tweeting, "I am impressed by the willpower of the Helldivers 2 community and your ability to collaborate."
Pilestedt said that he wants Helldivers 2 to "set a new standard for what a live game is," and in a way, it already has. Sony reversing a decision this big this fast is unheard of.
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