Helldivers 2 Just Ruined The Most Promising Game In Years

screenrant.com:

has made waves as a live-service game that offers the complete package of fun gameplay, an engaging community, and interesting updates, but one move could undo a huge portion of what it's built over the past few months. As a sequel to the modestly popular top-down shooter, the third-person follow-up has managed to go toe-to-toe with major IPs and stands out as one of the biggest successes of 2024. Not everyone has been able to get in on the fun – isn't available on Xbox – but that hasn't slowed its momentum much.

Despite the publishing involvement of Sony Interactive Entertainment, released on PlayStation 5 and PC on the same day with crossplay support. On PS5, a PlayStation Network account and PS Plus subscription are both mandated for online play, while PC has only required the use of a general Steam account. There's been a lingering concern due to listing a PSN account requirement on PC, but accessing the game without one has always worked perfectly well. Unfortunately, that status quo has just changed for the worse.

The official X (formerlyTwitter) account shared an update from PlayStation about logging into on Steam without a PSN account, announcing that linking accounts will be required for new players as of May 6, finally making good on the promise that one is required on the game's Steam page. Veterans have a little more of a grace period, with "" appearing on May 30 and a hard mandate in place as of June 4. The update refers to the lack of a hard requirement as the result of technical issues at launch and describes the need for account linking as necessary for "."

Needless to say, the community isn't taking well to this sudden change, and not everyone views the disclaimer on the Steam page as sufficient warning for the requirement. Many players simply aren't going to check out disclaimers on store pages, as Steam's refund system would allow for a return within a two-hour gameplay window if an account mandate made a game unplayable. It's also inconsistent