The Great Helldivers Debacle: A Tale of Consumer Power
The gaming world was abuzz with excitement earlier this year when Arrowhead surprised us with the sequel to the niche game Helldivers. The game’s resounding success was news in all corners of the internet, with thousands of players finding a breath of fresh air in this title.
Helldivers gameplay
Inspired by the cult film Starship Troopers, Helldivers is a four-player third-person shooter where the squad is sent to eliminate aliens and complete strategic missions, all in a chaotic frenzy of bullets and explosions. The verdict was unanimous: this game was the best thing that had happened to the video game industry in a while, and Sony, the publisher of this acclaimed game, had made a good decision by making it available to computer players on Steam.
However, things took a turn for the worse when Sony decided that players also needed to create a PlayStation account to play on their computer, sparking outrage among the gaming community.
“I’m not sure what happened, it seems to me that it was the way of communicating it, painting it as something obligatory, the passion for the game itself or the tiredness of having to divulge your personal information every time you want to play something, but the community simply was revealed.” - Hans Leguízamo
Complaints on Reddit and in different forums became unanimous, with the news that it is not possible to create a PlayStation account in more than one hundred countries. This surprised players who would soon lose access to the game they purchased and had enjoyed without problems until now.
Gamers unite
The most incredible thing about this story is that Helldivers players came together to make their voices heard with negative reviews on the game’s Steam page, accumulating more than 220 thousand negative reviews that immediately attracted the attention of Sony. The company had no choice but to address the community’s demands by publishing a statement in which they said that from now on, the PlayStation account would not be necessary to play the game.
Although this was a clear victory for consumers, to date, the game remains unpurchasable in over a hundred countries, while consumers who already spent their money on the game can still play it, it is uncertain if this will change in the future.
Ghost of Sushima
Shortly after, Sony announced that another of its titles planned for release on PC, Ghost of Sushima, would necessarily require a PlayStation account to play online on PC. Steam, on the other hand, began offering refunds to consumers in regions who had pre-ordered the game and would now be affected by the restrictions imposed by Sony.
This is a bittersweet story, on the one hand, the victory obtained by the Helldivers community is tangible and should be celebrated, on the other, it shows the vulnerability of consumers to the unilateral and immovable decisions of the companies.
Whether Sony is justified in carrying out these restrictions, they should never have sold the game in regions where they knew they did not have PlayStation account coverage. If they can’t offer the complete product to consumers, they shouldn’t take your money.
