The Starship Troopers-inspired game Helldivers 2 has been a big hit for Sony, but earlier this week it forced players to log in through the PlayStation network—even if they're playing on computer and don't have a game console. This requirement was a PR distaster from the outset, but has now gotten worse: the requirement make it impossible for players to play the game in countries that the PlayStation network excludes, and now top PC game platform Steam is shutting down sales of the game to the territories affected.
Sony backed this up by claiming it was for player protection, but the Helldivers 2 community wasn't having any of that and took to orbital striking the Steam page with over 180,000 negative reviews over the past few days. To top it all off, players have even reported successfully receiving refunds from Steam despite having far more play time than the standard two-hour limit that is usually enforced.
Pour one out for developers Arrowhead, who made a brilliant game for one of the most famously boneheaded and obstinante companies in the biz. At least they didn't rootkit y'all this time. The breakout hit of the year! All it had to do was nothing.
