Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade have been at the top of the news cycle lately. And no, it’s not for good things this time around.
The studios behind two games that were once spoken about in a positive light are now under heavy fire thanks to some decisions that people are attributing to Sony fumbling the bag. The discourse on X/Twitter only grows more intense with every revelation, and people are seemingly tired of Sony’s shenanigans.
After the Helldivers 2 Controversy, Players Are Tired of Sony
The heat is on, and Sony needs to think of something fast. Fans of both popular titles are seemingly at the end of their line after the latest controversies have made it difficult for them to enjoy these games.
Stellar Blade‘s controversy revolved around an alleged issue regarding the censorship of some of Eve’s outfits right before launch.
Arguments broke out on social media, with one side fuming that Sony and SHIFT UP pulled a ‘bait-and-switch‘ censorship and the other retorting that there was no censorship involved, claiming it was a design change.
Sony has been losing players on the PS Plus front as a result of bait and switch censorship tactics on Stellar Blade.
Now they're forcing players on Helldivers 2 to create a PSN account or be locked out because they cannot bear to be without a registered player base… pic.twitter.com/VNx3Vi1hGi
— Digi-Akuma (@digi_akuma) May 3, 2024
Before those flames were even doused, Sony made another misstep with the Helldivers 2 issue; Arrowhead Studios had suddenly announced that all Steam users of the game would need to link their accounts to a PSN ID, as from now on, players would have to login via PSN to play.
As PSN isn’t available in every country, players became worried that they wouldn’t be able to access their accounts, despite legally purchasing the game. Many felt that this came out of nowhere and blindsided players.
While the heat was initially on Arrowhead, alleged confirmations from studio staff showing that Sony forced its hand made many fans redirect their anger to the larger company.
Sony Continues to Take a Public Beatdown
The number of people publicly criticizing Sony for its recent decisions continues to grow.
As people take to social media to express their disappointment, one must wonder how the company will get itself out of this situation.
First was Stellar Blade
Then it was Tsukihime
Now its Helldivers 2All in the span of just a week.
Impressive Sonyfornia…I mean Sony. pic.twitter.com/ht0nJwe45u
— Perma Banned (@GiveMeBanHammer) May 3, 2024
A few people have started a call to free the two games from the company’s hands.
Free Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2 #FreeStellarBlade #freeHelldivers
— infernys20 (@infernys20) May 4, 2024
Not everyone agrees with the outrage, though. With so many controversies of ‘gamer outrage‘ happening as of late, some people feel that the community is just cycling through a list of things to get angry over.
It's also funny how gamers were angry at it for microtransactions and then lost interest when the new game to be outraged at which was Stellar Blade and then Helldivers 2.
I give it a week before they outrage mob moves onto another game to froth at the mouth over. https://t.co/QzdsnScNa9
— Happiest Dr. Ka𝕩u #RenewFinalSpace Take Two Sucks (@HappiestAku) May 4, 2024
When it came to the latest Helldivers issue, some users tried to clear up misconceptions; many other services require you to make an account before you can play on them, so people felt the outrage was unnecessary and overblown.
The fake outrage is something else! Especially when you need
🔵EA Play or Origin to play EA Games
🔵Rockstar Launcher to play GTA and RDR2
🔵Battle. Net to play StarCraft or WarcraftIn addition…
Ubisoft and Epic have their own launchers. This is not a big deal!— Gaming Guru (@78GamingGuru) May 4, 2024
As players continued to debate the issue, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt tried dousing the flames, only to end up throwing a bunch of diesel instead with some of his responses. The man did apologize several times, but it might be too late for that now.
What do you think about Sony’s recent decisions? Has it crossed the line? Let us know in the comments below!
