While PC players have always been able to link their Steam and PSN accounts for Helldivers 2, the system was not enforced by Arrowhead at launch, so many opted to skip it. Now, that is changing. Moving forward, all PC players for the game will have to link their Steam account to a PSN account and a lot of fans are unhappy with the decision. 

A wave of negative reviews of the game have hit Steam since Arrowhead announced the change, bringing the game's recent rating down to ‘mixed' after being overwhelmingly positive at launch. Most of the recent reviews now are specifically calling out this change, and many of the top rated reviews have been updated to voice concern with the change too.

Arrowhead may have avoided some of this if it had been more transparent about this change coming eventually. At launch, we could skip PSN account linking and I am sure many did just that without thinking anything more of it. However, if it had been widely known that this link would need to be made eventually, players likely would have done it sooner. Now that they are being asked to do this months after launch, and won't be able to play if they don't wish to make a PSN account, the situation is much worse than it would have been.

The change comes into effect on the 6th of May and brings very little benefit to the player. Helldivers 2 has crossplay, but it does not have any cross-save functionality, so linking these accounts won't allow you to switch between console and PC like many other games. Instead, this account link is being billed as a way to “protect players from griefing and abuse”. Essentially, the link will make banning players easier, although it isn't like tools to do that don't exist already, outside of PSN.

This lines up with Sony's new PC strategy. Starting with Ghost of Tsushima this month, all PlayStation published games on PC will ship with a PSN link option, as well as a PlayStation overlay, similar to how Microsoft handles the majority of its PC games nowadays.

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KitGuru Says: As I already have a PSN account that I use regularly, I linked my accounts at launch. However, many PC players have never owned a PlayStation or had any reason to make a PSN account, making this an inconvenience, particularly for those who simply don't want to give their information over to Sony in order to make an account. I really wish Arrowhead had communicated that this was coming sooner. 

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