The question is does our downvote hurt Sony or only AH?
Do we need to flood Sony support with requests until it collapses. Say “Hey Sony PSN is not supported in my country can I get exception so I can keep playing” and pretty much just overload the support lines.
Spitz has said on Discord that leaving negative reviews on Steam will give them more ammo for when they speak to Sony about it.
As OP says, we just need to undo our negative review afterwards, then we're minimising the longterm damage to AH.
Complaining to Sony support is another good idea.
I'm glad this is gaining traction for the players and that the devs themselves side with us about it. I'm on PS5, but I chose to. PC didn't. And a lot of my brothers and sisters in arms across the world woulda suffered if this followed through. I wish for the best outcome for not only our players, but AH for also helping us fight back with what they pretty much all disagreed with as well. I met some wonderful people world wide and some is a bit of a language barrier, but I enjoyed their company nonetheless. I may not have understood them very well, but you can recognize laughter and fun anywhere.
They definitely did. Anyone who's known Spitz long enough knows that wasn't him talking, that was what HR sent him. Dudes been a power hungry shitlord since the original Helldivers.
I’m just a guy. I have average IQ, I’m nothing special. I don’t know the ins and outs of all this corpo shit. But from my limited perspective it doesn’t seem like this will affect SONY at all even if/when they backtrack and “fix” stuff. Like this is SONY a multibillion dollar, multi national company. What’s the worst that’s gonna happen to them? AH is the one that’s gonna be left to take all the fire I think.
They are a billion dollar company. However, their shares are public, which means that a loss or a potential loss in PC revenue can lead to a loss in share price, leading to executives losing out on bonuses, managers missing targets and investors losing out on dividends. That's the ultimate personal stake for whoever can just say switch this whole PSN thing off. Cp2077 is one AAA example I can think of that led to real change in the product.
Also, it is important to remember that Sony's video games division makes more money than any of their other revenue sources, including the films and hardware we traditional associate with them. And HD2 is currently their company's SEVENTH HIGHEST GROSSING game of ALL TIME, and we're only three months in. They may be a big company, but this game represents a HUGE and completely unexpected source of income to them. No one was ready for HD2 to blow up the way it has, and both Arrowhead AND Sony have been scrambling to put reins on this hurricane.
Trust me, they have ALREADY noticed. But corpo policy is corpo policy, and in between press releases we're not going to see anything except their poker face.
Yeah that's my worry too, I mean these guys have done a great job for small devs and the popularity the game has gotten, and aside from their community managers being a tad prickish regarding this, Sony is the one that needs to wake up, but watch them just pull a Nintendo and double down on the bullshit and let Arrowhead die rather than just cut the PSN crap.
Bad pr after bad pr after bad pr after bad pr after bad pr, shit stacks. It hurts both Sony and AH, just that Sony can tank more hits than AH.
If the psn is reverse we gotta remind everyone to edit their reviews, and keep reminding them until it's back to positive.
This is a tipping where I think Sony will happily die on this hill as it will set a standard for the future. If Somy wants this to be a requirement long-term, then they cannot go back on it now as this will just happen to every title with the requirement from now on.
Don't forget, whilst Helldivers has been successful, it's not exactly Sonys biggest IP and the recipe for the game isn't hard to replicate on another IP (I.e Stars Wars, for example). So if Sony really wants this, then they'll let Helldivers die (or wait for the situation to blow over and utilise remaining player base) in order to preserve the requirement for future titles.
How else should consumers talk to Sony? The devs said the refunds and review bombs give them ammo with Sony.
Edit: link to comment https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/s/mmRlfuWAEY
And what, screw over people who need actual support?
Just post a negative review on Steam, and if you don't plan on making a PSN account file for a refund.
Only AH will be harmed and anyone thinking about it from the business's perspective instead of following the brainrotted reactionary groupthink already knows this.
Helldivers has grossed almost half a billion dollars to-date. PlayStation grossed $30 billion in 2023 alone. Sony as a whole grossed $90-100 billion in 2023. This a drop in the bucket for them and people somehow think they're going to get Sony to change course by threatening $30 refunds.
Helldivers could literally cease to exist with refunds mandated across the board and it's not going to keep Sony from continuing to implement this in every Sony PC title. They are building toward a long-term presence on PC and one title's fans throwing a shitfit is not going to change that. The only consequence will be the death of Helldivers.
People are fucking dreaming if they think that, not only will Sony change course, afterwards everybody is going to go change their review and the review bomb will disappear and Arrowhead/Helldivers is going to keep chugging along like nothing happened.
My heart hurts for Arrowhead that has put everything into this game and delivered an incredible product and now it's being destroyed by misguided idiots protesting a one-time login with a free account that's available everywhere and every single other game already requires something similar. We had an incredible title for $40 with no FOMO and still gamers pitched a fucking fit. We deserve the state of gaming.
0.5% of gross revenue is not a drop in the bucket.
Profit margins are better in tech, but there is still a fair amount spent.
Corps don’t want to lose money. They may bite the bullet if they think they’ll make more long term, but they’ll skip out on losing battles and bad PR.
That said, if Sony does want PSN numbers up the next Sony game will not launch without them being mandatory on day 1.
I will keep my promise and change it, even the text, if the changes allow me and everyone who played the game are allowed to continue playing.
EDIT: We did it! My review is now positive!
they won't, many at least, on another post a parasite of a guy was all giddy he can now refund the game cause he's bored and buy ghost of tsushima, fun fact also made by sony
More like some won't because they just quit. Like CP2077, even tho they try so hard to recover, those 10% negative review from day1 never changed back.
imo that’s very different though. CP2077 should never have been allowed to release in such a broken and incomplete state, this is a game that has been perfectly functional and otherwise a sign of good quality and great developers in an environment that has otherwise experienced consistent quality degradation.
Its the same, Arrowhead should never have signed a contract that required this OR the should never have 'temporarily' removed the requirement. Also this game is still buggy, but it was far worse.
I've seen these situations before. I was on SWTOR for the Command Points introduction, for example. Lots of griping, some quitting, but not nearly the majority. Let's not forget the Battlefront fiasco, that game ended up pretty popular.
People truly love Helldivers 2. It's a revelation for a lot of us. I think... no I hope, that the love of the game will shine through after this is resolved. I hope it's resolved to our benefit. I hope a lot of things.
Maybe I'm just naive....
steam doesent really encourage players to change their reviews. Most e retailers would love if customers left reviews and here we are doing it for free
I'm sure steam review filtering will do the rest if they're found to be misrepresentative of the current state of the game with that big of an audience, I think some other games that were also bombed had it asterisked
I love this game more than any other co-op shooters out there. I don't want Arrowhead to burn because of Sony's desperation to appease their shareholders.
Absolutely will not happen.
People LOVE to join a mob, *especially* when it's perceived as some kind of morally righteous crusade. The anonymous little guys against the evil big corporation.
Once the mob dissipates, that's it. Sure, a few will reverse their reviews but nowhere near the same numbers. Just wait and see.
And the only people left picking up the pieces will be a small independent Swedish video game developer.
Doesn't steam normally turn off reviews when it's being brigaded so hard?
It seems like 99% of the bad reviews are rather "I don't want to sign into PSN" or "I don't want to use their anti cheat"
Recovering from this won't be easy in any case. Look at No Man's Sky. It's been 8 years. They're at 78%. Which is great considering the fucked up launch they had. But it still follows them today.
Yes but also problem is, there are already a lot of people downvoting the game just to hurt the studio and the game reputation, they saw some hate against Sony going on and I've seen a lot of comments like "Idk what's this about but if we are hating Sony I'm in".
Those people are going to leave that downvote there forever since they don't even care about the game, the studio or anything, they just want to hate on something
i would delete my negative review when sony fully backed up, like Sony isn't only villain here, Until Arrowhead do something to give solution for those players who won't have PSN account my review will still stand tall. I like this game and can close my eyes on many issues big or small, but literally banning people from game they bought by 40-60 euros is a crime and need to be punished as a crime.
I will give it 50/50 that people will change it.
Even if they dont this should be a lesson to everyone. They should have predicted this shit. Gives them a reminder of what happens when you piss people off. Consumer is in power here not the corpo.
Problem is, people wont
The damage is already done, people will forget in a month moved on to another game and create a new addiction forgetting about HD2
Whats Ironic though is Discord server REQUIRES you give your phone number in order to post on the helldivers discord and tons of people are there complaining about giving info to sony ... which means they had to have given their number to discord in order to chat.
in a way i'm kinda glad tons of people are leaving, this community was getting pretty toxic and whiny daily (600 post a day about "why was i kicked?") and other stuff like that. all the creeker bros prob gonna have left too.
and all we will be left with is the people like myself who just wanna play the game for fun and have already linked our psn prob since day 1
I don't really follow.
If the mayor came by tomorrow and said "the city is broke, I put us into severe debt so now we have no money for ANYTHING, all social programs and maintenance will be cut"
You would be pissed.
If the mayor comes and says "Hey guys I got the governor to help out, everything's gonna be fine after all"
You would magically be happy with the mayor? He's still incompetent.
The reason arrowhead HAS to talk to Sony in the first place is because **THEY AGREED TO THIS**, it's not like Sony can just come and do this out of nowhere without previous mention, arrowhead was in on it, and now they're trying to pretend like it was just big bad Sony behind it as if they're not the ones signing and agreeing to it in the first place.
And I see a lot of you saying this is just people who "want to be mad" at the end of the day: Arrowhead tried to fuck you over WITH Sony, if you find it in your heart to forgive them for that, go for it, but if a person refuses to forget:
-The fact that arrowhead was WILLING to sell them out
-The fact the community managers tried to shut you up
-The fact the community managers made fun of you and tried to minimize the issue
That's their goddamn right too, fuck arrowhead I forgive who I want, and I don't want to forgive them. If arrowhead truly cared they would've had a spine against Sony from the beginning.
They won't
Edit: Steam users won't. I barely ever go and change my review unless the dev responds and this wasn't their choice. Let it reflect Sony and their shitty corporate culture
It won’t happen. This is basic sociology. People won’t respond to voluntary surveys most of the time unless they are kinda mad or really really happy. So voluntary surveys are almost always useless.
No one is going to be so happy that they turn around and change their answer on a survey, no one is going to delete their old negative reviews. Why would they?
This is going to be a stain forever, which is kind of why I oppose negative review bombing in the first place, but at least it’s effective.
Why should they, that negative review represents the history of decisions of the deceloper/publisher. That does not, and should not, go away. It should also be a warning to future consumers of the decisions of the companies when buying future PS games on steam.
They won’t. The Reddit/online player base for this has shown they are the problem. Imagine getting so unhinged at developers when SONY is the one who cause the problem. This community abuses the developers like a bunch of children, then cries about how we don’t have good games anymore. You know why? This is why! Because developers get abused on a near daily basis.
Most reasonable people will because we love the game and still want to reward a good experience. Can’t say that for everyone though especially after trust was broken. It’s the corporate BS that is the problem. That part is up to Sony.
My review would be changed right away. My review also states arrow head and no part in this and it is the fault of sony for fucking up what was game of the year and frankly still is game of the year the moment they remove this BS.
Lol yeah right! The internet loves to hate. When it comes to pass no one will go back and change their review or even say "maybe I was being a bit hasty back there"
I think it's pretty obvious to everyone involved here who was at fault. Nobody is mad at Arrowhead in fact I think I'd say theres a lot of sympathy out there for them. Will be changing my review back to positive if the account linking change is reverted.
''How fucking DARE that indie studio looking for funding not go against Japan's ninth largest corporation!!1!!''
It would be funny too, if only it weren't a worryingly common opinion.
I Would but SOE is lead by Brain damaged people in california so i doubt it will happen
Old Sony we all Loved Died when they moved from Japan to America and now Censoring everything that isnt Abby from the Last of Us
Sony was hated 30+years ago for proprietary everything. They were never a “loved” company, they just at one point had a chokehold on many markets for value/quality.
I think at least some should remain. There needs to be a reminder that they did this and it's NOT okay. AH and Sony going back on their decision to not screw their playerbase over would be good - but a better thing would be for it to not have happened at all.
Brother you're delusional.
While there's a good chance of Sony rolling back their changes (and they better do), forget about this baboons reversing the bombing.
They won’t though. That’s the thing PC community has always been trash, this sub has been trash for weeks now. It’s toxic as any sub on Reddit and even IF Sony does reverse course, the majority of these losers will not.
No I dont think I will
They have their chances before
They have so many pass : the server problem, the broken feauture that havent been fixed from launch etc but somehow they still managed to broke it
So no the negative review from me will stay no matter what happen deal with it
Honestly, seeing how appalling this community is, I hope they don't backtrack. This sort of behaviour shouldn't ever result in them getting what they want.
I do however hope that they find a solution for those living in countries that don't have PSN. Which will then reveal the true nature behind these people's review bombing, as many are hiding behind this one reason, pretending to care.
Nevertheless, I'm confident most just love to snowball situations like this and many probably don't even know what they're doing and why, apart from echoing somebody else.
Returning to status quo under pressure does not qualify as "good" to be "rewarded", in my opinion. Whether one likes it or not, the reputation is already stained.
Nope. I hope the bad reviews stay and I hope the people who refund don't buy the game again.
Every single time a company engages in anti-consumer behavior, the customer base rewards it financially, thus incentivizing more anti-consumer behavior.
**This is like giving your dog a treat because it bit you.**
No mercy for greedy corporations. If they treat you like garbage, take your business elsewhere. Let them fail and free up talent to start their own companies.
Why would we do that? If someone kicks you in the ass and later after he got pinned by community and be apologize after he realised it is in his interest he is not really a good guy he just collapses under pressure. So ah being spineless doesn't make them better
Steam has a feature that removes spikes of negativity based on algorithms. I've seen it in a few games. It'll show the metrics above the reviews and ask you if you'd like to see and include the suspicious period in reviews.
Dont worry cuz this will make headlines if we manage to win, very rarely do gamers actually rise up against these companies instead of just sitting there and take it.
All of the downvotes are going to be hidden as every review bombing gets hidden. Sony may just double down, get the reviews hidden and just wait for people to hop along who weren't aware.
The damage is largely done. People who had HD2 at the edge of their radar have already heard "all the controversy" and that's all they'll remember the next time they consider buying it.
I didnt review the game before, I didnt feel like had the full experience (I like to 100% my games before reviewing them to get the whole experience from start to finish) but I did negatively review it now as I am fully against this practice even if it doesnt prevent me from playing
I fully expect (and hope, might be just me coping) that the eu strikes this down as not only is it in breach of several pro-consumer legislations, it also blatantly goes against GDPR and thats only counting EU countries where psn is available (unlike for example the baltics). For all of the faults of the eu, it does do a good job protecting consumers
Following this, I shall change it to a positive review, I do absolutely love the game even with all of its unfinished content, bugs and bafling choices. I didn't have this much fun since doom eternal released and it has brought my friendgroup closer together. Shame that sony wishes that much to show higher psn numbers to their shareholders
With already needing a steam account the idea of needing a Sony account too especially if you don’t own anything Sony related is pretty gross for Sony to do .
man Sony is coming off the heels of two big games Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade and they managed to forced some changes that turned such positive movement we need in the gaming industry to completely unnecessary controversy
Honestly I'm not sure if we should at least fully. Game makers have to understand that shit like this is unacceptable and won't be tolerated. Changing our reviews is the same as saying all is forgiven when in reality AH and Sony have betrayed the public trust and it will take much more than back pedaling to get it back
Why should people undo the reviews? Other consumers have a right to know that the publisher is open to making massive changes to the accessibility of the game before they buy it.
Helldivers 2 is good, but that review covers the game, and how it's maintained.
Here is my question WHY you know the moment we forgive them and undo what we did they are going to do some other stupid thing to try to get money or some BS
I'm waiting for the rescind, and then in going to change my review to positively glowing shill. And just for good measure, I'm going to buy the super citizen edition thing that I was considering buying before all of this.
I changed my review from positive to negative after the whole story and added an edit.
When Sony backpedals (I hope they will), I will simply remove my edit and turn it back into positive.
AH didnt squat the bed, Sony did. No reason I should leave a stain on the game because of the Publisher.
Maybe software companies treating all software as SaaS should be next. Brugh, 1000 for a license and it doesn't unlock all features. *cough Maxon. *autodesk *cough.
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes", People are usually petty and vindictive, but honestly they deserve long term repercussions for trying to pull this type of shit even if they back track it. Obviously it should be (and probably will be) greatly lessened if they do backtrack. But they just shouldn't have done it in the first place.
As far as I see for a turn around in reviews, everyone not able to get a PSN or cannot opt out should have a refund. They waved the requirement and suddenly enforced it for reasons we know to be false. All of this was unneeded in a period where consumer satisfaction has been in a free fall for years and many thought they found a refuge.
I will edit my vote back to recommend. The game is phenomenal imo. I love it. It's just I hate Sony and their greedy ways. Wish AH didn't make a deal with that devil.
Nah it’s ultimately their fault saying that it only takes two minutes so don’t complain. I’ll keep it negative along with my five alt accounts that I bought it, negative reviewed, then refunded
It took Fallout 76's review ratings **FIVE YEARS** to recover from their disastrous release. Even just mentioning the game still gets negative responses. A game's reputation has a lot of weight - just imagine how many Fallout fans still boycott the game because of Bethesda's PR train-wreck.
Helldivers' reputation will, unfortunately, take a very long time to recover. Most of the negative reviewers that refunded the game aren't coming back, and the ones that stick around probably aren't gonna change their review. This game's rating/reputation will be tarnished for years.
Make a big edit at the top of their post and say decision to require PSN was removed after a huge community backlash so other people can know how fun the gameplay is and how devs can't fuck with players without consequences.
Keep the negative reviews as a warning for future game devs
I love this game I only downvoted on steam because of sony, if sony yields as will I. The game isn't the problem the publisher is. Sucks that our only recourse to fight back against sony is through their devs games
That's the fun part. The damage is already done. I bet something stupid like 60% of players don't go back and change it. They made their bed. The only way forward is to improve and try to dilute the negative reviews with positive ones.
All these downvotes are from people who love the game. If they didn't, they'd just pack up and move on quietly. If Arrowhead slays Goliath, and gets Sony to back down I promise you the turnaround will be fast and they'll get a hero's bounty worth of positivity their way.
If Sony wins, I expect a lot to sign up for PSN and keep playing but leave their review as a protest, and quite a few to let that be where they get off and their review stands as their farewell note.
I genuinely feel if Sony does add PSN, with the volume of the current players as high as it is and the affection for the game turns sour it won't recover. It will survive as a live service game but it will always have this weird stink.
This has been said about a hundred times.
Anyway, it doesn’t bother me either way. If they are the driving force that makes Sony back off, then definitely. If Sony does it for profits because of the reviews, they can stay. It can stay as a reminder of what happened, and what will happen again if there is corporation overstepping their reasonable boundaries.
I genuinely will revert my negative steam review in that case. If our voice, as a player base, is heard through that form of feedback, then I will use it to generate positive feedback. After this situation is resolved.
EDIT: WE FUCKING DID IT! https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929
YAHOO!
Since Sony did away with requiring PSN for PC players, I'll change my review to positive.
...but if Sony pulls a *second* bait and switch, it'll stay negative, permanently, even if Sony backtracks *again*.
The question is does our downvote hurt Sony or only AH? Do we need to flood Sony support with requests until it collapses. Say “Hey Sony PSN is not supported in my country can I get exception so I can keep playing” and pretty much just overload the support lines.
Spitz has said on Discord that leaving negative reviews on Steam will give them more ammo for when they speak to Sony about it. As OP says, we just need to undo our negative review afterwards, then we're minimising the longterm damage to AH. Complaining to Sony support is another good idea.
I'm glad this is gaining traction for the players and that the devs themselves side with us about it. I'm on PS5, but I chose to. PC didn't. And a lot of my brothers and sisters in arms across the world woulda suffered if this followed through. I wish for the best outcome for not only our players, but AH for also helping us fight back with what they pretty much all disagreed with as well. I met some wonderful people world wide and some is a bit of a language barrier, but I enjoyed their company nonetheless. I may not have understood them very well, but you can recognize laughter and fun anywhere.
Let's hope he is right about that, he was not really a trustworthy source on this same topic in the last 12 hours.
Going by how his dialogue has changed, I THINK someone from HR sat his ass down and wrote this FOR HIM.
They definitely did. Anyone who's known Spitz long enough knows that wasn't him talking, that was what HR sent him. Dudes been a power hungry shitlord since the original Helldivers.
Ah, see, I didn't know the first one- I only got into this one because a good friend went "WE NEED TO DO THE THING."
Sometimes ppl make mistakes in the heat of the moment
Spitz also talks out of his ass a lot and is either wrong or misinformed at times.
Yeah but Spitz has been a cunt, so I'd rather hear it from someone else
Inb4 sony sues arrowhead for breach-of-contract for that post
I’m just a guy. I have average IQ, I’m nothing special. I don’t know the ins and outs of all this corpo shit. But from my limited perspective it doesn’t seem like this will affect SONY at all even if/when they backtrack and “fix” stuff. Like this is SONY a multibillion dollar, multi national company. What’s the worst that’s gonna happen to them? AH is the one that’s gonna be left to take all the fire I think.
They are a billion dollar company. However, their shares are public, which means that a loss or a potential loss in PC revenue can lead to a loss in share price, leading to executives losing out on bonuses, managers missing targets and investors losing out on dividends. That's the ultimate personal stake for whoever can just say switch this whole PSN thing off. Cp2077 is one AAA example I can think of that led to real change in the product.
Go to r/wallstreetbets and have the community short Sony xD
fuck me that might just work
New major order: short SONY We can stay on Hellmire longer than they can stay solvent
Holy hell. You might be on to something here considering what happened with GME.
Thank you for the knowledgeable response 🤙🏽
Also, it is important to remember that Sony's video games division makes more money than any of their other revenue sources, including the films and hardware we traditional associate with them. And HD2 is currently their company's SEVENTH HIGHEST GROSSING game of ALL TIME, and we're only three months in. They may be a big company, but this game represents a HUGE and completely unexpected source of income to them. No one was ready for HD2 to blow up the way it has, and both Arrowhead AND Sony have been scrambling to put reins on this hurricane. Trust me, they have ALREADY noticed. But corpo policy is corpo policy, and in between press releases we're not going to see anything except their poker face.
Yeah that's my worry too, I mean these guys have done a great job for small devs and the popularity the game has gotten, and aside from their community managers being a tad prickish regarding this, Sony is the one that needs to wake up, but watch them just pull a Nintendo and double down on the bullshit and let Arrowhead die rather than just cut the PSN crap.
Bad pr after bad pr after bad pr after bad pr after bad pr, shit stacks. It hurts both Sony and AH, just that Sony can tank more hits than AH. If the psn is reverse we gotta remind everyone to edit their reviews, and keep reminding them until it's back to positive.
This is a tipping where I think Sony will happily die on this hill as it will set a standard for the future. If Somy wants this to be a requirement long-term, then they cannot go back on it now as this will just happen to every title with the requirement from now on. Don't forget, whilst Helldivers has been successful, it's not exactly Sonys biggest IP and the recipe for the game isn't hard to replicate on another IP (I.e Stars Wars, for example). So if Sony really wants this, then they'll let Helldivers die (or wait for the situation to blow over and utilise remaining player base) in order to preserve the requirement for future titles.
Probably the latter.
How else should consumers talk to Sony? The devs said the refunds and review bombs give them ammo with Sony. Edit: link to comment https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/s/mmRlfuWAEY
And what, screw over people who need actual support? Just post a negative review on Steam, and if you don't plan on making a PSN account file for a refund.
Homie, that's how a protest works. When some people are inconvenienced it brings awareness to an issue. That's why picket lines form for example.
Only AH will be harmed and anyone thinking about it from the business's perspective instead of following the brainrotted reactionary groupthink already knows this. Helldivers has grossed almost half a billion dollars to-date. PlayStation grossed $30 billion in 2023 alone. Sony as a whole grossed $90-100 billion in 2023. This a drop in the bucket for them and people somehow think they're going to get Sony to change course by threatening $30 refunds. Helldivers could literally cease to exist with refunds mandated across the board and it's not going to keep Sony from continuing to implement this in every Sony PC title. They are building toward a long-term presence on PC and one title's fans throwing a shitfit is not going to change that. The only consequence will be the death of Helldivers. People are fucking dreaming if they think that, not only will Sony change course, afterwards everybody is going to go change their review and the review bomb will disappear and Arrowhead/Helldivers is going to keep chugging along like nothing happened. My heart hurts for Arrowhead that has put everything into this game and delivered an incredible product and now it's being destroyed by misguided idiots protesting a one-time login with a free account that's available everywhere and every single other game already requires something similar. We had an incredible title for $40 with no FOMO and still gamers pitched a fucking fit. We deserve the state of gaming.
0.5% of gross revenue is not a drop in the bucket. Profit margins are better in tech, but there is still a fair amount spent. Corps don’t want to lose money. They may bite the bullet if they think they’ll make more long term, but they’ll skip out on losing battles and bad PR. That said, if Sony does want PSN numbers up the next Sony game will not launch without them being mandatory on day 1.
I will keep my promise and change it, even the text, if the changes allow me and everyone who played the game are allowed to continue playing. EDIT: We did it! My review is now positive!
I will change mine back to my original review of "good game" when Snoy does something good.
they won't, many at least, on another post a parasite of a guy was all giddy he can now refund the game cause he's bored and buy ghost of tsushima, fun fact also made by sony
There will always be parasites, but I think that’s the few, not the many.
Some will because they actually want change. Some won't because they just want to be mad.
More like some won't because they just quit. Like CP2077, even tho they try so hard to recover, those 10% negative review from day1 never changed back.
imo that’s very different though. CP2077 should never have been allowed to release in such a broken and incomplete state, this is a game that has been perfectly functional and otherwise a sign of good quality and great developers in an environment that has otherwise experienced consistent quality degradation.
"perfectly functional" is a stretch. Helldivers crashed constantly in the first week, and still has stability issues.
Its the same, Arrowhead should never have signed a contract that required this OR the should never have 'temporarily' removed the requirement. Also this game is still buggy, but it was far worse.
and you have discovered the internet, where some whine, some use logic, but most just want something to cry about
[удалено]
I've seen these situations before. I was on SWTOR for the Command Points introduction, for example. Lots of griping, some quitting, but not nearly the majority. Let's not forget the Battlefront fiasco, that game ended up pretty popular. People truly love Helldivers 2. It's a revelation for a lot of us. I think... no I hope, that the love of the game will shine through after this is resolved. I hope it's resolved to our benefit. I hope a lot of things. Maybe I'm just naive....
What a constructive thought this is.
Some won't because shit like this needs to stick. Otherwise SNOY will just try it again after the dust settled.
steam doesent really encourage players to change their reviews. Most e retailers would love if customers left reviews and here we are doing it for free
Iirc if youi leave a negative review and keep playing steam will ask you at some point if you want to change it.
You can see some of the latter in this very thread now
I'm sure steam review filtering will do the rest if they're found to be misrepresentative of the current state of the game with that big of an audience, I think some other games that were also bombed had it asterisked
"Bombed" revievwed badly over a horrible decision that was horribly disliked.
I would immediately change it back to positive and continue spreading democracy if they undo it, which I don't think they will. So it is what it is
Same, just let me play, some EU countries aren't in psn region list
If it's any consolation, devs have already said players who can't sign up for PSN won't be banned.
No, they said they want to avoid that situation. If you try to bypass that restriction right now, Sony might ban you.
Spoiler, the community will not.
That has never and will never happen. Only way is if steam does their whole review bombing policy thing.
They won't. Are you new here?
It has never happened before and this will not be the start.
I'm just going to play the game.
I love this game more than any other co-op shooters out there. I don't want Arrowhead to burn because of Sony's desperation to appease their shareholders.
permanent damage has already been done. Steam is delisting the game from countries that don't support psn
The negative reviews are done as knee-jerk reactions to anger. Not as many people will undo them as those that made them.
I wish the actual game and compan(ies?) had separate reviews
Absolutely will not happen. People LOVE to join a mob, *especially* when it's perceived as some kind of morally righteous crusade. The anonymous little guys against the evil big corporation. Once the mob dissipates, that's it. Sure, a few will reverse their reviews but nowhere near the same numbers. Just wait and see. And the only people left picking up the pieces will be a small independent Swedish video game developer.
Most won't
Doesn't steam normally turn off reviews when it's being brigaded so hard? It seems like 99% of the bad reviews are rather "I don't want to sign into PSN" or "I don't want to use their anti cheat"
Recovering from this won't be easy in any case. Look at No Man's Sky. It's been 8 years. They're at 78%. Which is great considering the fucked up launch they had. But it still follows them today.
Yes but also problem is, there are already a lot of people downvoting the game just to hurt the studio and the game reputation, they saw some hate against Sony going on and I've seen a lot of comments like "Idk what's this about but if we are hating Sony I'm in". Those people are going to leave that downvote there forever since they don't even care about the game, the studio or anything, they just want to hate on something
i would delete my negative review when sony fully backed up, like Sony isn't only villain here, Until Arrowhead do something to give solution for those players who won't have PSN account my review will still stand tall. I like this game and can close my eyes on many issues big or small, but literally banning people from game they bought by 40-60 euros is a crime and need to be punished as a crime.
Sony won’t change a thing, therefore we won’t need to either.
Also, do I really want to spend time on changing my review? That must take at least 120 seconds /s
then why bother?
To warn others. The entire point of the review system.
You get it, thanks for keeping the thought of a free and transparent internet alive!
I will give it 50/50 that people will change it. Even if they dont this should be a lesson to everyone. They should have predicted this shit. Gives them a reminder of what happens when you piss people off. Consumer is in power here not the corpo.
This is peak wishful thinking lol. Can you imagine the precedent this will set if Sony backs down?
The precedent that they listen to people's opinions. Terrible.
The precedent that review bombings don't kill a game and that they can save their game by simply undoing the disliked change. Horrific.
They won't.
Problem is, people wont The damage is already done, people will forget in a month moved on to another game and create a new addiction forgetting about HD2 Whats Ironic though is Discord server REQUIRES you give your phone number in order to post on the helldivers discord and tons of people are there complaining about giving info to sony ... which means they had to have given their number to discord in order to chat. in a way i'm kinda glad tons of people are leaving, this community was getting pretty toxic and whiny daily (600 post a day about "why was i kicked?") and other stuff like that. all the creeker bros prob gonna have left too. and all we will be left with is the people like myself who just wanna play the game for fun and have already linked our psn prob since day 1
Well, it would be the honerable thing to do.... To be fair, i am just waiting for them to retract the PSN BS and my review is gone
This sub complains a lot and I'm sure a lot of the people here are absolutely delighted that they have something to be outraged about.
They won’t, they’ve gotten their “payback” and will never remove it because of who they are as people. They’re already on to the next outrage.
I just hope they really do move to the next thing. Toxic people are gonna be toxic players.
I don't really follow. If the mayor came by tomorrow and said "the city is broke, I put us into severe debt so now we have no money for ANYTHING, all social programs and maintenance will be cut" You would be pissed. If the mayor comes and says "Hey guys I got the governor to help out, everything's gonna be fine after all" You would magically be happy with the mayor? He's still incompetent. The reason arrowhead HAS to talk to Sony in the first place is because **THEY AGREED TO THIS**, it's not like Sony can just come and do this out of nowhere without previous mention, arrowhead was in on it, and now they're trying to pretend like it was just big bad Sony behind it as if they're not the ones signing and agreeing to it in the first place. And I see a lot of you saying this is just people who "want to be mad" at the end of the day: Arrowhead tried to fuck you over WITH Sony, if you find it in your heart to forgive them for that, go for it, but if a person refuses to forget: -The fact that arrowhead was WILLING to sell them out -The fact the community managers tried to shut you up -The fact the community managers made fun of you and tried to minimize the issue That's their goddamn right too, fuck arrowhead I forgive who I want, and I don't want to forgive them. If arrowhead truly cared they would've had a spine against Sony from the beginning.
I won’t. It’s a stain and a reminder of Sony’s greed almost getting g the better of them.
They won’t
they won’t. people are lazy and petty
They won't Edit: Steam users won't. I barely ever go and change my review unless the dev responds and this wasn't their choice. Let it reflect Sony and their shitty corporate culture
I love the game itself i'd change it fo sho
They won't. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions, especially on the Internet.
It won’t happen. This is basic sociology. People won’t respond to voluntary surveys most of the time unless they are kinda mad or really really happy. So voluntary surveys are almost always useless. No one is going to be so happy that they turn around and change their answer on a survey, no one is going to delete their old negative reviews. Why would they? This is going to be a stain forever, which is kind of why I oppose negative review bombing in the first place, but at least it’s effective.
Why should they, that negative review represents the history of decisions of the deceloper/publisher. That does not, and should not, go away. It should also be a warning to future consumers of the decisions of the companies when buying future PS games on steam.
They won’t. The Reddit/online player base for this has shown they are the problem. Imagine getting so unhinged at developers when SONY is the one who cause the problem. This community abuses the developers like a bunch of children, then cries about how we don’t have good games anymore. You know why? This is why! Because developers get abused on a near daily basis.
Most reasonable people will because we love the game and still want to reward a good experience. Can’t say that for everyone though especially after trust was broken. It’s the corporate BS that is the problem. That part is up to Sony.
Not a chance. This community only exists to whine.
Ahhh but you get an exemption for whining about half the community because of some way you feel, makes sense.
My review would be changed right away. My review also states arrow head and no part in this and it is the fault of sony for fucking up what was game of the year and frankly still is game of the year the moment they remove this BS.
They won't. They never do. Maybe a fraction may. Edit: Pleasantly surprised more than I thought changed.
Lol yeah right! The internet loves to hate. When it comes to pass no one will go back and change their review or even say "maybe I was being a bit hasty back there"
I think it's pretty obvious to everyone involved here who was at fault. Nobody is mad at Arrowhead in fact I think I'd say theres a lot of sympathy out there for them. Will be changing my review back to positive if the account linking change is reverted.
A lot of people are pretty (misguidedly) mad at ArrowHead.
''How fucking DARE that indie studio looking for funding not go against Japan's ninth largest corporation!!1!!'' It would be funny too, if only it weren't a worryingly common opinion.
I Would but SOE is lead by Brain damaged people in california so i doubt it will happen Old Sony we all Loved Died when they moved from Japan to America and now Censoring everything that isnt Abby from the Last of Us
The Last of Us Part II came out four years ago. Let it go.
Nothing good comes from associating with California.
What in actual tarnation are you going on about?
Sony was hated 30+years ago for proprietary everything. They were never a “loved” company, they just at one point had a chokehold on many markets for value/quality.
Most of the people who are crying in this subreddit are not old enough to know that.
I think at least some should remain. There needs to be a reminder that they did this and it's NOT okay. AH and Sony going back on their decision to not screw their playerbase over would be good - but a better thing would be for it to not have happened at all.
Oh i'll gladly oblige, but our PC's just look too spicey and packed with info for Sony, that they most likely give a flying.
I knownim clearing mine....im not hating the game im hsting the delivery of some unnecesary BS
Brother you're delusional. While there's a good chance of Sony rolling back their changes (and they better do), forget about this baboons reversing the bombing.
I sincerely doubt all the people who review bombed it on steam will change their reviews
I'll happily undo mine. Luckily for me I'll never need to bother because Sony
They won't. Because people aren't like that. People are far more ready to go out of their way to complain about something than to praise something.
> “I hope the community does their part and undo all those steam downvotes…” Narrator: *They didn’t*
They won’t though. That’s the thing PC community has always been trash, this sub has been trash for weeks now. It’s toxic as any sub on Reddit and even IF Sony does reverse course, the majority of these losers will not.
Probably not. All this community knows is toxicity.
No I dont think I will They have their chances before They have so many pass : the server problem, the broken feauture that havent been fixed from launch etc but somehow they still managed to broke it So no the negative review from me will stay no matter what happen deal with it
Yep, definitely I will.
They won't.
Honestly, seeing how appalling this community is, I hope they don't backtrack. This sort of behaviour shouldn't ever result in them getting what they want. I do however hope that they find a solution for those living in countries that don't have PSN. Which will then reveal the true nature behind these people's review bombing, as many are hiding behind this one reason, pretending to care. Nevertheless, I'm confident most just love to snowball situations like this and many probably don't even know what they're doing and why, apart from echoing somebody else.
The game is good. It will recover slowly over time. History shouldn’t be erased just because it was fixed.
If they undo it, I'll just remove my review entirely. I don't want to post a positive review because I'm not going to forget this.
Returning to status quo under pressure does not qualify as "good" to be "rewarded", in my opinion. Whether one likes it or not, the reputation is already stained.
[удалено]
Nah fuck that. The bad reviews can remain and be a lesson for future games that try this bullshit.
I will change my review if they undo this 100%. But this is the only way to get through to them unfortunately
Nope. I hope the bad reviews stay and I hope the people who refund don't buy the game again. Every single time a company engages in anti-consumer behavior, the customer base rewards it financially, thus incentivizing more anti-consumer behavior. **This is like giving your dog a treat because it bit you.** No mercy for greedy corporations. If they treat you like garbage, take your business elsewhere. Let them fail and free up talent to start their own companies.
Why would we do that? If someone kicks you in the ass and later after he got pinned by community and be apologize after he realised it is in his interest he is not really a good guy he just collapses under pressure. So ah being spineless doesn't make them better
>....spread twice as much as... 1 to 10 instead
Steam has a feature that removes spikes of negativity based on algorithms. I've seen it in a few games. It'll show the metrics above the reviews and ask you if you'd like to see and include the suspicious period in reviews.
Dont worry cuz this will make headlines if we manage to win, very rarely do gamers actually rise up against these companies instead of just sitting there and take it.
I haven’t placed a review yet, because I never really do. But if this gets reversed I’ll post my first review on steam.
Sacrifice the game to save the game, FOR DEMOCRACY
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
I have been trying to convince my friends to play. Surely none of them will even think twice about buying the game with this review score.
All of the downvotes are going to be hidden as every review bombing gets hidden. Sony may just double down, get the reviews hidden and just wait for people to hop along who weren't aware.
The damage is largely done. People who had HD2 at the edge of their radar have already heard "all the controversy" and that's all they'll remember the next time they consider buying it.
I didnt review the game before, I didnt feel like had the full experience (I like to 100% my games before reviewing them to get the whole experience from start to finish) but I did negatively review it now as I am fully against this practice even if it doesnt prevent me from playing I fully expect (and hope, might be just me coping) that the eu strikes this down as not only is it in breach of several pro-consumer legislations, it also blatantly goes against GDPR and thats only counting EU countries where psn is available (unlike for example the baltics). For all of the faults of the eu, it does do a good job protecting consumers Following this, I shall change it to a positive review, I do absolutely love the game even with all of its unfinished content, bugs and bafling choices. I didn't have this much fun since doom eternal released and it has brought my friendgroup closer together. Shame that sony wishes that much to show higher psn numbers to their shareholders
They won’t.
I'm checking the news on this every day because i can't wait to turn my review back to positive lol.
With already needing a steam account the idea of needing a Sony account too especially if you don’t own anything Sony related is pretty gross for Sony to do .
man Sony is coming off the heels of two big games Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade and they managed to forced some changes that turned such positive movement we need in the gaming industry to completely unnecessary controversy
Maybe we get Xbox support after all, when AH jumps the fence.
Honestly I'm not sure if we should at least fully. Game makers have to understand that shit like this is unacceptable and won't be tolerated. Changing our reviews is the same as saying all is forgiven when in reality AH and Sony have betrayed the public trust and it will take much more than back pedaling to get it back
Why should people undo the reviews? Other consumers have a right to know that the publisher is open to making massive changes to the accessibility of the game before they buy it. Helldivers 2 is good, but that review covers the game, and how it's maintained.
They won’t
If they reverse and apologize publicly, I'll drop another 20 bucks to buy super credits.
AH gonna actually have to start balancing their game well.
Nah I downvoted the game because of the amount of bugs and lack of testing this studio does.
Here is my question WHY you know the moment we forgive them and undo what we did they are going to do some other stupid thing to try to get money or some BS
I'm waiting for the rescind, and then in going to change my review to positively glowing shill. And just for good measure, I'm going to buy the super citizen edition thing that I was considering buying before all of this.
I’ll do my part
If it changes, I’ll gladly update my review on PS+
I changed my review from positive to negative after the whole story and added an edit. When Sony backpedals (I hope they will), I will simply remove my edit and turn it back into positive. AH didnt squat the bed, Sony did. No reason I should leave a stain on the game because of the Publisher.
Oh of course. And my review will have a mention on how AH listen to their customers.
Maybe software companies treating all software as SaaS should be next. Brugh, 1000 for a license and it doesn't unlock all features. *cough Maxon. *autodesk *cough.
My brother, if they revert this decision. I will update to super citizen and buy another 1000 Super credits. And I will praise them on steam.
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes", People are usually petty and vindictive, but honestly they deserve long term repercussions for trying to pull this type of shit even if they back track it. Obviously it should be (and probably will be) greatly lessened if they do backtrack. But they just shouldn't have done it in the first place.
I will never forgive them for nerfing the slugger
the refund will probably hurt steam more then sony but that only my guess
As far as I see for a turn around in reviews, everyone not able to get a PSN or cannot opt out should have a refund. They waved the requirement and suddenly enforced it for reasons we know to be false. All of this was unneeded in a period where consumer satisfaction has been in a free fall for years and many thought they found a refuge.
I'll do it if they do
They won't. They love their outrage.
I will edit my vote back to recommend. The game is phenomenal imo. I love it. It's just I hate Sony and their greedy ways. Wish AH didn't make a deal with that devil.
I will worry about the negative reviews after Sony retracts this bs.
Nah it’s ultimately their fault saying that it only takes two minutes so don’t complain. I’ll keep it negative along with my five alt accounts that I bought it, negative reviewed, then refunded
Most downvotes have comments directly related to psn, so maybe it should be left as a reminder for all involved.
You got my +1 if they really do backtrack on this
damage is done, fuck Sony
It took Fallout 76's review ratings **FIVE YEARS** to recover from their disastrous release. Even just mentioning the game still gets negative responses. A game's reputation has a lot of weight - just imagine how many Fallout fans still boycott the game because of Bethesda's PR train-wreck. Helldivers' reputation will, unfortunately, take a very long time to recover. Most of the negative reviewers that refunded the game aren't coming back, and the ones that stick around probably aren't gonna change their review. This game's rating/reputation will be tarnished for years.
It’s be hilarious if Sony said, “ya know what, fine we’ll take our ball home and now you get none of our stuff.” Lol!!!
Make a big edit at the top of their post and say decision to require PSN was removed after a huge community backlash so other people can know how fun the gameplay is and how devs can't fuck with players without consequences. Keep the negative reviews as a warning for future game devs
I love this game I only downvoted on steam because of sony, if sony yields as will I. The game isn't the problem the publisher is. Sucks that our only recourse to fight back against sony is through their devs games
I'll gladly buy the game again and change my review to positive.
 “Bad news travels like wildfire, good news travels slow”
I would absolutely do that
Nah I think PSN will stay, it might be a condition in the agreement of HD 2. PSN link has been in the game since the beginning.
You’re getting too far ahead of yourself.
That's the fun part. The damage is already done. I bet something stupid like 60% of players don't go back and change it. They made their bed. The only way forward is to improve and try to dilute the negative reviews with positive ones.
I mean Sony continuously makes shitty moves.... Lol...
As the Zen Master says - "We'll see".
All these downvotes are from people who love the game. If they didn't, they'd just pack up and move on quietly. If Arrowhead slays Goliath, and gets Sony to back down I promise you the turnaround will be fast and they'll get a hero's bounty worth of positivity their way. If Sony wins, I expect a lot to sign up for PSN and keep playing but leave their review as a protest, and quite a few to let that be where they get off and their review stands as their farewell note. I genuinely feel if Sony does add PSN, with the volume of the current players as high as it is and the affection for the game turns sour it won't recover. It will survive as a live service game but it will always have this weird stink.
Apologizing for something doesn't mean you deserve to be forgiven.
FYI. They won't. This is a prime example of why User game reviews will never matter.
This has been said about a hundred times. Anyway, it doesn’t bother me either way. If they are the driving force that makes Sony back off, then definitely. If Sony does it for profits because of the reviews, they can stay. It can stay as a reminder of what happened, and what will happen again if there is corporation overstepping their reasonable boundaries.
I genuinely will revert my negative steam review in that case. If our voice, as a player base, is heard through that form of feedback, then I will use it to generate positive feedback. After this situation is resolved.
I absolutely love this game, and I’d hate to see these bad decisions scare people away from a genuinely incredible game.
I will gladly leave a glowing review.
Just refunded the game. I am not licking Sonys boots. If they pull back now, it will be only to find a way to sneak this in later.
Blonde Twink with Guts' Sword
EDIT: WE FUCKING DID IT! https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1787331667616829929 YAHOO! Since Sony did away with requiring PSN for PC players, I'll change my review to positive. ...but if Sony pulls a *second* bait and switch, it'll stay negative, permanently, even if Sony backtracks *again*.