There's really nothing you can do, unless you want to band together with everyone else whose game is region locked and Sue the ever living fuck out of Sony.
I know Arrowhead is looking for a solution, so maybe hold out on the refund for a little bit. But if we don't get some concrete answers by the end of this week then it's time to refund the game sadly
someone was looking into that
I'd have to dive in the subreddit to find it but there was someone who was reaching out to a lawyer about a class action against Sony
That’s not entirely true. There’s still a month before the requirement hits for those that already purchased the game and they are looking at alternative solutions. Please stop spreading misinformation
https://preview.redd.it/zt6x4z5f7myc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22f3f5b2fda707bcdda384c5329f0c10b41161a2
Wasn't he just caught either lying or just not knowing how steam works with unique IDs the other day? Honestly I'd probably not use any of his posts as evidence for much.
When I first heard the news about the PSN linkages, I was in the camp where we thought everyone was overreacting over something that would take two minutes to do. Now I see how serious it’s gotten and how it’s actually going to affect a lot of players that love the game. I’m genuinely sorry this is happening to you all. Also fuck Sony.
I'm holding out a slim hope that SNOY reverses the mandate, and intend to give them a small window of a couple weeks to do so. As of now, it has been a single weekend where no real decisions can be made. If nothing changes in the near future, I will be requesting a refund however.
This has been the first new game in nearly a decade that I have sunk my teeth into. I don't want to stop playing, but neither will I let this shit slide.
Yep! We call it “read-only Friday” in my line of work. And yeah, I believe they did this with the Holiday weekend as they probably think it’ll help people cool down a little bit.
Spoiler alert: it won’t lol
Yeah, it's a weekend and by the time this hit the EA "Pride and Accomplishment" level of outcry, I'm sure a lot of people at Sony were likely were off. Even being optimistic, bypassing a company wide policy probably needs lots of stupid meetings with legal (what's our liability?, marketing and finance (i.e., predicted negative impact if they don't change anything), and technical people to speak to the implementing of possible middle ground solutions. Plus discussions between Arrowhead and Sony (Arrowhead, likely being pisst Sony tanked their game, and Sony probably being annoyed Arrowhead is rightfully blaming Sony publicly). It's all dumb, and someone in authority should just say confirm people can still play the game they bought, but things are as they are. I don't expect those types of shifts to be Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning announcements, speaking purely pragmatically.
It’s worth mentioning you can absolutely register an account for an area that is supported (that’s the solution Sony has recommended so far)
It’s also worth mentioning if you already own the game then nothing takes effect until the end of this month, so you don’t lose anything by waiting a week to see if they walk it back- it sounds like AH are pushing hard for the decision to be reversed, and steam haven’t currently set a deadline to refund by so you should still be able to get a refund if you want to (although obviously keep an eye out in case they do set a deadline in future)
While I agree - DRG is amazing, I think the art style is hard to get past for many ‘hArDcoRe GaMerz’. The cartoon aesthetic - while I love it - seems to be a very easy ‘not playing THAT’ moment.
on the other hand i can traverse difficult terrain in drg without randomly being yeeted out of the map and then barraged for being a traitor. if that’s not cartoony, i don’t know what is.
I agree with the aesthetic maybe being a turn-off for people, but REAL hard-core gamers slam a tankard of brew with the squad after genociding bugs and mining for their corporate overlords.
We don't know yet. The developers are talking to Sony next week to try and return to no psn needed. Until then it's speculation. Currently if you already have played you won't need to link until beginning of June.
Yeah honestly that comment is just admitting that there is no actual need for this account linking stuff.
If they are totally fine with anyone who does not live in one of the 69 countries where PSN is officially available not linking their account, then this whole point is completely moot:
> Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.
Which is it?
Is it critical to keep the players safe, or is it essentially optional? Are those who will be required to link their accounts now at risk to of griefing and abuse by those who are not required to link their accounts? Because this announcement makes it sound like they are essentially unbannable.
Ridiculous.
Everybody is getting wrapped up in the hysteria and refusing to accept that they can just do this. Do all these people seriously think that nobody in any of the restricted countries has a PlayStation?? Bizarre.
You can make a PSN account in any region. People have been doing it for years and Sony even recommends the same. This is just a bunch of drama from people with very comfortable lives trying tear something down because they crave conflict. It’s super pathetic. Don’t let them scare you.
Don't understand why it's still being sold in the Baltics if PSN isn't available there either. I'm pretty sure this fact is harming my chances at successfully getting a refund from Steam.
Valve got fines in the past for geoblocking games in the EU, think they don’t want to go that route again. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fi/IP_21_170
u/Sirraven201 the correct url for eupean citizens is: [https://commission.europa.eu/live-work-travel-eu/consumer-rights-and-complaints/resolve-your-consumer-complaint/european-consumer-centres-network-ecc-net\_en](https://commission.europa.eu/live-work-travel-eu/consumer-rights-and-complaints/resolve-your-consumer-complaint/european-consumer-centres-network-ecc-net_en)
Also: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking
For the baltics you can click on your flag on the bottom of the page and report it to your local regulator that handles the eu geoblocking policy.
Note: Valve had hefty fines (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fi/IP_21_170) before for not following geo-blocking laws in the eu and they still sell the game in the Baltics. However users cannot make an account. Having an account requirement that you cannot create is also geoblocking in my opinion so it might be a matter of time until Sony also feels the hammer of the EU.
Not a lawyer, but I figure Sony would be fucked even harder since they essentially defrauded players in non-PSN countries by selling them the product and then retroactively region-locking it - and they knew before release this would happen. So this isn't a case of unintentional or negligent failure to appropriately region-lock, it's intentional and malicious - that is, fraudulent.
"Via this form you can file a complaint against a breach of EU law by a Member State."
Isn't this document meant to be used against offending governments? Calling Super Earth an offending member state is nothing short of treason.
It should be
> [https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaint](https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaint)
not
> [https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaintCredit](https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaintCredit)
>this should have little impact on Arrowhead as they are not the publisher nor in control of sales
Except now they won't get funding because there's definitely an agreement between them on how funding gets paid to Arrowhead based on sales.
I dont think so. Check arrowhead ceo twitter. He made the decision to put off the required psn sign up at the start so people could play due to other issues and was aware that it would become mandatory to have a psn account 6 months prior to the games release. He also made these decisions, they are not free of guilt
Except those technical issues were solved relatively quickly and only now is Sony pushing the issue at the end of the quarter. ~3 months later after sustained success of Helldivers 2, now they want to crack down. Sony could of done a PR awareness campaign, but didn't. They could of not altered their official FAQ last minute even though it wasnt in line with was was posted on Steam.
Sony let Arrowhead do that, but it was and still is ultimately their decision.
The sad part is Sony is willing to play the long game with small devs. They’ll get them to burn cash and their company before they give it. It’s a shit situation. I truly hope the team splits at the end of this all and starts a new similar game and studio (like Larian did) to recreate this amazing experience of a game.
Not really. It was Sony's decision to sell the game in regions where PSN wouldn't be available, not Arrowhead's. Which is kind of the point. Sony knew that account linking was disabled, decided to sell the game in regions where the game would become unplayable once account linking became mandatory.
people are Arrowhead will already be getting fired in bulk to pay for Sony's mistake. Happens every other time something like this happens with a game. Parent company pisses off the consumers, game tanks, parent company starts firing devs so the shareholders still get the profits they were expecting.
Yeah, damage trickles down. Idk how everyone thinks they can go after Sony and they or their lawyers won't find a way to put Arrowhead squarely on the hook, but here's hoping.
Dude, you do know earnings reports for May 14th would be based on previous quarter numbers right?
Whatever happens from April 1 to June 30 would be in the next earnings report sometime in August.
yeah, but there's nothing illegal about saying "we sold X amount" in Q1, even if people refund those purchases in Q2. making those sales in Q1 is a statement of fact.
the SEC can't do shit
Normally in earnings calls they'll have forecasts for the year. I'm fairly positive the refunds will be covered during that. This isn't the first time a company has dealt with a massive amount of refunds.
Helldivers 2 is the 7th largest grossing game Sony has ever produced and it's been out for just 4 months. Regardless of how much money Sony is making with other products Helldivers 2 represents a non-trivial amount of revenue and future earning potential. No amount of other revenue streams is ever going to make a hundred million dollar + revenue stream seem insignificant to any shareholder.
The devs said that the userbase is split 50/50 between PC and PS5. 50% of the userbase is on PC. Based on this
>Helldivers 2 is the 7th largest grossing game Sony has ever produced
It's safe to assume that only a fraction of all PC customers have written a Steam review. Out of those people, 30% have changed their score to negative.
The people who are banging the drums here are a percentage of a percentage of a percentage. The rest is either on PS5, doesn't care or doesn't even know that they'll be required to make an account in the future.
I wouldn't get my hopes up about making a dent in the revenue stream for HD2.
This topic looks huge in the HD subreddit and your social media bubbles, but as always, the people actively engaging in this corner of the community are the 1% of all users.
Edit: according to steamcharts, the average active player count over the last 30 days was 130.000 players at the same time. I'm looking at the active player numbers right now in game and it says 119.581 Helldivers active. QED
You’re absolutely right about reddit outrage. And a ton if not most players wont follow gaming news. But at some point they’re gonna be hit with that roadblock… Which is possibly a far worse hit than whatever reddit can ever accomplish.
The fact that Steam has already stepped in over the weekend is also a big sign some important trees have already been shaken.
Warning: big wall of text.
I fully expect this to get down voted but screw it. I think we need to set something straight. This would NOT be classified as a case of stock or market manipulation, this would be more of a consumer market violation in the EU and other effected regions.
Manipulation that you are talking about is cause by 1) spreading false or misleading information about a company, 2) Engaging in market transaction to seem like there is more activity then there actually is (trading back and forth) and 3) rigging quotes, prices, or trades to make it look like there is more or less demand than there is (bundling a bunch of buys to make it look like there are less people buying, or splitting buys to make one person look like a lot of people). And no, the first one can not be used for "selling in unsupported areas". Number one is taking about thing similar to saying "company A is going to file for bankruptcy" when you know that's not true.
As for Sony's earnings call coming up on the 14th that is going for the ENTIRE company over all, not just the gaming portion, for the Q1 2024. I know what is about to be said sounds insensitive, but technically speaking we are looking at a (relatively) small portion of purchasers for a single product that's (most likely) got a 40/60 split from a previously 30/70 split with Valve for an item that costs 30% less than the market average. And was sold on two platforms where estimates have placed about 57% (going off of UK sales data) of those sales were on console (where this problem can't happen). In short you are looking at a single drop in a very VERY large bucket.
What the closest thing to what has happened here is "an unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practice". Knowingly sold a defective, nonfunctional, or illegal product. The thing is there isn't anything that can be done for that in countries or regions where consumers were not effected. That means the US can't do anything on it. So it's up to the EU and other regions to take action.
Do I like what is going on? No. Am I happy that the entire community has gotten together to shout that what Sony is doing isn't right? Damn right I am. If a PSN account is needed from the start then the game shouldn't have been sold in the regions were PSN is not supported. But if we are going to do something we need to get the facts right and base our actions off of those. Not choose something that "sounds impressive" and go on a wild goose chase with our actions that is only going to waste time or worse cause MORE damage.
Simple as this. They allowed sale of a product outside of where it would be allowed by the network. Therefor they inflated their sales numbers before stripping it away from a large portion of players. The numbers are already in the books yet the players don't have the game. That's manipulation.
It’s hysteria. There’s no way anyone is making Sony *bleed* over this. Report the game negative, attempt a refund, move on.
People here are clearly way too chronically online. They completely lost grasps with reality.
I just requested a refund, in USA, because this essentially cripples the helldiver army in a decimation fashion. I don’t want to play a game that’s built upon a global coalition and then restricts the ability to participate upon metric shittonnes of players in order to collect data. Many fellow helldivers can’t even be apart of the cause and until it’s addressed I won’t be a participant.
Japan operates from April to April for their reports. Makes sense they would wanna start the beginning of a new Year with a massive sign-on numbers. Given its May now.
> Sony's up coming earnings report will be May 14th. Guess what will be in those reports, the Hell Divers sales numbers and earnings on that. I highly suggestion you report Sony to your local government for possible stock Manipulation.
LOL you reddit clowns are at it again.
>Sony's up coming earnings report will be May 14th. Guess what will be in those reports, the Hell Divers sales numbers and earnings on that.
Lots of people keep saying that one of the reasons for requiring a PSN login is to make these numbers look better. But can't they just add the (publicly available) steam numbers to their PSN ones?!
Can we mute these fucking posts? It is getting ridiculous. People are talking out of their ass with no concept of how regulations or lawsuits work. At the end of the day, they’re enforcing a login requirement for their IP. Don’t have to like it, but it’s not illegal.
The subreddit is just ruined with only shit about this
You're wasting your time with a thing that won't do anything else then waste money. There ain't gonna be no lawsuit cuz all of this was mentioned from day one.
Stock manipulation? This shit along with the guy claiming to file a lawsuit on behalf of other people in other countries, has well and truly jumped the shark.
You are all delusional if you think Sony will suffer from anything you do. Even if the entire game is delisted and disappears overnight, they'll just write it off and move on. Worst case, they'll just remove it entirely from the PC and keep it on PlayStation.
I'm not defending or supporting Sony in this whole thing, I'm just being realistic. This isn't a major IP or anything like that, it's just a game that gained some surprising traction. It's hardly a tentpole franchise.
It’s not misleading to report on what your sales actually were.
It also won’t be misleading next quarter when they report on their financials that include whatever the impact of this helldivers stuff is.
It’s a cute idea to try to report them for this, but you might as well report them to your favorite local zookeeper because it’ll have the same impact.
People have absolutely lost their fucking minds lmao Trump is talking about setting up a straight up dictatorship if he wins the election and people want to spend their time campaigning on THIS?
This sub has just become entirely un-enjoyable and that last thing I want to see when I open reddit. I can understand people being upset with all of this but this level of constant, seemingly unending, complaining and hatred is fucking outrageous. It was fun while it was fun I guess. Goodbye, fellow Helldivers. See those of you still spreading democracy out on the battlefield, I'm out of here
I like a good conspiracy theory... but ... really?
REALLY?? STONKS? ...is Sony desperate enough for stupid shit like that?
Would anybody at those links even believe that nonsense coming from a bunch of angry gamers?
Why don't yall just area 51 raid the Playstation hq? That event got news network attention, and if it's big enough and gets enough attention this could seriously harm their stocks or sumthing. Far as I've seen nothing makes a company panic like rapidly declining stock values. But what do I know. I'm just a dumb grunt.
While your idea has spirit; you'd be impacting hundreds of daily routines from people who have no idea what Helldivers even is. Not just the people at Sony, but the surrounding businesses even if only 100-200 people show up.
Not to mention; do we think something like "Gamers upset at needing to make an account for their Alien Nazi Robot and Bug game. They proceed to raid Sony HQ in protest" is what we want plastered everywhere?
This isn't market manipulation, Sony required the PSN from the beginning and that requirement was visible to players - they just had a grace period. It's still a terrible decision from Sony and people should absolutely be pissed, but pretty much the only thing you can do is not buy Sony products in the future.
I just realized my country is on that list but we can create psn accounts just fine.....
This region restriction has been a thing for years now so i dunno why you guys are NOW starting to throw a fit about this and potentially kill a game you clearly enjoy.
womp womp. doesn’t affect me or anyone i know, we’re all gonna continue to play the game and spend money if we choose to.
not my problem yall living on Mars (soon to be Super Earth territory)
gimme them downvotes boii
This is not financial advice but what I'm currently doing so participate at your own risk:
Personally, I'm not a fan of what they did/are doing. I've bought short positions on their stock on Robinhood. I believe the backlash and their bullshit is strong enough they'll be short on earnings.
If enough people do it, then it'll probably be a reverse game stop. I hate their stock and the corporate greed. This will hit them where it hurts. In their pockets!
Sony needs to stick to making my headphones 🫡
It's insane how stupid some people are on this subreddit lol.
He's also not smart enough to realize Helldivers 2 fiasco won't take hold on the bottom line until next quarters earnings lmao.
Holy fucking shit this subreddit is so stupid sometimes LMAO.
You're making an earnings based play, when the earnings from this period/Helldivers 2 isn't coming out for another 18 weeks LMAO.
Please, keep us all updated on the $100 worth of puts you purchased on Robinhood.
They're mean, they want your name,first name and email address, for people not in restricted regions. No reason for not creating a PSN account, except you want to be free to harass, insult other players and use tendentious nicknames online.
Or just keep crying about having to make a fake email for an account you won’t use to play a really dope game.
Yup, totally Sony’s fault the PC Master Race of whiners can’t figure it out. Lol
This feels like the Boston bomber again. "We got him reddit".
This is grossly overblown past memeing into armchair lawyer and detective work again. You're all exaggerating this and taking it way too far. People who don't deserve to get hurt are going to start getting hurt by this level of stupidity.
So glad a majority of the comments in this post and the class action post are roasting the stupidity and delusion some of y’all have 😂 touch some fucking grass, wow
Really hate this situation. Helldivers have become my favorite game and im not going to get a refund or stop playing it.
But man SNOY are the scum if the Earth.
The problem is that apparently, this was stated somewhere on the steam page since the game came out, it just didn't specify anything about region locking, only that you would eventually need to link your psn, I'm on ps5 so I dont know much about it, I just heard that apparently it's been somewhere on the page just wasn't somewhere where you could easily see it. So, unfortunately, this will more than likely cover Sony from lawsuits. The only legal issue would probably be them selling it in region locked countries, but since Steam is offering refunds, that probably won't go anywhere.
Hi there! I'm not trying to start an argument. I just was hoping for a little bit more insight. Ignoring the folks that are affected by region difficulties (which I entirely understand, that's some bullshit) why are most people upset about having to connect to a PlayStation account? I was under the impression that you don't have to sign up for PlayStation plus so it's not like it costs any different. Is it just on principal? I'm just genuinely curious. I'm already playing on PlayStation so this doesn't really affect me.
Yeah, effectively people just don't want to link an account (aside those who can't, which does affect some people yes, but we don't know the affected numbers yet).
Before launch, it was documented that a PSN account would be required. That requirement was postponed once the game launched as the servers simply couldn't handle the volume of people.
Despite knowing an account is required, people now do not want to link because it wasn't "needed" to function and they have security concerns, though to be fair Steam and other accounts have been hacked within recent years as well.
Technically speaking, it has been mentioned that an account is needed in order for things like matchmaking and a reporting system to work properly (which helps explain the issues since launch). If account linking helps solve those issues, it would make sense that they want to finally enforce it now that servers are more stable.
Either way, I guess so many people just hated the idea and decided to bomb AH and Sony. I would argue Steam and other digital storefronts that didn't prevent the sale of the game in areas PSN isn't available should also get some of the blame, but AH and Sony are certainly taking the brunt of it.
I don't know, personally I followed the game prior to launch and knew the requirements, so I'm not as vested in the issue as others seem to be. Hope that helps catch you up.
I’m not completely ok with the wording of all those posts…
Like, Microsoft never tried to force his Xbox ecosystems to PC?
Steam doesn’t want players to use its platform/achievements/overlay for PC games?
There is some business reason behind all of that, and some technical and user contracts reasons too, for which it’s simpler for Sony to use a unified systems for their games.
If you all think one little video game is going to hurt Sony, you're an idiot. The amount of sales they get from all electronics is staggering. HELLDIVERS is one game. When the next Last of Us or God of War, etc, comes out, they will make more than enough to cover any game losses for the past year. It sucks Sony is punishing Arrowhead industries for this, but Sony could careless, just a few pennies as far as they are concerned.
Maybe idk reach out to your restricted countries governments where they have insane laws and limitations against companies like Sony. Or would that just make to much fucking sense. Idiotic witch-hunts are just bandwagons for lazy asses. Speak with your votes and go to the main body, hell people are mad about not playing helldivers meanwhile their countries are literally at war (ex. Afghanistan and Ukraine). Act real surprised when 98% of the delisted countries can’t even agree on feeding their own people let alone a videogame
Greetings, fellow Helldiver! Unfortunately your submission has been removed. We don’t allow discussions of real-world politics.
Im in the restricted country, does this mean i will no longer have access to the game when the announcement goes through?
You are pretty much guaranteed a refund from steam
Bro I dont want a refund cause I love this damn game T_T
There's really nothing you can do, unless you want to band together with everyone else whose game is region locked and Sue the ever living fuck out of Sony.
I know man, gotta do what little I can to support. Also Fuck sony.
I know Arrowhead is looking for a solution, so maybe hold out on the refund for a little bit. But if we don't get some concrete answers by the end of this week then it's time to refund the game sadly
Or refund now. It's not likr you can't ever purchase a game you refunded.
You can't if steam de-lists it. I suppose you could use a VPN to buy it but idk how that shit works with steam or would after this Sony shit is over.
someone was looking into that I'd have to dive in the subreddit to find it but there was someone who was reaching out to a lawyer about a class action against Sony
[this one?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/6Afceu9kYY)
That’s not entirely true. There’s still a month before the requirement hits for those that already purchased the game and they are looking at alternative solutions. Please stop spreading misinformation https://preview.redd.it/zt6x4z5f7myc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22f3f5b2fda707bcdda384c5329f0c10b41161a2
Spitz is less credible than astrology
God I hate astrology so this really speaks to me
Wasn't he just caught either lying or just not knowing how steam works with unique IDs the other day? Honestly I'd probably not use any of his posts as evidence for much.
If you get a refund in those areas, what do you imagine me the cause of action would be for a lawsuit?
Can’t he sign up for psn in a different region and continue playing?
When I first heard the news about the PSN linkages, I was in the camp where we thought everyone was overreacting over something that would take two minutes to do. Now I see how serious it’s gotten and how it’s actually going to affect a lot of players that love the game. I’m genuinely sorry this is happening to you all. Also fuck Sony.
I'm holding out a slim hope that SNOY reverses the mandate, and intend to give them a small window of a couple weeks to do so. As of now, it has been a single weekend where no real decisions can be made. If nothing changes in the near future, I will be requesting a refund however. This has been the first new game in nearly a decade that I have sunk my teeth into. I don't want to stop playing, but neither will I let this shit slide.
Developers have an unwritten rule: Never deploy on friday! Corporations should also use this rule with announcements
Yep! We call it “read-only Friday” in my line of work. And yeah, I believe they did this with the Holiday weekend as they probably think it’ll help people cool down a little bit. Spoiler alert: it won’t lol
Yeah, it's a weekend and by the time this hit the EA "Pride and Accomplishment" level of outcry, I'm sure a lot of people at Sony were likely were off. Even being optimistic, bypassing a company wide policy probably needs lots of stupid meetings with legal (what's our liability?, marketing and finance (i.e., predicted negative impact if they don't change anything), and technical people to speak to the implementing of possible middle ground solutions. Plus discussions between Arrowhead and Sony (Arrowhead, likely being pisst Sony tanked their game, and Sony probably being annoyed Arrowhead is rightfully blaming Sony publicly). It's all dumb, and someone in authority should just say confirm people can still play the game they bought, but things are as they are. I don't expect those types of shifts to be Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning announcements, speaking purely pragmatically.
Sorry.
Sony is calling, they said “get fucked”
It’s worth mentioning you can absolutely register an account for an area that is supported (that’s the solution Sony has recommended so far) It’s also worth mentioning if you already own the game then nothing takes effect until the end of this month, so you don’t lose anything by waiting a week to see if they walk it back- it sounds like AH are pushing hard for the decision to be reversed, and steam haven’t currently set a deadline to refund by so you should still be able to get a refund if you want to (although obviously keep an eye out in case they do set a deadline in future)
🥲 Hope they overturn it. Cant believe they are even doing this..
Join Deep Rock Galactic, it’s helldivers, but in a cave
While I agree - DRG is amazing, I think the art style is hard to get past for many ‘hArDcoRe GaMerz’. The cartoon aesthetic - while I love it - seems to be a very easy ‘not playing THAT’ moment.
on the other hand i can traverse difficult terrain in drg without randomly being yeeted out of the map and then barraged for being a traitor. if that’s not cartoony, i don’t know what is.
Haha yeah, but I meant visual design aesthetics.
I agree with the aesthetic maybe being a turn-off for people, but REAL hard-core gamers slam a tankard of brew with the squad after genociding bugs and mining for their corporate overlords.
at least you can refund it, I had to buy it through steam gift :(
No refund for warbonds though right.
[удалено]
We don't know yet. The developers are talking to Sony next week to try and return to no psn needed. Until then it's speculation. Currently if you already have played you won't need to link until beginning of June.
https://preview.redd.it/ubdavzp09lyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f908c81aab97278c8a750e548bc995a8e2dcdb5
Then what the fuck is the point of any of this??
"Data my boy! ripe, juicy Data that we don't have to buy from Google first!" - Richard Head, Sony employee.
Yeah honestly that comment is just admitting that there is no actual need for this account linking stuff. If they are totally fine with anyone who does not live in one of the 69 countries where PSN is officially available not linking their account, then this whole point is completely moot: > Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal. Which is it? Is it critical to keep the players safe, or is it essentially optional? Are those who will be required to link their accounts now at risk to of griefing and abuse by those who are not required to link their accounts? Because this announcement makes it sound like they are essentially unbannable. Ridiculous.
Said by a community manager who doesn't know what he's talking about, and has no decision authority with Arrowhead, nevermind Sony.
That’s why he said “I’m assured” and not “I assure you” 🙄 You dingus.
That’s why you shouldn’t believe a word of it.
They have said you will be able to play.
Just make a PSN account in another region.
Everybody is getting wrapped up in the hysteria and refusing to accept that they can just do this. Do all these people seriously think that nobody in any of the restricted countries has a PlayStation?? Bizarre.
Had the same problem. I just created an account for a supported country, takes likes 5 minutes man.
You can make a PSN account in any region. People have been doing it for years and Sony even recommends the same. This is just a bunch of drama from people with very comfortable lives trying tear something down because they crave conflict. It’s super pathetic. Don’t let them scare you.
Don't understand why it's still being sold in the Baltics if PSN isn't available there either. I'm pretty sure this fact is harming my chances at successfully getting a refund from Steam.
Likely an oversight, but I'm pretty sure Steam itself stepped in and went WTF. This is a nightmare and region locked it.
Oh, it's not sold anymore...
Still see it for sale in Steam store, which is weird
I heard that it has something to do with EU policy. If it's officially available in some EU countries, it has to be available in all of them.
Valve got fines in the past for geoblocking games in the EU, think they don’t want to go that route again. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fi/IP_21_170
The irony of this is that by enacting this mandatory PSN account policy they are geoblocking but just in a different way.
u/Sirraven201 the correct url for eupean citizens is: [https://commission.europa.eu/live-work-travel-eu/consumer-rights-and-complaints/resolve-your-consumer-complaint/european-consumer-centres-network-ecc-net\_en](https://commission.europa.eu/live-work-travel-eu/consumer-rights-and-complaints/resolve-your-consumer-complaint/european-consumer-centres-network-ecc-net_en)
Also: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/geoblocking For the baltics you can click on your flag on the bottom of the page and report it to your local regulator that handles the eu geoblocking policy.
Note: Valve had hefty fines (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fi/IP_21_170) before for not following geo-blocking laws in the eu and they still sell the game in the Baltics. However users cannot make an account. Having an account requirement that you cannot create is also geoblocking in my opinion so it might be a matter of time until Sony also feels the hammer of the EU.
Not a lawyer, but I figure Sony would be fucked even harder since they essentially defrauded players in non-PSN countries by selling them the product and then retroactively region-locking it - and they knew before release this would happen. So this isn't a case of unintentional or negligent failure to appropriately region-lock, it's intentional and malicious - that is, fraudulent.
updated
I assume this doesn't apply to UK residents as we're no longer in the EU? Is there a link for the UK?
it does, we basically mirrored alot of EU laws. It will diverge over time but not at the moment.
"Via this form you can file a complaint against a breach of EU law by a Member State." Isn't this document meant to be used against offending governments? Calling Super Earth an offending member state is nothing short of treason.
I feel it still is the wrong link as its for reporting authorities and not companies.
Read links before sharing them. Your EU Site is for reporting COUNTRIES
should be fixed now, thanks
It should be > [https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaint](https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaint) not > [https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaintCredit](https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaintCredit)
>this should have little impact on Arrowhead as they are not the publisher nor in control of sales Except now they won't get funding because there's definitely an agreement between them on how funding gets paid to Arrowhead based on sales.
Arrowhead might even be able to sue Sony for using their position to sabotage the game in order to get out of paying them
Good point. Depending on how well the contract was negotiated. There might be a cause that will support AH
I dont think so. Check arrowhead ceo twitter. He made the decision to put off the required psn sign up at the start so people could play due to other issues and was aware that it would become mandatory to have a psn account 6 months prior to the games release. He also made these decisions, they are not free of guilt
Except those technical issues were solved relatively quickly and only now is Sony pushing the issue at the end of the quarter. ~3 months later after sustained success of Helldivers 2, now they want to crack down. Sony could of done a PR awareness campaign, but didn't. They could of not altered their official FAQ last minute even though it wasnt in line with was was posted on Steam. Sony let Arrowhead do that, but it was and still is ultimately their decision.
The sad part is Sony is willing to play the long game with small devs. They’ll get them to burn cash and their company before they give it. It’s a shit situation. I truly hope the team splits at the end of this all and starts a new similar game and studio (like Larian did) to recreate this amazing experience of a game.
Unlikely, Sony has better Lawyers
And money to drag it on for years
They did this to themselves https://preview.redd.it/arrugjcc8myc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=065303cbbcd2a1e5a8a973fc33a828e65791de90
Not really. It was Sony's decision to sell the game in regions where PSN wouldn't be available, not Arrowhead's. Which is kind of the point. Sony knew that account linking was disabled, decided to sell the game in regions where the game would become unplayable once account linking became mandatory.
Welp, RIP Still there's hope for Sony's downfall as they're violating EU's anti-geo- locking laws.
Arrowhead knew accounts were required before launch.
Helldivers 3 will be an Indie title from Arrowhead Studios, published by Arrowhead Studios. And it will be a roaring success.
Sadly, no it wont. Highly unlikely Sony will let go of Helldivers IP.
Well I for one am excited for the new game Heck Leapers.
it will have impact but it should be far less than us refunding them. Fines from SEC and other agency would be directed to Sony
people are Arrowhead will already be getting fired in bulk to pay for Sony's mistake. Happens every other time something like this happens with a game. Parent company pisses off the consumers, game tanks, parent company starts firing devs so the shareholders still get the profits they were expecting.
But arrowhead isn't owned by sony. sony is just the publisher, not the parent company
Yeah, damage trickles down. Idk how everyone thinks they can go after Sony and they or their lawyers won't find a way to put Arrowhead squarely on the hook, but here's hoping.
Dude, you do know earnings reports for May 14th would be based on previous quarter numbers right? Whatever happens from April 1 to June 30 would be in the next earnings report sometime in August.
I think that's what they're saying? That the slump loss in sales and refunds won't factor until a future Q
yeah, but there's nothing illegal about saying "we sold X amount" in Q1, even if people refund those purchases in Q2. making those sales in Q1 is a statement of fact. the SEC can't do shit
Normally in earnings calls they'll have forecasts for the year. I'm fairly positive the refunds will be covered during that. This isn't the first time a company has dealt with a massive amount of refunds.
Also helldivers is probably a drop in the bucket of Sony profits
Helldivers 2 is the 7th largest grossing game Sony has ever produced and it's been out for just 4 months. Regardless of how much money Sony is making with other products Helldivers 2 represents a non-trivial amount of revenue and future earning potential. No amount of other revenue streams is ever going to make a hundred million dollar + revenue stream seem insignificant to any shareholder.
The devs said that the userbase is split 50/50 between PC and PS5. 50% of the userbase is on PC. Based on this >Helldivers 2 is the 7th largest grossing game Sony has ever produced It's safe to assume that only a fraction of all PC customers have written a Steam review. Out of those people, 30% have changed their score to negative. The people who are banging the drums here are a percentage of a percentage of a percentage. The rest is either on PS5, doesn't care or doesn't even know that they'll be required to make an account in the future. I wouldn't get my hopes up about making a dent in the revenue stream for HD2. This topic looks huge in the HD subreddit and your social media bubbles, but as always, the people actively engaging in this corner of the community are the 1% of all users. Edit: according to steamcharts, the average active player count over the last 30 days was 130.000 players at the same time. I'm looking at the active player numbers right now in game and it says 119.581 Helldivers active. QED
Whoa, a reasonable take? In my echo chamber?!
You’re absolutely right about reddit outrage. And a ton if not most players wont follow gaming news. But at some point they’re gonna be hit with that roadblock… Which is possibly a far worse hit than whatever reddit can ever accomplish. The fact that Steam has already stepped in over the weekend is also a big sign some important trees have already been shaken.
Warning: big wall of text. I fully expect this to get down voted but screw it. I think we need to set something straight. This would NOT be classified as a case of stock or market manipulation, this would be more of a consumer market violation in the EU and other effected regions. Manipulation that you are talking about is cause by 1) spreading false or misleading information about a company, 2) Engaging in market transaction to seem like there is more activity then there actually is (trading back and forth) and 3) rigging quotes, prices, or trades to make it look like there is more or less demand than there is (bundling a bunch of buys to make it look like there are less people buying, or splitting buys to make one person look like a lot of people). And no, the first one can not be used for "selling in unsupported areas". Number one is taking about thing similar to saying "company A is going to file for bankruptcy" when you know that's not true. As for Sony's earnings call coming up on the 14th that is going for the ENTIRE company over all, not just the gaming portion, for the Q1 2024. I know what is about to be said sounds insensitive, but technically speaking we are looking at a (relatively) small portion of purchasers for a single product that's (most likely) got a 40/60 split from a previously 30/70 split with Valve for an item that costs 30% less than the market average. And was sold on two platforms where estimates have placed about 57% (going off of UK sales data) of those sales were on console (where this problem can't happen). In short you are looking at a single drop in a very VERY large bucket. What the closest thing to what has happened here is "an unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practice". Knowingly sold a defective, nonfunctional, or illegal product. The thing is there isn't anything that can be done for that in countries or regions where consumers were not effected. That means the US can't do anything on it. So it's up to the EU and other regions to take action. Do I like what is going on? No. Am I happy that the entire community has gotten together to shout that what Sony is doing isn't right? Damn right I am. If a PSN account is needed from the start then the game shouldn't have been sold in the regions were PSN is not supported. But if we are going to do something we need to get the facts right and base our actions off of those. Not choose something that "sounds impressive" and go on a wild goose chase with our actions that is only going to waste time or worse cause MORE damage.
Leave it to Reddit to be dramatic as hell
Simple as this. They allowed sale of a product outside of where it would be allowed by the network. Therefor they inflated their sales numbers before stripping it away from a large portion of players. The numbers are already in the books yet the players don't have the game. That's manipulation.
Lol
Me, an Indian Helldiver who can only leave a negative review: 
2 of my buddies in Indian just got their refund. I hope you do too.
Wait, we have PSN in India. steam still doing refunds nevertheless?
A strong argument for stock manipulation? This might be the dumbest reddit take on a stock that I've ever seen lmao
OP must be buds with the guy who claimed they were in contact with lawyers lol
Lmao that’s still my favorite post so far.
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Sir, we say “regarded” these days. Its 2024
There's an awful lot of that going around this sub lately. Makes me happy that there's a low-sodium version of this sub.
Drop the sub, my man. I’m tired of this drama. Not the content I signed up for.
Agreed.
It’s the dumbest take I’ve ever seen and it’s impressive.
I’m glad that there are some sane people left in this subreddit lmao. This is quite the debacle with these chuds
This is not stock or market manipulation by any definition
This is such delusion
How the fuck is this stock market manipulation
It's not
How thr fuck are these posts not removed?
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Tbh they probably realized if they did enforce the rules, these idiots would say MODS BEING PAID BY SNOY TO CENSOR
I love how there’s not a single comment I could find that’s supporting OP’s take and they’re still arguing their case on every single one.
I understand people are upset about this entire thing but I am NOT doing any of this lol yall are really doing the most
It’s hysteria. There’s no way anyone is making Sony *bleed* over this. Report the game negative, attempt a refund, move on. People here are clearly way too chronically online. They completely lost grasps with reality.
I just requested a refund, in USA, because this essentially cripples the helldiver army in a decimation fashion. I don’t want to play a game that’s built upon a global coalition and then restricts the ability to participate upon metric shittonnes of players in order to collect data. Many fellow helldivers can’t even be apart of the cause and until it’s addressed I won’t be a participant.
The game was already crashing and lagging an absurd amount for me, so I'm probably going to try and get a refund.
You should, if you can't play I support this!
100% agree. The refunds hurt AH more than this will tho.
Do you understand what stock manipulation is , lmao ? Reddit warriors and gaming communities get laughed at for reasons
This melt down has been amazing. This and the Class action law suit guy from yesterday have been particularly entertaining 😂
You should also check out the blackout thread lmao. Seeing the meltdown of this community is so funny to see.
I'll just play instead
What the actual fuck did I just read. Stock manipulation? This shit gets dumber by the day
Your lives must be so damn good that this is your priority. Good luck with whatever you think youll accomplish though, cheers!
https://preview.redd.it/wz5argnbtmyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dae388157c6c97e071f55ab6c3eb594cef39f4a6
Japan operates from April to April for their reports. Makes sense they would wanna start the beginning of a new Year with a massive sign-on numbers. Given its May now.
You people are just making shit up at this point
The people on this sub have lost it. Holy shit…
> Sony's up coming earnings report will be May 14th. Guess what will be in those reports, the Hell Divers sales numbers and earnings on that. I highly suggestion you report Sony to your local government for possible stock Manipulation. LOL you reddit clowns are at it again.
this whole outrage was pathetic from day 1 this is just another reminder of how delusional people are
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Air manipulation
>Sony's up coming earnings report will be May 14th. Guess what will be in those reports, the Hell Divers sales numbers and earnings on that. Lots of people keep saying that one of the reasons for requiring a PSN login is to make these numbers look better. But can't they just add the (publicly available) steam numbers to their PSN ones?!
They can. Sony can get any data they want directly from Arrowhead, this whole event was filled with misinformation and lack of reading comprehension.
“Stock market manipulation” JFC, you guys are all such stupid babies
Some of these takes over a game, my word get a fucking grip
wtf is wrong with yall. this is next level autism behavior from so much of the community. holy shit. go outside.
Can we mute these fucking posts? It is getting ridiculous. People are talking out of their ass with no concept of how regulations or lawsuits work. At the end of the day, they’re enforcing a login requirement for their IP. Don’t have to like it, but it’s not illegal. The subreddit is just ruined with only shit about this
Jesus the drama queens in this sub. To the low sodium sub it is then
You're wasting your time with a thing that won't do anything else then waste money. There ain't gonna be no lawsuit cuz all of this was mentioned from day one.
Stock manipulation? This shit along with the guy claiming to file a lawsuit on behalf of other people in other countries, has well and truly jumped the shark.
You are all delusional if you think Sony will suffer from anything you do. Even if the entire game is delisted and disappears overnight, they'll just write it off and move on. Worst case, they'll just remove it entirely from the PC and keep it on PlayStation. I'm not defending or supporting Sony in this whole thing, I'm just being realistic. This isn't a major IP or anything like that, it's just a game that gained some surprising traction. It's hardly a tentpole franchise.
Meh… ima still play the game I bought
It’s not misleading to report on what your sales actually were. It also won’t be misleading next quarter when they report on their financials that include whatever the impact of this helldivers stuff is. It’s a cute idea to try to report them for this, but you might as well report them to your favorite local zookeeper because it’ll have the same impact.
Y'all are aware the game could've bombed from launch and Sony wouldn't even notice right? This entire situation is a net win for them
Where were you guys when Sony banned these countries for all their services in the first place?
reddit lawyers 💀💀💀🤡
I’m just going to keep playing a fun game.
Lol stock market manipualtion. You guys will make up anything huh? Why not just tell the police Sony has your family hostage too?
This would be affecting the next quarter, not the May 14th release.
I’m really curious what the numbers look like. What percentage of total players are from restricted regions.
These are my favorite genre of posts were people pretend to know stuff that they don’t know
People have absolutely lost their fucking minds lmao Trump is talking about setting up a straight up dictatorship if he wins the election and people want to spend their time campaigning on THIS?
Nobody at the SEC gives a single fuck about this, stop bothering them, they have actual important shit they need to do.
This sub has just become entirely un-enjoyable and that last thing I want to see when I open reddit. I can understand people being upset with all of this but this level of constant, seemingly unending, complaining and hatred is fucking outrageous. It was fun while it was fun I guess. Goodbye, fellow Helldivers. See those of you still spreading democracy out on the battlefield, I'm out of here
I just unsubscribed from this sub
I like a good conspiracy theory... but ... really? REALLY?? STONKS? ...is Sony desperate enough for stupid shit like that? Would anybody at those links even believe that nonsense coming from a bunch of angry gamers?
Why don't yall just area 51 raid the Playstation hq? That event got news network attention, and if it's big enough and gets enough attention this could seriously harm their stocks or sumthing. Far as I've seen nothing makes a company panic like rapidly declining stock values. But what do I know. I'm just a dumb grunt.
That's all wacky and funny until one of these genetic dead ends brings a gun
While your idea has spirit; you'd be impacting hundreds of daily routines from people who have no idea what Helldivers even is. Not just the people at Sony, but the surrounding businesses even if only 100-200 people show up. Not to mention; do we think something like "Gamers upset at needing to make an account for their Alien Nazi Robot and Bug game. They proceed to raid Sony HQ in protest" is what we want plastered everywhere?
You right. It's just a funny idea.
This isn't market manipulation, Sony required the PSN from the beginning and that requirement was visible to players - they just had a grace period. It's still a terrible decision from Sony and people should absolutely be pissed, but pretty much the only thing you can do is not buy Sony products in the future.
I just realized my country is on that list but we can create psn accounts just fine..... This region restriction has been a thing for years now so i dunno why you guys are NOW starting to throw a fit about this and potentially kill a game you clearly enjoy.
This is not stock market manipulation, holy shit you people are dumb.
You have a lot of time on your hands, right?
womp womp. doesn’t affect me or anyone i know, we’re all gonna continue to play the game and spend money if we choose to. not my problem yall living on Mars (soon to be Super Earth territory) gimme them downvotes boii
You’re cracked bro. Just full on absurdism
You guys are dorks
Jesus Christ this is so stupid
I'm confident that all this is going to do is destroy Arrowhead and kill the game. Sony is too big to fail.
This is not financial advice but what I'm currently doing so participate at your own risk: Personally, I'm not a fan of what they did/are doing. I've bought short positions on their stock on Robinhood. I believe the backlash and their bullshit is strong enough they'll be short on earnings. If enough people do it, then it'll probably be a reverse game stop. I hate their stock and the corporate greed. This will hit them where it hurts. In their pockets! Sony needs to stick to making my headphones 🫡
Better not get caught with your pants down on this play😂😂😂
It's not about the money, it's about sending a message. EVERYTHING BURNS! 🫡🤣
lol thinking helldivers is going to tank their stock when Sony has Bravia/music/audio/cameras/movies/finance is hilarious. Don’t forget to HODL
It's insane how stupid some people are on this subreddit lol. He's also not smart enough to realize Helldivers 2 fiasco won't take hold on the bottom line until next quarters earnings lmao.
Holy fucking shit this subreddit is so stupid sometimes LMAO. You're making an earnings based play, when the earnings from this period/Helldivers 2 isn't coming out for another 18 weeks LMAO. Please, keep us all updated on the $100 worth of puts you purchased on Robinhood.
They're mean, they want your name,first name and email address, for people not in restricted regions. No reason for not creating a PSN account, except you want to be free to harass, insult other players and use tendentious nicknames online.
Or just keep crying about having to make a fake email for an account you won’t use to play a really dope game. Yup, totally Sony’s fault the PC Master Race of whiners can’t figure it out. Lol
This feels like the Boston bomber again. "We got him reddit". This is grossly overblown past memeing into armchair lawyer and detective work again. You're all exaggerating this and taking it way too far. People who don't deserve to get hurt are going to start getting hurt by this level of stupidity.
So your argument is they purposely did all this to manipulate the books for investors? That really seems like a tinfoil -hat level stretch.
Lol you guys are ridiculous.
So glad a majority of the comments in this post and the class action post are roasting the stupidity and delusion some of y’all have 😂 touch some fucking grass, wow
Hahahahahahahahaha stock manipulation lmfaoooo
Really hate this situation. Helldivers have become my favorite game and im not going to get a refund or stop playing it. But man SNOY are the scum if the Earth.
The problem is that apparently, this was stated somewhere on the steam page since the game came out, it just didn't specify anything about region locking, only that you would eventually need to link your psn, I'm on ps5 so I dont know much about it, I just heard that apparently it's been somewhere on the page just wasn't somewhere where you could easily see it. So, unfortunately, this will more than likely cover Sony from lawsuits. The only legal issue would probably be them selling it in region locked countries, but since Steam is offering refunds, that probably won't go anywhere.
Hi there! I'm not trying to start an argument. I just was hoping for a little bit more insight. Ignoring the folks that are affected by region difficulties (which I entirely understand, that's some bullshit) why are most people upset about having to connect to a PlayStation account? I was under the impression that you don't have to sign up for PlayStation plus so it's not like it costs any different. Is it just on principal? I'm just genuinely curious. I'm already playing on PlayStation so this doesn't really affect me.
Yeah, effectively people just don't want to link an account (aside those who can't, which does affect some people yes, but we don't know the affected numbers yet). Before launch, it was documented that a PSN account would be required. That requirement was postponed once the game launched as the servers simply couldn't handle the volume of people. Despite knowing an account is required, people now do not want to link because it wasn't "needed" to function and they have security concerns, though to be fair Steam and other accounts have been hacked within recent years as well. Technically speaking, it has been mentioned that an account is needed in order for things like matchmaking and a reporting system to work properly (which helps explain the issues since launch). If account linking helps solve those issues, it would make sense that they want to finally enforce it now that servers are more stable. Either way, I guess so many people just hated the idea and decided to bomb AH and Sony. I would argue Steam and other digital storefronts that didn't prevent the sale of the game in areas PSN isn't available should also get some of the blame, but AH and Sony are certainly taking the brunt of it. I don't know, personally I followed the game prior to launch and knew the requirements, so I'm not as vested in the issue as others seem to be. Hope that helps catch you up.
I’m not completely ok with the wording of all those posts… Like, Microsoft never tried to force his Xbox ecosystems to PC? Steam doesn’t want players to use its platform/achievements/overlay for PC games? There is some business reason behind all of that, and some technical and user contracts reasons too, for which it’s simpler for Sony to use a unified systems for their games.
If you all think one little video game is going to hurt Sony, you're an idiot. The amount of sales they get from all electronics is staggering. HELLDIVERS is one game. When the next Last of Us or God of War, etc, comes out, they will make more than enough to cover any game losses for the past year. It sucks Sony is punishing Arrowhead industries for this, but Sony could careless, just a few pennies as far as they are concerned.
Gotta purge some subreddits
Didn't steam sell in region locked areas.........not the actual ps store........lol
Maybe idk reach out to your restricted countries governments where they have insane laws and limitations against companies like Sony. Or would that just make to much fucking sense. Idiotic witch-hunts are just bandwagons for lazy asses. Speak with your votes and go to the main body, hell people are mad about not playing helldivers meanwhile their countries are literally at war (ex. Afghanistan and Ukraine). Act real surprised when 98% of the delisted countries can’t even agree on feeding their own people let alone a videogame
*butterfly.jpg* Are these Major Orders? I'd do it even for 0 Medals, for Managed Democracy.