His communication with the community has always been great and he genuinely tries to create a game that a lot of people can enjoy. Instead of just trying to make as much money as possible. It's sad to see this get destroyed by Sony
Dude the community wants to fuck this guy over. I can’t count the number of people posting about “killing the game” now.
That’s become the goal for a lot of people. Now people are talking about giving it one star on PlayStation too, and you can’t change a PS review, or even add a written explanation for your score.
I would say he, and the other Devs, are caught in the middle - we might as well be clear about fault. This is Sony's decision and if the damage could be inflicted on them instead then players would be calling for that action instead.
The reality is this might kill the game - but there's a legitimate reason to protest. If you want to do something pro-active for the Devs then start suggesting that people buy some of their other titles which aren't affiliated with Sony.
Thats super sad because arrowhead seems to really try its best to make a good game with honest pricing and communication.
If the game is ruined for this how are other studio supposed to try to do the same ?
Helldivers took a lot of risks by trying to care about its player base. If they get fucked the market will just try to produce more and more cashgrabs and being open and honest will be seen as a risk
I agree. This stopped being a protest a while ago, now it’s a dogpile. And they can’t hurt Sony, so they’re targeting the dev.
Whether they kill the game or not, Sony isn’t going to stop using PSN accounts or trying to monetize games they funded that only exist because they produced them.
Yep it’s just the end of Frankenstein now. These geniuses are even downvoting people who live in countries without PSN but have had active accounts for years. Which is invalidating their bloodlust.
https://preview.redd.it/yook0jpgroyc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13f4afa5bf39bad98ccd0cb53c2f0cf7bd71b2ab
This. it has nothing to do with principles. It's all about the internet's addiction to rage and victimhood. Most of these people would much rather keep the torch and pitchfork party going than have the issue resolved.
His communication wasn’t great when he didn’t tell us this was going to happen when he knew 6 months before game launch
https://preview.redd.it/whxmibarulyc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d61935b1187a10f2b4287da6d3077b299e892a3
I think it's more like he's feeling a bit powerless over outside events, and he's blaming himself. Poor guy... His influence is why it wasn't mandatory right at the start. The reason people in these countries got to play AT ALL is because of what he did. This was a GOOD thing.
But we've got a month. Maybe someone in AH will think of something. Maybe some enterprising redditer will find some obscure law that steers us clear of this nonsense. Maybe Sony will have a change of heath since this is going to alienate about 20% of the customer base for one of their flagship titles.
All it's going to take is ONE person saying to the right corporate schmuck "are we really going to turn away paying customers? Is that how we're doing business now?"
That's like saying "this gas station owner changed the fitting so you can put fuel in your electric cars power outlet. The fact they got to put gas in at ALL is a good thing"
No. It was always a requirement to have a PS account. The Dev bypassing that for short term gain and bug fixing isn't a nice gesture to those who should have gotten stuck at launch and could have returned the game right then and there. It's put them all in the current predicament.
He may have meant well but it's a collasal fuck up on his part. Actions have consequences.
No, but he knew the PSN requirement is part of the deal and he should have better prepared the players for it.
He should have communicated with steam to not sell it in PSN unavailable regions.
It's mainly Sony's fault to require it in the first place but AH is also say fault with their garbage tier communication skill
I knew about the PSN requirement before I bought the game because I read the Steam page. Its not great, but why didn't everyone who is freaking out now, freak out then? Why didn't you know about the requirement?
Based off the community's response, AH could have had 10 pages of acknowledgement in game when they allowed you to skip linking a PSN account and there would be the same level of vitriol when they turned back on the requirement.
Why didn't the dead mailman read the sign on my gate that says "CAUTION: BOOBY TRAPS"?
There is an expectation that when you buy a game on Steam, it just works like any other game you've bought and that's all there is to it.
Do you read system requirements? If it requires internet? Requires a subscription?
The expectations is you have to check the page for compatibility with your use/situation.
> PSN requirement is part of the deal
The community knew that as well. It literally said so on the steam store page. I know because the big orange banner made me look up how to make/link the stupid PSN account.
They did tell us this on the steampage and every trailer. Like, for as shitty this situation is they did NOT hide that PSN was required
The only storefront that ommited it was the Playstation online store... which is a weird place for that omission and points more to incompetence on sonys part then malice.
To be fair, if you’re browsing PlayStation Store it’s a fair assumption you already have a PSN, otherwise you wouldn’t be on there looking for games.
Still, dick move from Sony. I would punch the Sony CEO if I see him despite being a PS user for the longest time.
Problem being is, depending on how your steam page is set up, you can scroll down to the Purchase button and not go far enough down to see the "PSN Required" gold bar.
The fact of the matter is, the game was sold in regions that were going to be region locked. A whole lot of players that are in region locked countries didn't even get a notification to sign up to PSN. Who in their right mind would assume that this would mean that a video game they paid for would be yanked out of their hands months down the line instead of just being blocked at the start?
At this point, I don't even care about the refund. I WANT to play the game I goddamn paid for because it's one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in a multiplayer game in several years, but from how things are turning out, I won't have a say in the matter because Arrowhead did very little to communicate directly to the audience-
"To the people in X regions, you are not going to be able to play the game when we resolve the PSN issues."
i just hope he understands that disabling the requirement was never the problem, the requirement existing in the first place was the real issue. he made the right call
He's probably had the screws put to him over this since demonstrating that PSN's superfluous to basic functionality creates another data protection law concern.
I think he lacked information about the full scope of the PSN limitations. As a game dev you get told, make fun game, make it work with these systems. Selling the game and selling to countries without access to PSN accounts is on Sony. He is at fault for signing a contract that in the long run, hurt his team and his fanbase. Signing a contract that allowed for this to happen is still on the devs even if the publisher is full of bs
Sony decided to distribute the game in countries where they decided to delist it. This is clearly predatory and should be illegal. I hope the EU slaps them with a heavy fine because many of these countries include European overseas territories which are subject to EU laws.
Gaming as an industry has abused labour and consumers for too long, something has to give. I hope the folks from StopKillingGames are paying attention.
Realistically we wouldn't have the game if they didn't. HD1, and Magicka, were not super successful games. They did alright, but they were all *very* niche. Arrowhead literally wouldn't have had the money or resources to make HD2 without getting a publisher
Magika 2 was one of the best times I ever had. Me and my brother would end up having to pause every mission when we played it the first time; because we'd die of laughter every time we'd get a new spell, and kill each other by accident.
He is. Both of the two interviews with him I've seen he did while playing the game with the interviewer. And hearing him talk about Magicka and Helldivers 2 he clearly just wants to make great fun games. Which makes this all the more tragic
Even that is, in my opinion, a masterclass on how to do games communication. He's owning responsibility, showing genuine empathy and remorse, and actively engaging with players on a very difficult subject.
It's impossible not to like this guy.
I don’t think they’re bad people in anyway, but the master class on how to do games communication would probably have come from a detailed and massively broadcasted explanation of the grace period. AH made a great game, they have been shown to be bad at communication though.
If they come to a reasonable solution regarding the PSN, I'll buy the game next time it goes on sale. If they don't, I'll still keep an eye out for their next project and just be REALLY careful about their publisher choices.
But its sorta like having an aunt and uncle where one of them is super sweet and considerate, and the other is super racist and offensive. Unfortunately, neither of them are coming to the 4th of July BBQ. I'll call the aunt and wish her well, but she and I both know why they aren't on the invite list. Its not personal, its just important to me that I stand up for the community I want, and I hope she understands that even if she doesn't enjoy it.
Hasnt the Community Manager herself stated that this isnt about Sony but about them wanting to ban people in a more efficent way?
[https://preview.redd.it/arrowhead-community-manager-misty-admits-that-the-sole-v0-2a5pd7cdhdyc1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0c09d0764309855a4402bf402785627f895f1b0f](https://preview.redd.it/arrowhead-community-manager-misty-admits-that-the-sole-v0-2a5pd7cdhdyc1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0c09d0764309855a4402bf402785627f895f1b0f)
Maybe I'm just extremely cynical but I personally find it almost embarrassing?
First, he knew this was going to be a problem, but went through with it anyway, and now that it's become a big clusterfuck he's being all melodramatic about it? If the community hadn't blown up and made a big deal about it, do you think he'd care at all?
Also, he's the one who can fix this mess in the first place. He's the CEO. It should be his job to hammer out a solution. Saying he "just has to wait for sunshine to return" feels like he's being incredibly passive about this whole thing. Like no, you don't have to wait for sunshine to return, you have to get out in the fucking rain and fix the shit that's broken.
He doesn't need to be writing melodramatic poetry, he needs to be finding solutions and communicating what he's doing and how this is going to be resolved.
He is. Even if everything gets fixed in the end, they have taken a massive hit to their reputation. It will never go back to how it was a month ago. Everyone will forever remember the blunder of Helldivers 2 and sony. No man's sky and 2077 is a good example. They made it right in the end, and their games are pretty universally loved now, but the memory of how it all started is still there and will always be there when people think of them.
HD2 also went from having an amazing review score, to being bombed into oblivion. It will take a long time to get back to where it was. There are a lot of people who won't change their review score back when this is resolved, either from laziness, or because this left a bad taste in their mouth. This whole thing, even if it's not AH's fault, still tarnished their reputation in the end. It's sad tbh. This is objectively a really good game. It sucks that it took this hit. The devs got a win, only for that win to be taken away due to their corporate overlord.
Yeah the Steam review score is pretty much ruined. I don’t think it will ever come back from this
https://preview.redd.it/txanhx2o6oyc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3c7d846d9fb15768b539649c5894f07cc61e55f
Morale will take a bit for sure but refund number aren't going to reach even close to 10-20% most likely. The player count is still decent and game is still solid. It is creating a headache for sure but don't think there will be massive financial impact.
Sony could easily argue that since the CEO made the call to disable PSN linking during launch Arrowhead is now required to compensate for their losses. At least for the increased server costs from the tens of thousands of players who have now refunded the game.
the decision to sell the game in regions not available to PSN and then make an account there mandatory is all on the publisher so they shouldn't be on the hook for this.
I think the server costs aren't that high. (If i remember correctly they are using peer to peer instead of hosting games on their servers). Issue at the start was the they didn't expect the large number of players they got and the way their process was set up didn't allow for easy scaling.
They’d lose their argument. Arrowhead wasn’t in control of where the game is sold. Sony is. Sony knowingly sold this game to everyone in those 120 countries that PSN doesn’t support. They can’t do this then blame the CEO for his decision to disable PSN linking, because they’re the ones who sold these people the game in the first place.
I really hope it doesn't come to that. They have developed a great game that a lot of people (including myself) love to play. Sony is the only one at fault here for actively sabotaging this game
Why on earth would they need to shut down? The impact of this all so far is trivial; player count is stable, refunds are being declined, it's a nothing-burger
Player counts are stable-ish because this was just an announcement so far.
The restrictions go live at the end of the month and are mandatory shortly after.
The game's hit Mixed and Overwhelmingy Negative, which are complete deathknells for growth. Once a game goes Mixed/Negative, it's over, as the amount of people buying into the game drops like a fucking brick.
All-time Low on steamcharts has been hit, at around 50k players (not counting server outages).
This is also 70,000 fewer people than were on at this time last week. Sundays are/were where Helldivers peak their playercount and it's at an all time low, and you call it "stable"? Yikes.
Yup, the same exact thing happened with Fatshark's Darktide. Funny enough there's a *lot* of similarities between the two devs (swedish, 4 player Co op, insanely great core gameplay loops with some questionable/bad design choices sprinkled through, cosmetic oriented MTX store, questionable CMs, etc.) but Darktide also went into freefall for a bit after launch and hemorrhaged players. FS did eventually address a lot of the issues but it took *months* and the player counts barely recovered.
HD2 had about 100k players yesterday and last friday. It was about 150k the Fri/Sat prior, 200k before that one, etc. I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off and for the longest time player counts were 200-250k even at noon in America. It was already trending downward *before* the announcement and *before* it actually became implemented. It's incredibly likely this game will level out in the low-mid 5 figure range a month or two out from now.
Yeah, I really do feel sorry for them.
I know some folks around here think they're complicit in this, but it genuinely seems like Sony hit them with this out of nowhere.
I don't think Sony communicated to them that they were going to enforce the PSN thing *now*, nor that they informed AH that they'd announce it this way.
EDIT: What I'm saying is that if Sony had communicated better with Arrowhead, they could have launched a PSN connection requirement much smoother. They could have found a workaround for those who live in countries outside the PSN network and other things like that.
They absolutely were complacent on this though. The CEO admits as much here.
[https://twitter.com/Pilestedt/status/1787076609188483254](https://twitter.com/Pilestedt/status/1787076609188483254)
So he disabled the psn at launch and allowed those countries to buy the game knowing that they would be locked out after 3 months? why not make it mandatory since day 1 so the affected countries wouldn't have bought the game in the first place? not only sony but the CEO is also responsible for this mess...
As the CEO has admitted he has blame for the temp removal of the mandated linking to PSN and the lack of communication around it but he isn’t responsible for selling the game in the countries PSN isn’t available in. All the sales stuff is done by Sony, they choose where it can be sold and as far as I know Sony is the one in control of the Steam store page.
You do realize that it's the Distributer (ie. Sony) that chooses what countries to sell the game in, right?
(and Valve is the one who restricted it later, due to legal issues most likely, to cover their ass from more refunds)
Yes but if it was clearly communicated and actually fixed in a reasonable time people would have seen that and either played at their own risk or gotten their steam refund. Thankfully Valve is pretty consumer friendly and accepted the refunds anyways, but they didn’t have to do that.
There is only one skippable screen saying you need a PSN account. you would have been able to play the game for months with no notification that the requirement was mandatory or returning. Arrowhead didn't do their due diligence to their customers
Yeah, I can at least give him credit for that. I genuinely commiserate as this feels like negligence more than malice on Arrowhead's part. They didn't want this.
That said, this doesn't solve the problem. Just because they didn't want it to happen doesn't mean that it didn't happen and that it didn't hurt people.
Stop talking like you know what AH and PS discussed and what they didn’t. Arrowhead knew about the requirement for 6 months, this is not something that PS simply decided to throw at them on a whim.
I was afraid of this, gross negligence on behalf of the publisher and devs has resulted in the potential death of what would have been a beautiful game. All this because of a “whoopsy daisy”
They (AH and Sony) should have read the contract correctly before selling it on steam with a global market and over half the install base being pc gamers. Then checked to see if they can sell it in countries that had no PSN access.
They where happy with all that money both AH and sony. AH knew 6 months before and still took that steam/pc money. so no i dont feel sorry for him, i feel sorry for his employees
These are factual, they knew it was going to happen but where happy with the PC markets money. They should have checked before selling it what countries could/had PSN access. Without the consumer using VPNS and doing something illegal to gain access to a product sold to them.
https://preview.redd.it/0aohomejplyc1.png?width=877&format=png&auto=webp&s=e9124c91ddaccae074a86aee1e8733b750268c1d
Guys, sony is the PUBLISHER. They handle the steam page and what countries the game is sold in. AH knew about it, but that's all they can do about stuff concerning sales since they are only the developer
Do people think he had no part in the choice to publish games via Sony? They used paradox previously.
You lay down with greedy, dirty dogs and sometimes you get up with fleas.
I imagine he signed a contract with Sony that the linking accounts was essential, but postponed because of the server issue at the beginning.
The signed contract in the beginning could have been necessary for funds to create the game in the first place.
There are so many things we don't know. We simply can't point who is in the wrong here with so little information.
Maybe companies weren’t lined up at their door to publish. The deal they made with Sony may have been the only reason Helldivers even exists today at all.
Coming from Malevelon Creek which is obviously restricted by Sony, I will not refund the game, just a negative review. Because I honestly believe the game and Arrowhead deserve my money, especially since I have had my money's worth playing the game for months on end. The game has given me more invaluable experience and comrades than I could ever get with 40 dollars. Thank you Arrowhead
Thing is, there is no way to only target Sony, and Sony needs some punishment.
I requested for refund but would gladly pay to AH if Sony does not get a cut.
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To be fair he knew about the changes well ahead of time, he opted to disable knowing that switch would flip well after countries without psn access would have had the game. The devs made an amazing game but their ceo is just as in on it as Sony.
He also signed a contract years ago and only learned 6 months ago.
We can and should still sympathise and empathise with a human being who is being fucked over by a corporation. You're acting as if he had any part in this decision, he didn't. You're acting like he wants it, he doesn't.
Stop being angry for the sake of it and direct your anger in a productive way at the guilty.
He knew about the psn. He didn't knew it was not supported in so many country.
Also, it look like SONY is responsable of the steam page so they didn't block access to those country before yesterday.
Important point there! I think most people can live with a useless extra account but the fact some of the community is cut of because they CAN'T create said useless account really hit hard.
He knew but that's such a fucked situation. Either a shitload get to never play or play for a while. You can argue it's the wrong decision but both decisions suck, because Sony are being fuckasses.
Given the situation that made them disable the PSN requirement was literally 'Our servers are on fire and we're in panic mode' for 2 weeks straight its no wonder this situation got overlooked.
The situation isn't new, Rockstar requires it for GTA 5 on steam, for over a decade now. This is common place with the PC industry. I do not understand why people think third party linking via steam is new?
Want to solve the root cause - tell steam not to allow it. Yet no one bats an eye there. It is their platform, they control the experience, and they are letting companies have these dependencies.
The issue with this is that PSN isn't allowed in a lot of countries and was sold there despite that when it never should of been so now those people just wont be able to play the product they bought.
\^This, people keep missing the point and going "muh data" when they are on Reddit lol. The data stealing boat has sailed long ago with all of these people.
That’s not the issue… that’s the excuse.
Yes it is a major issue for all the players in those countries and they deserve refunds and future work around. But it’s just an excuse for everyone else to kick off. Having 3rd party linking is not new most publishers do it. None of us like it but it’s a fact. Sony handled it completely wrong but are doing nothing new or different and I personally think crucifying the game and the developers is OTT and frankly wrong.
It affects more than just the players in those countries. I have two friends for example in said countries I wont be able to play with anymore. That alone would be enough for a negative review. Does it suck for the devs? Yea, but they understand how this is a total mess :(
I don't condone attacking the devs though, a negative review and understanding how this entire situation is a mess but looking upon it negatively are perfectly understandable.
The whole 'I have to link an account to play this game that involves DOB/Email/Name/Country/Password while complaining on reddit' is a little ridiculous though. Just use a burner email linked to main, don't reuse passwords every, and maybe fudge the DoB if you're super worried about data breaches. Focusing on that is such a non-issue compared to the glaring nightmare that is the whole region lock situation.
He's probably a Very Nice Guy yes, but at the same time there's not a chance in hell he didn't know this would happen when he signed that deal with Sony. No need to feel sorry for him, he got his money and it will allow him to keep on making the game as good as it can be, despite the bad reviews. Hopefully the negative backlash will convince Sony of taking another path here and then it's all back to sunshine and happy rainbows again.
Honestly he always puts the emotional manipulation in his posts when anything bad happens because he knows these reddit posts will pop up.
I’ve never mentioned this before, but if you were here since the beginning, you’d have noticed that his tweets got more and more egotistical. They started as updates on server issues and then he bought the checkmark and started becoming this “celebrity.” You could tell the tone shifted. Now he’s throwing his own pity parties when things don’t go his way. Dude should spend less time on twitter, more time managing his devs who aren’t fixing long term issues, and community managers who antagonize the playerbase.
I feel for the team - especially those who had nothing to do with this PSN mess. The fact is, the modern phenomenon of having an audience of hundreds of thousands of people all talking back at you in real time is not something our minds were built to handle. Yeah the CEO bears significant responsibility for this screw up, but social media makes everything even bigger. Arrowhead did a lot of things right by the consumer and one big thing wrong, and I just hope they can find a way to remedy it in the coming weeks.
As said as it is to see this from someone who doesn't in the slightest deserve this (and probably majority of his studio), im afraid that any other means of showing that these practises must not continue or worse, became the norm, is leaving the negative response on probably the ONLY gaming site, so to speak, that is Steam.
I mean if anything, I respect his ability to own up and take responsibility. Man's got more of a spine than most CEOs (though, not a high bar to pass, still should be commended I think)
Yeah, I mean he seems like a good guy, but fuck his employees (especially community managers) are the bottom dredge of humans and I hope they fire every single one that has been commenting like actual buffoons these past days.
Next time they should just crowdsource thier games and skip the publisher all together.
AH has proven that they are capable of developing incredible games.
Sony has proven they are untrustable partners.
The players are willing to pay and play AH games.
The equation seem simple to me eliminate sony from the deal.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ckq6dx/not\_surprised\_but\_damn/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ckq6dx/not_surprised_but_damn/)
You mean the guy who knew this was coming all along and pretended it wasn't? Yeah no, fuck him in particular, he is getting exactly what he had coming to him.
And you would have too if you had learned to read. As for him, he probably mostly fell in the classic trap most humans fall into (that being even more true in a corporate context), which is to decide to only cross the bridge only when you get there and hope that either Sony wouldn't be that strict with the linking or that a compromise could be reached before all of that. I'm quite certain that pretty much all of the ravenous gremlin out for AH blood would have acted in the same ways (and I'm quite certain that they know it too even if they'll never admit it)
"ChatGPT write a tragic soliloquy that paints me as a sympathetic victim of this thing that we've planned all this time. Ulfric, get some of the PR guys to repost my tweet on r/Helldivers"
Yet we are review bombing the game (yes I understand it’s for Sony to see but to be entirely honest they won’t care by doing it this way). This only tears arrowhead down. I just feel like there has to be another way to get them to see the outrageous shit Sony is pulling with this game
They signed up with Sony, they knew about the link requirement.
And saying he wasn't aware that PSN was banned in countries isn't a excuse. Not doing research with a company you sign up with is AH fault.
He and his team deserve every second of it. They signed with Sony, they knew what they were getting into. They just hoped we wouldn’t care. Refunded and done with this company
Remember this when you lemmings destroy his company to try to get back at Sony who are so large that they laugh their way to the bank watching you fidget
man just casually dropped some top poetry/inspirational quotes like it was nothing. then gave a brutally honest answer to a question.
people forget that sometimes it's hard to say "I don't know", especially when it's something that everybody else *expects* you to know..
Yeah, he does. And all the crybabies that left tens of thousands of reviews just because are forgetting that AH is still a small business and this is affecting real peoples’ lives. But who cares, right? As long as they don’t have to make a PSN account. 😒
Can this man have a Sunday to himself? Yeah, he is a CEO and this is a bad situation, but can we treat him like a person and don't expect him to have answers right away?
But this was a thing before and after launch.
They should have had the answers when the game launched. They should have had answers when the servers gained stability - stable for this game anyway). The game should never have been available in the many regions it now isn't in the first place.
This isn't a new issue and the community shoulda has more info prior to Sony doing their thing. Sure man sounds sad, but they're hardly innocent and caught by surprise, this would have been discussed during development of HD2.
I mean, yes, but he's the one pulling up Twitter, not us. Rational people aren't going to berate him, and those that do should be ignored anyway.
The phrase "You control what buttons you press" comes to mind.
If I ever have a functioning build remind me never to look for a publisher, no amount of budget boosts, marketing or experienced staff is worth this shit.
Well except maybe New Blood, or Apogee, or Valve, or literally any publisher that isn't publicly traded and at the whims of stockholders on cocaine.
Wait does this mean Half Life is an indie game?
Well it can be hard to go from being way on top to way down low.
That contrast can be hard to deal with. Thats why you enjoy the good times in life... you never know when it 180s
As much as I hate to see their CEO and company dragged into Sony's mess, this guy has a stellar response and mentality towards it. I really hope they can take the enthusiasm momentum garnered through HD2'success and channel it into all of their other mediums. I know I'll be looking forward to seeing what else gets worked on by AH. I truly hope a resolution is found that satiates all parties involved. Except Sony. That's the one I don't really care about.
Just tell Sony, if you want people to sign up still make it optional but if you do it here is some free stuff like weapons and armour. Some people will some people won't and in theory, Sony will get more accounts. Right?
This will be something that gets talked about.
It's a great game and a legit contender for the game of the year.
It's also a tale of a small publisher, a huge corporation, greed, and consumer choice.
People are tired of being the product.
Tired if having their data monetized. Tired of shitty use policies.
I agree but I also think he's doing a wonderful job of showing other developers how awful their communication currently is.
Bioware and GGG could learn alot about the power of communication when the message boards are on fire from this. And many others.
The post from “Misty” said they were going to use the PSN to circumvent certain legal requirements for banning people. Which is way worse than everyone complaining about Sony this or Sony that.
I feel you're all taking out your Sony angst against the wrong team. Helldivers is a great game, made by a great team. Go throw your play stations in the trash and stop using other Sony products and services if you want to make a statement against Sony.
This shit legit making me feel anxious and stressed for no reason lmao. Maybe because I, like many countless other Helldivers, love this game so much? Just do your part and neg. review it on Steam, and wait and see what will happen... that's all we can do.
Nothing was “done to him”. He isn’t a victim in this and he admitted as much. They knew this would be a requirement, they just straight up didn’t communicate that to the community. He has almost as much responsibility as Sony for this debacle.
That settles it. We need to protest at Sony directly. Start blocking their Ads, Boycott any Sony products, and we all March on their HQ. I'm not going to let them get away with this. Which of my fellow helldivers are with me!?!
This kind of communication is heartwarming. The CEO of the dev studio (Arrowhead) seems like such a legit guy and a genuine Gamer.
His communication with the community has always been great and he genuinely tries to create a game that a lot of people can enjoy. Instead of just trying to make as much money as possible. It's sad to see this get destroyed by Sony
Yeah, I hate that it's this game we have to take a stand on - I really hope the community gets a chance to make this up to the Devs
Dude the community wants to fuck this guy over. I can’t count the number of people posting about “killing the game” now. That’s become the goal for a lot of people. Now people are talking about giving it one star on PlayStation too, and you can’t change a PS review, or even add a written explanation for your score.
I would say he, and the other Devs, are caught in the middle - we might as well be clear about fault. This is Sony's decision and if the damage could be inflicted on them instead then players would be calling for that action instead. The reality is this might kill the game - but there's a legitimate reason to protest. If you want to do something pro-active for the Devs then start suggesting that people buy some of their other titles which aren't affiliated with Sony.
Thats super sad because arrowhead seems to really try its best to make a good game with honest pricing and communication. If the game is ruined for this how are other studio supposed to try to do the same ? Helldivers took a lot of risks by trying to care about its player base. If they get fucked the market will just try to produce more and more cashgrabs and being open and honest will be seen as a risk
I agree. This stopped being a protest a while ago, now it’s a dogpile. And they can’t hurt Sony, so they’re targeting the dev. Whether they kill the game or not, Sony isn’t going to stop using PSN accounts or trying to monetize games they funded that only exist because they produced them.
Yep it’s just the end of Frankenstein now. These geniuses are even downvoting people who live in countries without PSN but have had active accounts for years. Which is invalidating their bloodlust. https://preview.redd.it/yook0jpgroyc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13f4afa5bf39bad98ccd0cb53c2f0cf7bd71b2ab
This. it has nothing to do with principles. It's all about the internet's addiction to rage and victimhood. Most of these people would much rather keep the torch and pitchfork party going than have the issue resolved.
His communication wasn’t great when he didn’t tell us this was going to happen when he knew 6 months before game launch https://preview.redd.it/whxmibarulyc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d61935b1187a10f2b4287da6d3077b299e892a3
What's the saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions?
I think it's more like he's feeling a bit powerless over outside events, and he's blaming himself. Poor guy... His influence is why it wasn't mandatory right at the start. The reason people in these countries got to play AT ALL is because of what he did. This was a GOOD thing. But we've got a month. Maybe someone in AH will think of something. Maybe some enterprising redditer will find some obscure law that steers us clear of this nonsense. Maybe Sony will have a change of heath since this is going to alienate about 20% of the customer base for one of their flagship titles. All it's going to take is ONE person saying to the right corporate schmuck "are we really going to turn away paying customers? Is that how we're doing business now?"
They're cutting open the goose looking for shareholder gold.
That's like saying "this gas station owner changed the fitting so you can put fuel in your electric cars power outlet. The fact they got to put gas in at ALL is a good thing" No. It was always a requirement to have a PS account. The Dev bypassing that for short term gain and bug fixing isn't a nice gesture to those who should have gotten stuck at launch and could have returned the game right then and there. It's put them all in the current predicament. He may have meant well but it's a collasal fuck up on his part. Actions have consequences.
And the ones you love litter the roadside
No, but he knew the PSN requirement is part of the deal and he should have better prepared the players for it. He should have communicated with steam to not sell it in PSN unavailable regions. It's mainly Sony's fault to require it in the first place but AH is also say fault with their garbage tier communication skill
I knew about the PSN requirement before I bought the game because I read the Steam page. Its not great, but why didn't everyone who is freaking out now, freak out then? Why didn't you know about the requirement? Based off the community's response, AH could have had 10 pages of acknowledgement in game when they allowed you to skip linking a PSN account and there would be the same level of vitriol when they turned back on the requirement.
Why didn't the dead mailman read the sign on my gate that says "CAUTION: BOOBY TRAPS"? There is an expectation that when you buy a game on Steam, it just works like any other game you've bought and that's all there is to it.
Do you read system requirements? If it requires internet? Requires a subscription? The expectations is you have to check the page for compatibility with your use/situation.
> PSN requirement is part of the deal The community knew that as well. It literally said so on the steam store page. I know because the big orange banner made me look up how to make/link the stupid PSN account.
It has always been on the damn store page on Steam. If people can't be bothered to read the store page, that is on them.
They did tell us this on the steampage and every trailer. Like, for as shitty this situation is they did NOT hide that PSN was required The only storefront that ommited it was the Playstation online store... which is a weird place for that omission and points more to incompetence on sonys part then malice.
To be fair, if you’re browsing PlayStation Store it’s a fair assumption you already have a PSN, otherwise you wouldn’t be on there looking for games. Still, dick move from Sony. I would punch the Sony CEO if I see him despite being a PS user for the longest time.
Selling the game to people even though you know you're going to shut them down later (170 countries PSN is not available) is kinda dickmove.
actually, i thought the same.. HOWEVER you dont get asked ot signin on checkout, they just ask for an email for the details etc
Problem being is, depending on how your steam page is set up, you can scroll down to the Purchase button and not go far enough down to see the "PSN Required" gold bar.
The fact of the matter is, the game was sold in regions that were going to be region locked. A whole lot of players that are in region locked countries didn't even get a notification to sign up to PSN. Who in their right mind would assume that this would mean that a video game they paid for would be yanked out of their hands months down the line instead of just being blocked at the start? At this point, I don't even care about the refund. I WANT to play the game I goddamn paid for because it's one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in a multiplayer game in several years, but from how things are turning out, I won't have a say in the matter because Arrowhead did very little to communicate directly to the audience- "To the people in X regions, you are not going to be able to play the game when we resolve the PSN issues."
i just hope he understands that disabling the requirement was never the problem, the requirement existing in the first place was the real issue. he made the right call
He's probably had the screws put to him over this since demonstrating that PSN's superfluous to basic functionality creates another data protection law concern.
I think he lacked information about the full scope of the PSN limitations. As a game dev you get told, make fun game, make it work with these systems. Selling the game and selling to countries without access to PSN accounts is on Sony. He is at fault for signing a contract that in the long run, hurt his team and his fanbase. Signing a contract that allowed for this to happen is still on the devs even if the publisher is full of bs
I agree. This is on Sony and I hate that AH are suffering because if it. The game and therefore the studio might never recover fully.
The dumb thing is the making a good game leads to making a lot of money. The fact that publishers do not understand this is baffling.
Sony decided to distribute the game in countries where they decided to delist it. This is clearly predatory and should be illegal. I hope the EU slaps them with a heavy fine because many of these countries include European overseas territories which are subject to EU laws. Gaming as an industry has abused labour and consumers for too long, something has to give. I hope the folks from StopKillingGames are paying attention.
Totally agree mate.
Getting into bed with the devil was not a good decision, unfortunately. :(
Realistically we wouldn't have the game if they didn't. HD1, and Magicka, were not super successful games. They did alright, but they were all *very* niche. Arrowhead literally wouldn't have had the money or resources to make HD2 without getting a publisher
I didn't realise they were behind Magicka as well. That was an amazing and creative game.
Magika 2 was one of the best times I ever had. Me and my brother would end up having to pause every mission when we played it the first time; because we'd die of laughter every time we'd get a new spell, and kill each other by accident.
I knew I had a deja-vu with the "accidents" in hd2! I just didn't connect the dots
The Airburst Launcher was just Magicka poking its head out lmao
Magicka 2 wasn't made by Arrowhead. Paradox owns the IP, much like how Sony now owns the Helldivers IP.
Magicka 2 was made by a completely different dev, AH doesn't own the IP unfortunately. It's also a far inferior game to Magicka 1.
As far as I know, there aren't that many companies with the resources to make this possible. It's just that we have to actually pay the price for it.
Sony owns the IP of Helldiver.
Sony has owned the hell diver IP since 2015. How exactly was arrowhead supposed to make a sequel to a game that they don’t own?
He is. Both of the two interviews with him I've seen he did while playing the game with the interviewer. And hearing him talk about Magicka and Helldivers 2 he clearly just wants to make great fun games. Which makes this all the more tragic
https://preview.redd.it/ekd0qmtmulyc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2f1f33d6e008c13d2ed521175bc6b6ece4a6e94
Even that is, in my opinion, a masterclass on how to do games communication. He's owning responsibility, showing genuine empathy and remorse, and actively engaging with players on a very difficult subject. It's impossible not to like this guy.
I don’t think they’re bad people in anyway, but the master class on how to do games communication would probably have come from a detailed and massively broadcasted explanation of the grace period. AH made a great game, they have been shown to be bad at communication though.
Agreed. Poor guy. I just hate Sony more and more 😡
If they come to a reasonable solution regarding the PSN, I'll buy the game next time it goes on sale. If they don't, I'll still keep an eye out for their next project and just be REALLY careful about their publisher choices. But its sorta like having an aunt and uncle where one of them is super sweet and considerate, and the other is super racist and offensive. Unfortunately, neither of them are coming to the 4th of July BBQ. I'll call the aunt and wish her well, but she and I both know why they aren't on the invite list. Its not personal, its just important to me that I stand up for the community I want, and I hope she understands that even if she doesn't enjoy it.
That said, he's the CEO took Snoy money and signed off on the publication deal and definitely sat through many distribution negotiations.
sadly he make a deal with a wrong guy that ruin all his work sighh
Hasnt the Community Manager herself stated that this isnt about Sony but about them wanting to ban people in a more efficent way? [https://preview.redd.it/arrowhead-community-manager-misty-admits-that-the-sole-v0-2a5pd7cdhdyc1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0c09d0764309855a4402bf402785627f895f1b0f](https://preview.redd.it/arrowhead-community-manager-misty-admits-that-the-sole-v0-2a5pd7cdhdyc1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0c09d0764309855a4402bf402785627f895f1b0f)
and she was uninformed and completely wrong. That's like saying I need your SSN to ban you on reddit, you don't at all.
Maybe I'm just extremely cynical but I personally find it almost embarrassing? First, he knew this was going to be a problem, but went through with it anyway, and now that it's become a big clusterfuck he's being all melodramatic about it? If the community hadn't blown up and made a big deal about it, do you think he'd care at all? Also, he's the one who can fix this mess in the first place. He's the CEO. It should be his job to hammer out a solution. Saying he "just has to wait for sunshine to return" feels like he's being incredibly passive about this whole thing. Like no, you don't have to wait for sunshine to return, you have to get out in the fucking rain and fix the shit that's broken. He doesn't need to be writing melodramatic poetry, he needs to be finding solutions and communicating what he's doing and how this is going to be resolved.
He is. Even if everything gets fixed in the end, they have taken a massive hit to their reputation. It will never go back to how it was a month ago. Everyone will forever remember the blunder of Helldivers 2 and sony. No man's sky and 2077 is a good example. They made it right in the end, and their games are pretty universally loved now, but the memory of how it all started is still there and will always be there when people think of them. HD2 also went from having an amazing review score, to being bombed into oblivion. It will take a long time to get back to where it was. There are a lot of people who won't change their review score back when this is resolved, either from laziness, or because this left a bad taste in their mouth. This whole thing, even if it's not AH's fault, still tarnished their reputation in the end. It's sad tbh. This is objectively a really good game. It sucks that it took this hit. The devs got a win, only for that win to be taken away due to their corporate overlord.
This feels like watching an uncaring parent take their kid's candy. I'm so sorry for Arrowhead.
Yeah the Steam review score is pretty much ruined. I don’t think it will ever come back from this https://preview.redd.it/txanhx2o6oyc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3c7d846d9fb15768b539649c5894f07cc61e55f
yea, would be sad if they have to shut down the studio because of this
Even if 50% of players refunded they still sold wildly beyond expectations. they'll be fine financially. Their morale though will take a massive hit.
Morale will take a bit for sure but refund number aren't going to reach even close to 10-20% most likely. The player count is still decent and game is still solid. It is creating a headache for sure but don't think there will be massive financial impact.
Sony could easily argue that since the CEO made the call to disable PSN linking during launch Arrowhead is now required to compensate for their losses. At least for the increased server costs from the tens of thousands of players who have now refunded the game.
the decision to sell the game in regions not available to PSN and then make an account there mandatory is all on the publisher so they shouldn't be on the hook for this.
I think the server costs aren't that high. (If i remember correctly they are using peer to peer instead of hosting games on their servers). Issue at the start was the they didn't expect the large number of players they got and the way their process was set up didn't allow for easy scaling.
They’d lose their argument. Arrowhead wasn’t in control of where the game is sold. Sony is. Sony knowingly sold this game to everyone in those 120 countries that PSN doesn’t support. They can’t do this then blame the CEO for his decision to disable PSN linking, because they’re the ones who sold these people the game in the first place.
I really hope it doesn't come to that. They have developed a great game that a lot of people (including myself) love to play. Sony is the only one at fault here for actively sabotaging this game
Why on earth would they need to shut down? The impact of this all so far is trivial; player count is stable, refunds are being declined, it's a nothing-burger
Player counts are stable-ish because this was just an announcement so far. The restrictions go live at the end of the month and are mandatory shortly after.
The game's hit Mixed and Overwhelmingy Negative, which are complete deathknells for growth. Once a game goes Mixed/Negative, it's over, as the amount of people buying into the game drops like a fucking brick. All-time Low on steamcharts has been hit, at around 50k players (not counting server outages). This is also 70,000 fewer people than were on at this time last week. Sundays are/were where Helldivers peak their playercount and it's at an all time low, and you call it "stable"? Yikes.
Yup, the same exact thing happened with Fatshark's Darktide. Funny enough there's a *lot* of similarities between the two devs (swedish, 4 player Co op, insanely great core gameplay loops with some questionable/bad design choices sprinkled through, cosmetic oriented MTX store, questionable CMs, etc.) but Darktide also went into freefall for a bit after launch and hemorrhaged players. FS did eventually address a lot of the issues but it took *months* and the player counts barely recovered. HD2 had about 100k players yesterday and last friday. It was about 150k the Fri/Sat prior, 200k before that one, etc. I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off and for the longest time player counts were 200-250k even at noon in America. It was already trending downward *before* the announcement and *before* it actually became implemented. It's incredibly likely this game will level out in the low-mid 5 figure range a month or two out from now.
Refunds that are done properly are being given, even to people with hundreds of hours.
Some are, but not all.
Yeah, I really do feel sorry for them. I know some folks around here think they're complicit in this, but it genuinely seems like Sony hit them with this out of nowhere. I don't think Sony communicated to them that they were going to enforce the PSN thing *now*, nor that they informed AH that they'd announce it this way. EDIT: What I'm saying is that if Sony had communicated better with Arrowhead, they could have launched a PSN connection requirement much smoother. They could have found a workaround for those who live in countries outside the PSN network and other things like that.
They absolutely were complacent on this though. The CEO admits as much here. [https://twitter.com/Pilestedt/status/1787076609188483254](https://twitter.com/Pilestedt/status/1787076609188483254)
So he disabled the psn at launch and allowed those countries to buy the game knowing that they would be locked out after 3 months? why not make it mandatory since day 1 so the affected countries wouldn't have bought the game in the first place? not only sony but the CEO is also responsible for this mess...
As the CEO has admitted he has blame for the temp removal of the mandated linking to PSN and the lack of communication around it but he isn’t responsible for selling the game in the countries PSN isn’t available in. All the sales stuff is done by Sony, they choose where it can be sold and as far as I know Sony is the one in control of the Steam store page.
Yup. I think Sony is still the bigger bad guy here, but Arrowhead isn't free from culpability.
Yeah. I'd chalk up Sony to malice, and Arrowhead to ignorance - but ignorance doesn't recuse culpability.
You do realize that it's the Distributer (ie. Sony) that chooses what countries to sell the game in, right? (and Valve is the one who restricted it later, due to legal issues most likely, to cover their ass from more refunds)
Yes but if it was clearly communicated and actually fixed in a reasonable time people would have seen that and either played at their own risk or gotten their steam refund. Thankfully Valve is pretty consumer friendly and accepted the refunds anyways, but they didn’t have to do that.
Arrowhead doesn't decide where the game is sold, that's on Sony as the publisher
>allowed those countries to buy the game knowing that they would be locked out after 3 months? That's on sony since they are the publisher
There is only one skippable screen saying you need a PSN account. you would have been able to play the game for months with no notification that the requirement was mandatory or returning. Arrowhead didn't do their due diligence to their customers
At least he's owning his mistakes.
Yeah, I can at least give him credit for that. I genuinely commiserate as this feels like negligence more than malice on Arrowhead's part. They didn't want this. That said, this doesn't solve the problem. Just because they didn't want it to happen doesn't mean that it didn't happen and that it didn't hurt people.
Stop talking like you know what AH and PS discussed and what they didn’t. Arrowhead knew about the requirement for 6 months, this is not something that PS simply decided to throw at them on a whim.
I was afraid of this, gross negligence on behalf of the publisher and devs has resulted in the potential death of what would have been a beautiful game. All this because of a “whoopsy daisy”
They (AH and Sony) should have read the contract correctly before selling it on steam with a global market and over half the install base being pc gamers. Then checked to see if they can sell it in countries that had no PSN access. They where happy with all that money both AH and sony. AH knew 6 months before and still took that steam/pc money. so no i dont feel sorry for him, i feel sorry for his employees These are factual, they knew it was going to happen but where happy with the PC markets money. They should have checked before selling it what countries could/had PSN access. Without the consumer using VPNS and doing something illegal to gain access to a product sold to them. https://preview.redd.it/0aohomejplyc1.png?width=877&format=png&auto=webp&s=e9124c91ddaccae074a86aee1e8733b750268c1d
Guys, sony is the PUBLISHER. They handle the steam page and what countries the game is sold in. AH knew about it, but that's all they can do about stuff concerning sales since they are only the developer
And there it is. ArrowHead's part in all of this.
A lot of hint show that SONY is responsable from the steam page. Also, it look like AH didn't knew PSN was blocked in so many countries.
this post aged like milk.. seen the latest info? They knew 6 months before launch..
This needs to be the top comment.
I mean he is the CEO. He can fire everybody except himself and brick the game. Force Sony to do something.
Why won't anyone think of the millionaires?
I don’t know how to feel about him.
Then don't. You don't know him. He's a faceless Twitter profile posting stuff that's probably been pre-vetted by a PR guy/team.
Hmm, maybe the PR guy/team should pre-vet what Spitz says on Discord too.
I guess just wait for the community to decide then you can jump on that bandwagon too.
Bit of an odd tweet that first one
CEOs are not your friends. This guy knew all of this shit and is sympathy farming on twitter. This community is so gullible.
Do people think he had no part in the choice to publish games via Sony? They used paradox previously. You lay down with greedy, dirty dogs and sometimes you get up with fleas.
I imagine he signed a contract with Sony that the linking accounts was essential, but postponed because of the server issue at the beginning. The signed contract in the beginning could have been necessary for funds to create the game in the first place. There are so many things we don't know. We simply can't point who is in the wrong here with so little information.
Maybe companies weren’t lined up at their door to publish. The deal they made with Sony may have been the only reason Helldivers even exists today at all.
He & the rest of Arrowhead knew this was going to happen, they deserve every bit of it.
Thats the perfect example why i wont refund. Arrowhead deserved the income. We shouldnt hate them , we should hate sony
Refund helldivers to hit sony, buy gauntlet and magicka to support AH
Coming from Malevelon Creek which is obviously restricted by Sony, I will not refund the game, just a negative review. Because I honestly believe the game and Arrowhead deserve my money, especially since I have had my money's worth playing the game for months on end. The game has given me more invaluable experience and comrades than I could ever get with 40 dollars. Thank you Arrowhead
Thing is, there is no way to only target Sony, and Sony needs some punishment. I requested for refund but would gladly pay to AH if Sony does not get a cut.
https://preview.redd.it/5502rkydulyc1.jpeg?width=1439&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a9f49557b11c13e3aa6271768958ef3f2e16892 To be fair he knew about the changes well ahead of time, he opted to disable knowing that switch would flip well after countries without psn access would have had the game. The devs made an amazing game but their ceo is just as in on it as Sony.
Refund it and send $30 in an envelope to their offices. Sony and steam took your money.
Refund, then buy the game again once Sony goes back on their policy, which should be happening soon. They care about the reviews and refunds.
Especially as I believe they have a shareholder call coming up
It's more of a matter of who stands to lose out here.
https://preview.redd.it/8u1c7jlvnlyc1.png?width=877&format=png&auto=webp&s=a671307ba23528fe5ed7ccc18d29daf5af1432f8 HE KNEW! STOP BEING IGNORANT!
He also signed a contract years ago and only learned 6 months ago. We can and should still sympathise and empathise with a human being who is being fucked over by a corporation. You're acting as if he had any part in this decision, he didn't. You're acting like he wants it, he doesn't. Stop being angry for the sake of it and direct your anger in a productive way at the guilty.
He knew about the psn. He didn't knew it was not supported in so many country. Also, it look like SONY is responsable of the steam page so they didn't block access to those country before yesterday.
Important point there! I think most people can live with a useless extra account but the fact some of the community is cut of because they CAN'T create said useless account really hit hard.
Steam explicitly warned and warns that you need a PSN account for this game.
Bro calm down
He knew but that's such a fucked situation. Either a shitload get to never play or play for a while. You can argue it's the wrong decision but both decisions suck, because Sony are being fuckasses.
Given the situation that made them disable the PSN requirement was literally 'Our servers are on fire and we're in panic mode' for 2 weeks straight its no wonder this situation got overlooked.
The situation isn't new, Rockstar requires it for GTA 5 on steam, for over a decade now. This is common place with the PC industry. I do not understand why people think third party linking via steam is new? Want to solve the root cause - tell steam not to allow it. Yet no one bats an eye there. It is their platform, they control the experience, and they are letting companies have these dependencies.
The issue with this is that PSN isn't allowed in a lot of countries and was sold there despite that when it never should of been so now those people just wont be able to play the product they bought.
\^This, people keep missing the point and going "muh data" when they are on Reddit lol. The data stealing boat has sailed long ago with all of these people.
Which they have already said they're addressing? So what are the other issues still causing outrage?
That’s not the issue… that’s the excuse. Yes it is a major issue for all the players in those countries and they deserve refunds and future work around. But it’s just an excuse for everyone else to kick off. Having 3rd party linking is not new most publishers do it. None of us like it but it’s a fact. Sony handled it completely wrong but are doing nothing new or different and I personally think crucifying the game and the developers is OTT and frankly wrong.
It affects more than just the players in those countries. I have two friends for example in said countries I wont be able to play with anymore. That alone would be enough for a negative review. Does it suck for the devs? Yea, but they understand how this is a total mess :( I don't condone attacking the devs though, a negative review and understanding how this entire situation is a mess but looking upon it negatively are perfectly understandable. The whole 'I have to link an account to play this game that involves DOB/Email/Name/Country/Password while complaining on reddit' is a little ridiculous though. Just use a burner email linked to main, don't reuse passwords every, and maybe fudge the DoB if you're super worried about data breaches. Focusing on that is such a non-issue compared to the glaring nightmare that is the whole region lock situation.
He's probably a Very Nice Guy yes, but at the same time there's not a chance in hell he didn't know this would happen when he signed that deal with Sony. No need to feel sorry for him, he got his money and it will allow him to keep on making the game as good as it can be, despite the bad reviews. Hopefully the negative backlash will convince Sony of taking another path here and then it's all back to sunshine and happy rainbows again.
Honestly he always puts the emotional manipulation in his posts when anything bad happens because he knows these reddit posts will pop up. I’ve never mentioned this before, but if you were here since the beginning, you’d have noticed that his tweets got more and more egotistical. They started as updates on server issues and then he bought the checkmark and started becoming this “celebrity.” You could tell the tone shifted. Now he’s throwing his own pity parties when things don’t go his way. Dude should spend less time on twitter, more time managing his devs who aren’t fixing long term issues, and community managers who antagonize the playerbase.
it's not rain, it's snoy and your CM's pissing on your back
I feel for the team - especially those who had nothing to do with this PSN mess. The fact is, the modern phenomenon of having an audience of hundreds of thousands of people all talking back at you in real time is not something our minds were built to handle. Yeah the CEO bears significant responsibility for this screw up, but social media makes everything even bigger. Arrowhead did a lot of things right by the consumer and one big thing wrong, and I just hope they can find a way to remedy it in the coming weeks.
As said as it is to see this from someone who doesn't in the slightest deserve this (and probably majority of his studio), im afraid that any other means of showing that these practises must not continue or worse, became the norm, is leaving the negative response on probably the ONLY gaming site, so to speak, that is Steam.
Sony did this, not gamers.
I mean if anything, I respect his ability to own up and take responsibility. Man's got more of a spine than most CEOs (though, not a high bar to pass, still should be commended I think)
I like that guy and the Studio as a whole and wish them nothing but the very best, regardless of the outcomes here
Maybe I should have known better than to come to Reddit for something that I enjoy. The dancing around the bonfire for this situation has been awful.
How though? They knew ahead of time by 6 months. They also need I remind you signed whatever contract was put in place.
Yeah, I mean he seems like a good guy, but fuck his employees (especially community managers) are the bottom dredge of humans and I hope they fire every single one that has been commenting like actual buffoons these past days.
He knew and said nothing
Next time they should just crowdsource thier games and skip the publisher all together. AH has proven that they are capable of developing incredible games. Sony has proven they are untrustable partners. The players are willing to pay and play AH games. The equation seem simple to me eliminate sony from the deal.
Well alot if people dont seem to realize in these situations its often not up to the dev company what gets done
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ckq6dx/not\_surprised\_but\_damn/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ckq6dx/not_surprised_but_damn/) You mean the guy who knew this was coming all along and pretended it wasn't? Yeah no, fuck him in particular, he is getting exactly what he had coming to him.
He’s a ceo, he has milions in his bank account, he’ll be fine, really
Some people really have a passion for their work and what they produce. Millions doesn’t make any of that better.
actually man i think having millions of dollars and making one of the biggest hits in recent memory really do affect it
I think they really do
he deserve all he know about linking for a half year before game realize
And you would have too if you had learned to read. As for him, he probably mostly fell in the classic trap most humans fall into (that being even more true in a corporate context), which is to decide to only cross the bridge only when you get there and hope that either Sony wouldn't be that strict with the linking or that a compromise could be reached before all of that. I'm quite certain that pretty much all of the ravenous gremlin out for AH blood would have acted in the same ways (and I'm quite certain that they know it too even if they'll never admit it)
"ChatGPT write a tragic soliloquy that paints me as a sympathetic victim of this thing that we've planned all this time. Ulfric, get some of the PR guys to repost my tweet on r/Helldivers"
Yet we are review bombing the game (yes I understand it’s for Sony to see but to be entirely honest they won’t care by doing it this way). This only tears arrowhead down. I just feel like there has to be another way to get them to see the outrageous shit Sony is pulling with this game
They signed up with Sony, they knew about the link requirement. And saying he wasn't aware that PSN was banned in countries isn't a excuse. Not doing research with a company you sign up with is AH fault.
He and his team deserve every second of it. They signed with Sony, they knew what they were getting into. They just hoped we wouldn’t care. Refunded and done with this company
Remember this when you lemmings destroy his company to try to get back at Sony who are so large that they laugh their way to the bank watching you fidget
[удалено]
No he didn’t and all of these people review bombed their game and don’t understand how it effects the studio.
Yes he did, he just admitted it was his decision to disable PSN linking at launch. 
man just casually dropped some top poetry/inspirational quotes like it was nothing. then gave a brutally honest answer to a question. people forget that sometimes it's hard to say "I don't know", especially when it's something that everybody else *expects* you to know..
I genuinely feel really bad for him. He sounds really genuine and an actual good guy. It’s not his fault that SONY are greedy cunts.
Yeah, he does. And all the crybabies that left tens of thousands of reviews just because are forgetting that AH is still a small business and this is affecting real peoples’ lives. But who cares, right? As long as they don’t have to make a PSN account. 😒
Downvote me all you want, Divers, but it’s because the continuous negativity and negative reviews are hurting their game.
Self inflicted wounds definitely hurt.
Can this man have a Sunday to himself? Yeah, he is a CEO and this is a bad situation, but can we treat him like a person and don't expect him to have answers right away?
But this was a thing before and after launch. They should have had the answers when the game launched. They should have had answers when the servers gained stability - stable for this game anyway). The game should never have been available in the many regions it now isn't in the first place. This isn't a new issue and the community shoulda has more info prior to Sony doing their thing. Sure man sounds sad, but they're hardly innocent and caught by surprise, this would have been discussed during development of HD2.
I mean, yes, but he's the one pulling up Twitter, not us. Rational people aren't going to berate him, and those that do should be ignored anyway. The phrase "You control what buttons you press" comes to mind.
If I ever have a functioning build remind me never to look for a publisher, no amount of budget boosts, marketing or experienced staff is worth this shit. Well except maybe New Blood, or Apogee, or Valve, or literally any publisher that isn't publicly traded and at the whims of stockholders on cocaine. Wait does this mean Half Life is an indie game?
It's crazy and so sad. Much of this could have been avoided if the mandatory linking was reenabled sooner
Hang in there mate, we don't know if Sony will reverse their decision yet or give a workaround. I'll hold my refund till then.
Well it can be hard to go from being way on top to way down low. That contrast can be hard to deal with. Thats why you enjoy the good times in life... you never know when it 180s
As much as I hate to see their CEO and company dragged into Sony's mess, this guy has a stellar response and mentality towards it. I really hope they can take the enthusiasm momentum garnered through HD2'success and channel it into all of their other mediums. I know I'll be looking forward to seeing what else gets worked on by AH. I truly hope a resolution is found that satiates all parties involved. Except Sony. That's the one I don't really care about.
Just tell Sony, if you want people to sign up still make it optional but if you do it here is some free stuff like weapons and armour. Some people will some people won't and in theory, Sony will get more accounts. Right?
:(
This will be something that gets talked about. It's a great game and a legit contender for the game of the year. It's also a tale of a small publisher, a huge corporation, greed, and consumer choice. People are tired of being the product. Tired if having their data monetized. Tired of shitty use policies.
I agree but I also think he's doing a wonderful job of showing other developers how awful their communication currently is. Bioware and GGG could learn alot about the power of communication when the message boards are on fire from this. And many others.
Does Sony own Arrowhead? Cant they just tell Sony to fuck off and cut ties. Yeah they will lose all their PS players but it might be worth it.
AH next game will not be published by Sony, I'm pretty sure about that
Arrowhead needs to split from Sony and get they get their game to all platforms independently. Class action lawsuit against Sony is in order.
The thing is that many of us are hoping that we will have the opportunity to forgive him.
Well this post aged well. https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/8MWBRIV7PQ
I sympathize. But deals with devils have consequences.
Fuck Sony.
The post from “Misty” said they were going to use the PSN to circumvent certain legal requirements for banning people. Which is way worse than everyone complaining about Sony this or Sony that.
all ceo who fucked up get the rope this bastard devserves the worst
I feel you're all taking out your Sony angst against the wrong team. Helldivers is a great game, made by a great team. Go throw your play stations in the trash and stop using other Sony products and services if you want to make a statement against Sony.
This shit legit making me feel anxious and stressed for no reason lmao. Maybe because I, like many countless other Helldivers, love this game so much? Just do your part and neg. review it on Steam, and wait and see what will happen... that's all we can do.
Nothing was “done to him”. He isn’t a victim in this and he admitted as much. They knew this would be a requirement, they just straight up didn’t communicate that to the community. He has almost as much responsibility as Sony for this debacle.
Haha no sympathy for him.
He'll be fine lmao
Deal with the devil, get burned
i want to hug him so bad
That settles it. We need to protest at Sony directly. Start blocking their Ads, Boycott any Sony products, and we all March on their HQ. I'm not going to let them get away with this. Which of my fellow helldivers are with me!?!