Since Sony announced that the grace period for Helldivers 2 players being required to log into the PlayStation Network was nearly up, things have gotten very complicated and vocal. Not only has it been highlighted that Sony, not Arrowhead Game Studios, is pushing this change, but since then, Valve has also stepped up to the plate to help players affected by this while protecting others.
The popular Twitter user Wario64 has revealed that Valve is approving refunds for those who have played Helldivers 2 for over two hours. If you want a refund rather than continuing to play the game or be affected by this Sony change, now you can.
In addition, SteamDB has shown that Steam (originally thought to be Sony) has decided to block the sales of Helldivers 2 in countries that couldn’t sign up for PSN. If you’re in any of those regions, you couldn’t purchase the game on Steam, even if you wanted to.
Helldivers 2 on Steam is now unable to purchase in numerous countries after it was announced that a PSN login will soon be required.
Steam has also been approving refund requests for players even if they've played over 2 hours https://t.co/8O7etaebpH pic.twitter.com/0P5hcOyiaL
— Wario64 (@Wario64) May 5, 2024
I signed up for a Steam account in several countries to verify this. While making a bunch of Steam accounts was a pain, I can attest that trying to purchase Helldivers 2 in these companies simply isn’t possible, or at least it wasn’t when I wrote this article. The image below is when I tried to purchase the game from Monaco, and you can see that the purchase button is missing.
Part of me wants to say that maybe Sony should have done this from the start, but at the same time, they never even required this silly PSN requirement.
If you’re curious, here are nearly 120 countries in which the PlayStation Network is not supported. Sony hasn’t announced whether it plans to expand PSN to these countries yet.
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- The Bahamas
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belize
- Benin
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brunei
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- The Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Cote d’ Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
- Cuba
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Ghana
- Grenada
- Guinea
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Iran
- Iraq
- Jamaica
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Maldives
- Mali
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Niger
- Nigeria
- North Macedonia
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Papua New Guinea
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- San Marini
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- The Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Tunisia
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Uganda
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
The way Sony is handling this is entirely wrong. I don’t completely agree with why they want to require this PSN login, and I feel it’s just a numbers game. But maybe, instead of acting how it is, go back to making this optional and give those who decide to create a PSN account (if they can) a perk or reward. A good example is how Spider-Man Remastered or Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PC was handled, and those who signed up for PSN were given extra costumes.
As for what will happen with Helldivers 2 and this PSN mandatory login, we haven’t heard back from Sony yet. But we’ll let everyone know as soon as we find out more.
