The Helldivers 2 community can finally exhale following Sony’s capitulation regarding the controversial PlayStation Network login requirement to access the game, but the fiasco nearly caused someone to lose their job.
We are not talking about those Sony employees who completely did not take into account the possible negative reaction. This is about one of the Helldivers 2 community managers who may have been too honest with the rioting crowd of gamers.
The community manager stopped actively posting on the Helldivers 2 Discord after Saturday, the day after the scandal began, and then he disappeared from the server. Now Spitz is back on the server, responding to concerns that he might have been fired with the words “Almost, but not quite.”
Spitz explained:
It turns out that telling people to review bomb and make refunds is not a popular decision for a publisher. But I’m still here and I’m glad we all made a difference.
In the midst of the Helldivers 2 and PSN fiasco over the weekend, a community manager told angry members of the Discord server that negative reviews on Steam would be a more effective way to influence Sony, and that developers Arrowhead were also unhappy with how the situation had unfolded.
Fan outrage did force Sony to change its mind, and Helldivers 2’s falling ratings on Steam served as a clear, undeniable way to express that dissatisfaction, forcing the publisher to reconsider its plans.