Registering for War – Helldivers 2 PC Will Require a PSN Account

(May 3rd, 2024 Update: As of this writing, Arrowhead is actively working on a solution for people who cannot make PlayStation Network accounts, covered by Windows Central)

Helldivers 2 is one of 2024’s biggest surprises. Being the first of potentially many day-and-date PC/PS5 launches, the title did not require a PSN account to play online. But starting May 6th, you will be required to link a PSN account with your Steam one.

Helldivers 2 PSN Account Mandate

Arrowhead posted this statement on the Helldivers 2 Steam Page;

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.

As such, as of May 6th, all new HELLDIVERS 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account. Current players on Steam will start to see the mandatory login from May 30th and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4th. PlayStation Network accounts are free and easy to set up using this link
https://www.playstation.com/support/account/create-account-for-psn/

Essentially, to ensure secure servers they need to link PlayStation Network accounts to PC players. It could also be used to slowly grow the PlayStation Menu, which will be utilized on PC starting with Ghost of Tsushima’s PC release.

Issues with the Implementation

Helldivers were quick to voice their annoyance at this move, as pointed out by this Twitter/X user;

To folks wondering why mandating linking your Sony account to Helldivers 2 on PC is such a big deal, players in many countries, such as Belarus, Phillipines and nearly the entirety of Africa don't have PSN support, so those Helldivers will be defacto banned in a few weeks. https://t.co/3QxcobIRf5

— Pat Stares At (@PatStaresAt) May 3, 2024

PlayStation not having PlayStation Network support in other regions will prevent Helldivers who joined the fight on PC to continue fighting for democracy. Potentially, Sony could look into solutions to this problem. One could be that specific regions wouldn’t require the PSN login to play. We will update this story as it develops.

Closing Thoughts

I am not surprised by this decision at all. PlayStation is slowly building up its platform, and one step toward that is a unified account. As this platform continues to grow, more moves like this from the company will be made.

That being said, PlayStation will need to expand the reach of PlayStation Network itself. It not being sported globally will be a major issue, as mentioned already with some Helldivers unable to play.

But will this mandate bother you? Let us know in the comments below!