Helldivers 2 has been pulled from Steam in 170 countries without PSN access, while Valve ignores its own policy to issue refunds for players with over 100 hours

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Steam only issues refunds for players with less than 2 hours of playtime in-game, normally

A screenshot from the Helldivers 2 opening, showing the Super Earth Spokesperson shouting.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

The Helldivers 2 debacle has reached new hellish lows as the year's best-selling game is now unavailable on Steam in over 170 countries. 

Earlier this week, publisher Sony announced that all Helldivers 2 PC players would soon need to link to an active PlayStation Network account or lose access to the game, a mandate that was once a simple option at launch and has since led to thousands of negative user reviews hitting the once widely popular shooter. 

Either way, that's a massive blow to Helldivers 2 - a game that became one of Sony's all-time best-sellers thanks to the PC version - and it raises questions about why the game was available in those territories to begin with, especially if the PSN mandate was always planned, as Sony said in its announcement note.

Ignoring its own policies, Steam stewards Valve have also reportedly been issuing refunds to several long-time Helldivers that have logged into Super Earth space for more than 100 hours. Steam policy normally doesn't allow for refunds if a player exceeds two hours in-game, but since the PSN requirement came months after launch, Valve (rightly) seems to be making an exception. 

A Helldivers 2 developer recently reiterated that the PSN change came from Sony, not the talented team at Arrowhead Studios, so issuing refunds is probably the most effective route to getting a message across, as opposed to shouting toxicity at devs. Sony also announced the mandate on a Friday, and thus, has yet to officially respond to the backlash that has escalated pretty wildly in just a few days.

Still playing? Check out everything in the upcoming Polar Patriots Warbond. 

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Kaan Serin
Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.