You heard it here first, folks: If you left a negative review for Helldivers 2 because of the region lock situation, it seems it’s time to change that review to a positive one.
Remember that whole Helldivers 2 PSN debacle from about a year ago? That ended in a decisive victory for players when Sony relented to pressure and walked back the previously instated requirement that forced Helldivers 2 players to sign into PSN to play the game.
Well, before Sony reversed course, it doubled down and removed Helldivers 2 from sale in 177 countries and territories that couldn’t access PSN, prompting a tidal wave of (at the time) 215,000 negative Steam reviews. Today, more than a year later, it seems Sony has reversed course yet again and unblocked Helldivers 2 from being sold in most of those countries
According to SteamDB’s list of restricted countries, the number is down to just eight: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Japan, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam.
I’ve reached out to Arrowhead and Sony for comment and will update this article if I hear back, but in the meantime, players are celebrating what appears to be a massive win.
“MAJOR ORDER: Change Negative Review After Region Unlock,” reads the title of a Reddit thread 5.6k upvotes at the time of writing. The unofficial Major Order directs players to change any negative review that was left in response to the region lock to positive.
“Data collection from Ministry of Intelligence field operatives has confirmed that the anti-fascist efforts of the Helldivers have finally resulted in liberation from the Sony Blockade for nearly all regions of Super Earth,” writes freedom fighter Good_Policy3529.
MAJOR ORDER: Change Negative Review After Region Unlock from r/Helldivers
“Let us shit our pants as one. Give them the positive reviews they’ve earned,” reads the top comment in the thread with 1.6k upvotes.
Overall, the mood in Helldivers 2 communities across the interweb is extremely celebratory, which is nice change of pace. That said, I sorted Steam reviews by date and narrowed it down to just today, and there doesn’t seem to be a noticeable bump in new positive reviews, although many of the ones that were shared today do point out Sony’s region lock reversal.
With this news still developing and with no official word from Sony or Arrowhead, it’s still too early to say whether the damage from a year ago will be undone in terms of Helldivers 2’s Steam rating, but there’s no denying this appears to be a gargantuan win for democracy.
PlayStation is still “continuing to invest in new live services,” and has “reviewed our processes” following Concord’s failure
