Helldivers 2 Controversy Is Now Affecting Helldivers 1

Amid the turmoil of the recent Helldivers 2 controversy, its predecessor Helldivers has also been review bombed by disappointed fans. The original's latest negative reviews criticize the account-linking requirement of Helldivers 2, which was eventually retracted by publisher Sony.

Earlier this year, Helldivers 2 came out to much fanfare and quickly became one of the biggest Sony launches on PC. Recently, the announcement of a post-launch update that would have required Helldivers 2 PC players to link their Steam and PSN accounts together stirred a big controversy, leading to many players review bombing the game, eventually forcing Sony to ditch the plan. However, it turns out that the first game, 2015's Helldivers, has also been caught in the crossfire despite not being a part of the incident.

Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt took to Twitter and highlighted that fans dissatisfied with the online co-op game's account linking update were also leaving negative reviews for the original Helldivers game. Stating how the occurrence «deeply saddens» him, he rhetorically questioned if the backlash around the Helldivers 2 controversy warranted review bombing of developer Arrowhead's older games and other Sony-published titles. The developer also emphasized that Helldivers has no PSN linking requirement and, hence, should not be the «target» for disappointed fans.

Taking a look at the Steam reviews of Helldivers: Dive Harder Edition, the influence of the sequel's controversial update seems evident. At the time of writing, the first game's «Recent Reviews» on Steam, which constitute 1,136 reviews, show up as «Mixed.» The surge in negative reviews seems to have started from May 3, around the same time Arrowhead announced the PSN account linking update for Helldivers 2. Diving deeper into the latest negative reviews, there is an obvious theme that involves criticizing PSN and Sony, further proving that the original game has been review bombed because of the Helldive