Helldivers 2 Free Cosmetic May Be Lost Forever After PSN Debacle

Summary PC players no longer need PSN account to play Helldivers 2 online.

A free cosmetic for linking a player's PSN was in the works that may be scrapped forever.

Players created a cape design commemorating the online battle.

Helldivers 2 was slated to be one of this year’s most successful games until its community began review-bombing it, plummeting its ranking on Steam, after Sony announced that for players to continue playing online with friends, they would have to link a PlayStation Network account. This was previously only required for players accessing the game on PlayStation 5, though a planned update would’ve extended this requirement to PC players at the end of May.

Following the backlash, Sony rolled back this requirement for PC players, meaning the game will no longer be restricted for those unable to connect to a PSN account. Unfortunately, it seems an unrevealed cosmetic may be lost forever due to this decision. In a screenshot of the Helldivers Discord shared online by Reddit user Salty_Bet_6138, Associate Community Manager Spitz stated they were working on a “cosmetic reward” that may not come to fruition now.

“AH wanted to give a cosmetic reward for account linking but I’m unsure what the status on that is currently or if it’s still planned,” Spitz wrote. Unfortunately, the cosmetic was not revealed by Spitz in the Discord thread, so it’s unclear if this is a design players will be disappointed to miss out on. Considering the backlash linking a PSN account received, though, it doesn’t seem like something players will miss.

Players Have Developed Their Own Helldivers 2 Cosmetic To Celebrate The Win

The Graph Of Tanking Reviews Makes For A Great Cape Design

Custom Image by: Diana Acuña

Though they may never see the cosmetic design that Spitz was working on, players have come up with a different design to commemorate the online battle between Sony and the Helldivers 2 audience. A graph showing the stark contrast between positive and negative reviews in the days following the PSN connection announcement has been Photoshopped onto a cape, as shared online by Reddit user mjbga04.

“Not gonna lie, [I’d] rock that Accidental Cape Design,” the user said. The graph shows three days of consistently negative reviews, with the last column showcasing a significant increase in positive reviews. “I like this version with the blue bar showing that [things] finally ended good and that people voted positively again,” Reddit user MuglokDecrepitus commented on the post.

The accidental cape design is inspired by a series of images flitting around X (formerly Twitter). User RAGS_Comix shared a photo of the graph of negative reviews, placed within a circle, and tweeted at PlayStation and Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt asking for it to be placed on a cape. The design shared by mjbga04 is modified to include the spike in positive reviews after Sony reversed its decision.

This isn't a cosmetic design currently available, but who knows if Arrowhead decides to add it. As of this writing, the reviews on the Helldivers 2 Steam page are still mixed, but players on Reddit and in the Discord channel have continued to encourage reviewers to change their reviews following the compromise. Whether or not the page will bounce back has yet to be seen, though. Knowing that Sony is able to budge on these decisions to keep players happy means there may yet be hope for the game to make its way to Xbox.

Source: Salty_Bet_6138/Reddit, mjbga04/Reddit, @RAGS_Comix/X