Steam representatives are informing some Helldivers 2 players that the game’s publisher, Sony, pulled it from sale in regions where PSN is not available, not Steam itself.
Earlier this month, Sony announced Helldivers 2 players on Steam would soon be required to link to a PSN account for safety and security. It said this was always going to be a requirement for players on PC, but due to issues at launch, linking was made optional for a period.
The news was immediately met with intense backlash, which resulted in an influx of negative reviews from Helldivers 2 players on Steam. Many asked for a refund as Helldivers 2 was pulled from sale in 177 countries where PSN is not available, eventually leading to Sony overturning plans to enforce mandatory PSN linking for Helldivers 2 players on Steam altogether.
In one response, a player was told that the game was pulled from “specific regions” “as decided by the publisher”, and Steam did not know “when the game might be made available in those countries”. Players were then invited to contact Sony themselves to “share [their] feedback” if they had any further questions.