Helldivers 2 was delisted by Sony, not Steam, Valve rep says
"This game is not available for specific regions as decided by the publisher."
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.
The news should quell debates between players about whether it was Steam or Sony that had delisted the game in affected regions, but it's the latest in a bewildering and confusing list of missteps by Sony as it scrambles to mitigate the fallout.
As for why three additional regions have been added to the restriction, even though Sony has reversed the decision to compel players to connect to a PSN account? Apparently, that's to do with a similar delisting strategy for the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, for which Steam has taken the unprecedented action of auto-refunding players who bought it in countries where PSN isn't available.
According to Helldivers 2 creative director and Arrowhead CEO, Johan Pilestedt, that was an "administrative error correction".
"So, to give an update on the three further country restrictions. It was an administrative error correction - they should have been part of the original restriction and it was noticed when the restriction was put in place for Tsushima," Pilestedt explained on Discord. "This was noticed and executed by Valve.
"While it doesn't look positive, it is not an indication of further restrictions. The conversation on region restrictions is still ongoing and is independent of this."
Pilestedt finished on saying that he had "no further information" but developer Arrowhead "still wants the game to be available everywhere".