Helldivers 2 devs are worried it's "tone deaf" to drop a new Warbond so soon after the whole PSN kerfuffle, so they're letting voters decide "in true democratic fashion"
Right now, the vote is overwhelmingly in favor of a new Warbond
Whether or not Helldivers 2 gets a new premium Warbond on Thursday is entirely up to the community, as the developers are concerned it might be tone deaf to release one so soon after the whole PSN linking debacle.
In case you've been hiding under a rock for a week, Helldivers 2 sparked its biggest controversy yet when Sony mandated PSN account linking for PC players. Tens of thousands of negative Steam reviews later, the decision has been reversed, but it's safe to say the winds of democracy are still a little frosty. After all, it was only yesterday that a Helldivers 2 community manager was seemingly fired for encouraging players to leave negative Steam reviews following the mandate.
With that context in mind, Arrowhead CEO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt took to Twitter to open a poll deciding whether a new paid Warbond is released tomorrow or delayed to give everyone some time to cool off.
"With the negative sentiment around account linking, a concern from the team came up about 'is it tone deaf to release a new (paid) warbond this soon?'" Pilestedt said. "And therefore we are putting it to a real vote in true democratic fashion."
To all the @helldivers2 out there.With the negative sentiment around account linking, a concern from the team came up about 'is it tone deaf to release a new (paid) warbond this soon?' and therefore we are putting it to a real vote in true democratic fashion.So please guide…May 8, 2024
As it stands, the community seems pretty united in wanting a new Warbond tomorrow, with 'yes' votes accounting for 74% of the poll and 'no' votes accounting for just 26%. It's worth noting that this isn't just Arrowhead asking it's community if it wants more content, but rather if it wants more paid content, but either way, it seems the answer is an unambiguous yes at time of writing with nine hours to go until the poll closes.
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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.