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Helldivers 2 PC players can continue to play Super Earth without logging into Sony.

Sony’s plan for its surprise hit squad-based co-op shooter – now the most successful launch in Sony’s nascent PC catalog –helldivers 2, was to make its players sign in with PlayStation Network (PSN) accounts before it launched in early February, even if they purchased the game through the Steam store.

Sony and developer Arrowhead didn’t require a PSN login during the frenetic launch, and then announced late last week that PSN accounts would soon become mandatory. Many players didn’t like this at all, seeing it as Sony’s sudden desire to capitalize on its unexpected hit. Some were reluctant to commit to a network that had a notable hack in its history, others were concerned about countries where PSN wasn’t available, and many didn’t take Sony at its word for grief, banning, and other moderation . Due to uneven availability on Steam and PSN, Helldivers 2 was removed in 177 countries from Steam over the weekend while Steam worked through refund requests.

The pushback made an impression, and now Sony has announced that account linking “will not be moving forward.” in X’s post (formerly Twitter) Sunday evening addressed to Helldivers fans, the official PlayStation account says the publisher has “heard your feedback” and is “still learning what’s best for PC players, and your feedback is invaluable.”

“Feedback” in this case likely involved a long weekend of PlayStation and Arrowhead, hearing from Helldivers a fanbase that was previously relatively upbeat and cohesive, at least for an online multiplayer shooter. Steam reviews of Helldivers 2 took a sad but predictable downward spiral, the game’s subreddit turned from collaborative enthusiasm to protest, and many people associated with the game spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to deal with the barrage of negative social media.

Johan Pilstedt, CEO of Arrowhead Games Studio, after teasingly asking if now is the time “to chirp “What? Don’t you guys have phones?'” published on X early Sunday that his company is “talking about solutions with PlayStation, especially for countries without PSN.” In response to a response asking why he or his firm “behaves impeccably,” Pilested was frank. “I have a role to play. I’m not infallible in all of this – my solution was to disable account linking at launch so players could play the game. I didn’t ensure players were aware of the requirement and we don’t talk about it enough,” Pilestedt wrote.

He added: “We knew about 6 months before launch that it would be mandatory for online PS titles.” Asked why, if it had been known for six months, the game was sold in countries without PSN available, he answered“We don’t sell the game.”

It will certainly be interesting to see what Sony does next with its success outside of consoles. Helldivers 2 is his most successful PC launch to date and his the seventh highest-grossing game overall. There’s a market there for the right kinds of games, but how Sony cultivates that market and whether they’ll welcome Sony as more than just a Steam publisher remains to be seen.

The developer of Ghost of Tsushimacoming soon for pc don’t forget to tag Friday on X/Twitter that a PSN account is only required for the game’s multiplayer mode, not the single-player adventure.

This post was updated at 10:41am to note previous international deletions and Sony’s clarification of PSN requirements for an upcoming game.