What you need to know
- After being delisted from Steam in over 170 countries around the world, Sony’s PlayStation Studios titles Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima are once again available on the platform in several regions.
- Specifically, these games have returned to Steam in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
- Both games were delisted in areas without access to Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN), though the takedown in these five regions specifically seems to have been erroneous since they’re US territories where PSN is available. This appears to have been a move to correct that error.
- Players have been pushing Sony to make Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima available on Steam everywhere, as the former no longer requires linking a PSN account and the latter only needs it for a co-op multiplayer mode.
PC gamers playing PlayStation Studios titles Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima have engaged in quite a battle recently — and not against Terminid bugs or Mongol invaders. Instead, fans have been fighting the decision to delist both games from Steam in over 170 countries around the world due to the fact that players in these regions can’t create a PlayStation Network (PSN) account and link it to the one they use for Valve’s PC gaming platform.
The controversy has been ongoing since the start of May, but here’s a quick TL;DR: players review bombed Helldivers 2 when Sony announced plans to reintroduce a previously cancelled PSN account requirement to the co-op shooter after selling it in areas without PSN access, which the PlayStation publisher axed in response. However, before doing so, Helldivers 2 was taken down from Steam in non-PSN countries. Soon after, the PC release of Ghost of Tsushima was as well, even though linking to a PSN account is only required to play its Legends co-op mode.
Players have been pushing to get both games added back to Steam in these countries, as PSN is no longer required for Helldivers 2 and it’s only needed for a small part of Ghost of Tsushima. So far, both Sony and Valve have largely been radio silent on the matter, though there is some good news to share: both titles have been made available again in a handful of regions.
Specifically, as SteamDB data for Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima shows, both titles are once again purchasable on Steam in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. If you live in one of these regions and have been hoping to pick up either game on the platform, you should now be able to do so without issue.
Notably, all five of these areas are territories of the US where creation of a PSN account should be possible, which I’d wager means this was just a correction by Sony or Valve for an erroneous takedown. Still, even if the move isn’t indicative of broader availability returning, it’s good that some folks are getting access to these games again.
It’s still not entirely clear whether Sony or Valve chose to delist Ghost of Tsushima, though Steam Support did tell a customer Sony was responsible for taking down Helldivers 2. Hopefully, some official communication from either company will come soon and clear things up for hopeful Steam users.
Since its PC launch on Thursday, Ghost of Tsushima has been off to an incredibly strong start, with the open world action title becoming Steam’s top selling paid game right now and garnering a “Very Positive” score with 85% of the 4,700 user reviews posted at the time of writing positive. The Steam release of the game includes several PC-specific features, including extensive ultrawide support, advanced graphics settings, and support for performance-enhancing technologies like NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3, and Intel XeSS.
Helldivers 2, meanwhile, has been extremely popular ever since the co-op shooter released on PS5 and PC in early February, and is officially the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with over 12 million copies sold. It regularly receives fresh content in the form of monthly Battle Pass “Warbonds” that give players access to new weapons, armor, and equipment, as well as smaller drops of things like new stratagems driven by player achievements in Helldivers 2’s Galactic War metagame.
Both titles are widely considered to be excellent and are arguably some of the best PC games you can play right now, and I hope they’re made available in all countries again soon. Should Sony or Valve offer updates or announce a policy change, I’ll be sure to update this article with the latest information.
