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Sony has, surprisingly, backtracked on its decision to require a PSN login for PC players of Helldivers 2. In a statement published on social media, the manufacturer said: “The 6th May update, which would have required Steam and PSN account linking for new players and for current players beginning 30th May, will not be moving forward.”

The platform holder, rather candidly, admitted it’s still learning what’s best for the PC market: “We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans.” This perhaps kills dead any hopes the manufacturer had of adding PC players to its monthly active users.

While it’s not entirely uncommon for third-party publishers to require account linking with an external service, it seems Sony’s decision to implement such a feature was considered an affront to PC players. Helldivers 2 received hundreds of thousands of negative reviews in a matter of days, and the campaign even extended to unrelated games.

While much of the noise seemed like an overreaction, a handful of gamers did have a legitimate complaint: PSN is not legally supported in their country. Sony only served to heighten tensions by wholesale removing the game from sale in those regions. Presumably it’ll be reinstated now this whole sorry saga has been reversed.

Ultimately, it remains to be seen how PlayStation moves forward here. Part of its PC strategy – as is the case with other publishers, such as Microsoft – has revolved around embedding a new audience into its ecosystem. This reversal effectively kills dead any hopes it ever has of enforcing a PSN account login on PC, which is ultimately going to dull its overall strategy here.