Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released the Polar Patriots Premium Warbond as planned after the boss of the studio polled fans on whether it should go ahead so soon after what he called “negative sentiment” over the game’s PlayStation Network account linking.

Sony’s controversial decision to force Helldivers 2 PC gamers to account link to PlayStation Network saw the game’s Steam user review rating collapse from ‘overwhelmingly positive’ to ‘mostly negative’ after over 200,000 negative reviews flooded Valve’s platform. The sheer volume of negative reviews left in such a short space of time caused Johan Pilestedt, boss of developer Arrowhead, to tweet: “Ouch, right in the review score.” Sony subsequently U-turned on its decision, but Pilestedt has admitted Arrowhead must now rebuild trust with its community.

Overnight, Pilestedt polled his Twitter followers asking if Arrowhead should go ahead and release the Warbond following recent events. “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,” he tweeted. “So please guide us, would you rather have the new Warbond: Polar Patriots.”

Two options were given: Release Tomorrow or Delay Release. Release Tomorrow won out, with over 70% of the vote, and today, May 9, it has launched.

Thank you everybody for your contribution. Democracy has spoken!

— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 9, 2024 The release of the Premium Warbond comes after a difficult couple of weeks for Arrowhead, which has run up against publisher and Helldivers IP owner Sony over the proposed PSN account link mandate and fought to keep its vocal hardcore fans on-side. Some Arrowhead staff had voiced their displeasure at the news, with statements made on the Helldivers Discord pored over by the game’s community.