Things in the world of Helldivers 2 are going back to normal after Sony reversed course on a controversial PSN login requirement for the popular sci-fi shooter on PC. But not everyone appears to have made it out of the public relations fiasco in one piece. Arrowhead Studios community manager Spitz is seemingly no longer a part of the team after encouraging players to review-bomb and refund the game to get Sony to change its mind.
“Today is a dark day,” Spitz ominously wrote in the Helldivers 2 Discord on May 7. Players began to notice something was up when the community manager’s account was removed from the dispatch channel where the Arrowhead team drops lore bites around recent in-game Galactic War updates. “Soo Who gonna do the high-command-dispatches,” asked one player. “Not me,” Spitz wrote back. They didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The community manager had previously been missing from the Discord shortly after players started revolting against the return of a requirement that they log into a PSN account before playing on Steam. Spitz initially made comments that the community outrage was overblown before later pivoting to the idea that review bombing the game would give Arrowhead more leverage to get out of the Sony requirement.
“Players making their displeasure known through reviews, refunds etc. gives us more pull in the discussion with Sony,” Spitz wrote in Discord on May 4. “It hurts to see the game’s popularity suffer in ratings, but discussions are ongoing and we are on the side of players in this fight.” Players proceeded to leave over 150,000 negative reviews and request refunds while the game was removed from sale on PC in hundreds of countries that don’t support PSN accounts.
Sony eventually backed off the requirement, after which Spitz returned to the Helldivers 2 Discord on May 6 to say they’d almost lost their job. “Almost. Not quite,” they wrote after someone asked if they’d been fired. “Turns out that telling people to review-bomb and refund a game isn’t a popular decision with the publisher. But I’m still here and I’m glad that we all made a difference.”
That no longer seems to be the case. It’s unclear if Spitz was simply moved from the community manager role to a different position or was fired from Arrowhead entirely. Some players have suggested Spitz may have quit. At least one hundred players have signed a petition for the community manager to return. “I find it really sad that people are calling for individuals to be fired,” wrote on fan on the Discord. “No matter who it is, they are a person. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone can do better.”
Arrowhead and Sony didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
