After urging players to leave a negative review on Helldivers 2’s Steam store page, Arrowhead’s community manager, Spitz, has been let go from the company. Now, players want him back and have launched a change.org petition asking Arrowhead to restore Sptiz just as he “restored the faith of [its] community.”
And not only that. The petition, submitted to change.org on Tuesday, also calls for the “canonization of General Spitz in Helldivers lore.” Spitz was known as a controversial community manager who stirred up several heated discussions regarding the game, including asking players to review-bomb Helldivers 2 in an effort to curb Sony’s attempts at introducing a mandatory PSN sign-up.
This last controversy earned him a removal from the community manager position, alongside seeming appreciation from much of the player base. Arrowhead has yet to respond to the petition, and we have contacted the studio for comment and will update the article when appropriate.
For the uninitiated, Sony attempted to make signing up for the PlayStation Network mandatory for all new and existing Helldivers 2 players, effective on May 6 and 30, respectively. However, after massive player backlash which saw Helldivers 2 briefly become the most negatively-reviewed game on Steam, Sony backed down and announced that PSN account linking will remain optional. Spitz, one of Arrowhead’s most active community managers, encouraged players to continuously and massively review-bomb the game in an attempt to prevent Sony from going forward with the account-linking mandate. The review bombings succeeded, but it appears Spitz’s comments have led to his being fired from the position.
Players have since been reverting their negative reviews, and Helldivers 2 is slowly recovering, although the game still cannot be purchased in over 150 countries and territories after Valve delisted it from regions that do not support the PlayStation Network.
