After players were urged to leave negative reviews on Helldivers 2's Steam store page, Arrowhead's community manager Spitz has been fired from the company. Now, players want him back and have started a petition on change.org asking Arrowhead to reinstate Spitz, just as he "restored the trust of [his] community."
Helldivers 2 – Escalation of Freedom Update is here, but there's bad news
And not only that. The petition, which was submitted to change.org on Tuesday, also calls for the “canonization of General Spitz into Helldivers lore.” Spitz was known as a controversial community manager who sparked several heated discussions about the game, including asking players to review Helldivers 2 in an attempt to thwart Sony’s attempts to introduce a mandatory PSN login.
This latest controversy has seen him removed from the position of community manager, alongside apparent appreciation from a large portion of the player base. Arrowhead has not yet responded to the petition, and we have reached out to the studio for comment and will update this article when appropriate.
For the uninitiated, Sony attempted to make PlayStation Network registration mandatory for all new and existing Helldivers 2 players, effective May 6th and May 30th respectively. However, following massive player backlash, which briefly made Helldivers 2 the most negatively reviewed game on Steam, Sony backed down and announced that linking PSN accounts would remain optional. Spitz, one of Arrowhead's most active community managers, encouraged players to continually and massively review the game in an attempt to prevent Sony from continuing with the account linking mandate. The review bombardment was successful, but it appears Spitz's comments led to his firing.
