Update (5/7): Speaking with players on the helldivers2Discord server, the community manager in question implied that employment at Arrowhead had actually ended, and in response to the question of whether the "all wars have casualties" split was voluntary, they said, "it wasn't."

Here's the original story they said they were "almost" fired:

Original Story: Helldivers 2 The community finally defeated its sword to plow after Sony surrendered to the controversial PlayStation Network sign-in requirements

No, I'm not talking about anyone at Sony could have seen this coming and heading off an unnecessary crisis. No, I'm talking about one of Helldivers 2's outspoken community managers, Spitz, who probably became a bit too outspoken on the record when talking to the game's Riot player base.

Community managers stopped active posting to Helldivers2Discord after Saturday, the day after the controversy began. Earlier this morning, Spitz returned to the server and responded to concerns that they might have been fired, saying, "Almost, not quite.

Spitz said, "Telling people to review the game and refund it turned out to be not a popular decision for publishers. But I'm still here and I'm glad that we've all made a difference."

During the height of the weekend's Helldivers2PSN debacle, community managers argued that negative Steam reviews were a more effective way to move the needle with Sony, and Arrowhead's developers were in a situation

"informing players of discomfort through reviews, refunds, etc." We give more pull in discussions with Sony," Spitz wrote Saturday. "It hurts to see the popularity of the game suffer ratings, but the debate is ongoing and we're on the player's side in this fight."

And I don't think you can reasonably argue that Spitz was wrong here — fan outrage led Sony to reverse that decision, and the plunge in Helldivers2's ratings on Steam served as a harsh, undeniable way to convey that discomfort. I crossed my fingers that arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt is committed to a bit on his idol observation that the plunging review score graph would actually make a cape in a nice commemorative game.

Here we can observe an overview of the cultural clash between the quirky and independent Arrowhead and the more button operations of one of the biggest companies on the planet - indeed, Spitz is Helldivers

and a crisis like one Helldivers2 is the biggest one anyone in a role facing publicly in a game studio could face. The challenge. In 2016, we delved deeper into what managing the gaming community is like.