Managed Democracy Returns to PSN-Blocked Countries After Sony Revokes Helldivers 2 Region Ban

In a stunning turn of events, it appears that Sony has lifted the region lock for Helldivers 2 in certain countries. This comes several months after Helldivers 2‘s IP owner, Sony, banned around 170 countries from accessing the game regardless of whether some people in those countries have bought it. Now, several countries have access once again to Helldivers 2 after the PSN (PlayStation Network) fiasco of 2024.

The report came from some fortunate Helldivers 2 players who announced the good news on YouTube and Reddit. YouTuber Glitch Unlimited was the first to shed light on what happened using information from the official Helldivers 2 Discord and SteamDB. In his video, Glitch Unlimited talks about how previously, 173 countries were banned from accessing Helldivers 2 on Steam simply because their countries do not have PSN services.

Here’s Glitch Unlimited’s full video about the topic:

Now, there are only 130 countries on the region lock list, meaning around 43 are now allowed to play and buy Helldivers 2 on Steam once again. For a full list of all the countries that have been allowed to play on Steam recently, here they are, courtesy of SteamDB:

1. Anguilla
2. Aruba
3. Aland Islands
4. Saint Barthélemy
5. Bermuda
6. Bonaire/Sint Eustatius/Saba
7. Bouvet Island
8. Cocos (Keeling) Islands
9. Cook Islands
10. Curaçao
11. Christmas Island
12. Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
13. Faroe Islands
14. French Guiana
15. Guernsey
16. Gibraltar
17. Greenland
18. Guadeloupe
19. South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
20. Heard and Mc Donald Islands
21. Isle of Man
22. British Indian Ocean Territory
23. Jersey
24. Cayman Islands
25. Macau
26. Martinique
27. Montserrat
28. New Caledonia
29. Norfolk Island
30. Niue
31. French Polynesia
32. Saint Pierre and Miquelon
33. Pitcairn
34. Réunion
35. Saint Helena
36. Svalbard and Jan Mayen
37. Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
38. Turks and Caicos Islands
39. French Southern Territories
40. Tokelau
41. British Virgin Islands
42. Wallis and Futuna
43. Mayotte

The Struggle’s Not Over Yet

Some Helldivers 2 players have also confirmed that they can indeed, access the game again. One player from the Channel Islands has even celebrated the new development.

The news was met with a celebration from the Helldivers 2 community, with players immediately inviting the previously banned conscripts into their ranks. The region lock lift for some countries comes at a rather opportune time since Helldiverse 2 has recently received its latest content in the form of a new enemy faction, called the Illuminate.

Related: Helldivers 2 Players Stood United Against PSN Linking Mandate for PC, & Sony Answered

Sadly, there’s still a longer list of countries that are not allowed to play Helldivers 2 on Steam. It also appears it might take a while to get those countries unbanned since each of them has different laws regarding online stores and services, especially ones that involve data collection.