The boss of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has addressed participant concern about bugs (not these bugs) as the studio continues to launch new content material and new premium warbonds.
Since Helldivers 2’s explosive launch on PlayStation 5 and PC in February, Arrowhead has maintained a month-to-month launch schedule for brand spanking new premium warbonds. They’re basically new battle passes that gamers work by way of to unlock new content material, corresponding to new weapons, new armor, and new cosmetics. Premium warbonds are unlocked by way of an in-game foreign money that may be obtained by way of gameplay, however may also be purchased with real-world cash.
In the meantime, Arrowhead maintains the Galactic Struggle, Helldivers 2’s meta narrative that has captivated the neighborhood since launch. Game Grasp Joel is pulling the strings from behind the scenes, issuing main orders that focus the participant base on sure energetic fronts, lending Helldivers 2 an ongoing storyline although no single-player marketing campaign exists.
After which, on high of all that, Arrowhead provides new enemies, weapons, and even ship upgrades to the sport, typically with out announcement so gamers can uncover them for themselves.
However Helldivers 2 will not be with out its bugs. In truth, Arrowhead itself publishes a listing of recognized points it’s at present engaged on at the same time as it really works on new content material for the sport. A few of these are significantly problematic, corresponding to these affecting how weapons and some stratagems work, and gamers’ means to play with the associates.
It’s this push and pull between fixing bugs and releasing new content material that has sparked a debate inside the Helldivers 2 neighborhood, with some calling on Arrowhead to down instruments on issues like premium warbonds so as to deal with bugs. Some have even steered Arrowhead is below strain from writer Sony or different traders to launch premium warbonds so as to hit income targets.
Enter Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt, who addressed one redditor’s post with a proof for a way the studio is approaching ongoing improvement of the Helldivers 2 stay service. From the feedback, it’s clear Pilestedt believes it’s vital to launch a gentle stream of content material to ensure that Helldivers 2 to stay related in what’s an extremely aggressive enterprise for stay service video games, but additionally rejects the concept that Arrowhead is simply too small to do repair the sport at the similar time.
“Let me add some context,” Pilestedt started. “Arrowhead is independently owned by folks working at the studio and not swayed by shareholders in the conventional sense. After all we’re in a fantastic partnership with Sony the place we agree on targets to hit and so on. However there is not a forcing operate or requirement per se.
“We wish to ship the greatest in the trade and we’re calibrating our efforts of fixing vs new stuff. It’s straightforward to say ‘simply repair, do not add’, however the actuality of the competitiveness on this trade is that we’ve got to do each to keep related.
“We’re figuring it out, the calls for and expectations on the studio is excessive, all eyes are on us, and we’ve got a sole function – to make this the greatest stay sport you have ever performed. We simply want to discover our stride and steadiness.
“It’s a scorching subject at the studio, and I am sorry for the sloppy errors we have made as of latest.”
Then, in a subsequent post, Pilestedt defined additional: “… please don’t see this as a defensive publish. I do know we will do higher as a studio. Additionally, my intention was simply to say that the video games trade is a sophisticated beast. We’d like to keep related and preserve everybody entertained whereas fixing stuff. The expectations from our associates at PlayStation are fairly easy: ‘make nice sport for gamers. We belief you.’
“No person is forcing us. However at the similar time, the strain is actual 🤔 😅 it’s totally summary. All love 💝”
(*2*), insisting that whereas it’s small in contrast to some triple-A studios, it shouldn’t be thought-about small. Arrowhead has round 100 folks engaged on Helldivers 2, which is 20 occasions greater than it had engaged on Magicka, its earlier sport, and 7.5 occasions bigger than the Helldivers 1 crew.
“We’re optimizing our processes and hiring devs to enhance the crew,” Pilestedt added. “However 100 continues to be an honest measurement for a improvement crew, and we conscious of the points in the releases – we’ll do higher in the future.”
Arrowhead just lately launched Helldivers 2’s third premium warbond, dubbed Democratic Detonation, and added the terrifying Manufacturing unit Striders to the Automaton entrance. In the event you’re searching for extra on Helldivers 2, try IGN’s characteristic on the Let Me Solo Her of Helldivers 2, a participant who has answered over 100 SOS Beacons as a part of a mission to assist others.
Helldivers 2 has turn out to be one among the shock hits of 2024 since launching in February, topping the charts on Steam and reportedly selling around three million copies. In accordance to at least one analyst, it is nonetheless rising. Take a look at IGN’s Helldivers 2 assessment to discover out why it is happening so properly.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.