What’s next for Helldivers 2? Making it “the best live service game you’ve ever played”

As with any live service game, plenty of Helldivers 2 players have differing opinions, but no matter what Arrowhead wants to do just one thing: make the best live service game ever.

No one really expected Helldivers 2 to blow up as much as it has, including developer Arrowhead. That much was evidenced by the myriad of server issues the game suffered from at launch, as well as some other bugs along the way (and I don’t mean the ones you’re tasked with killing). So, with a whole load of players, comes a whole load of people saying the game should do this or that. A recent post on the Helldivers subreddit from a user by the name of TheGentlemanCEO went into their own problems with the rest of players, talking about how some players wish Arrowhead would focus on bug fixes before adding more Warbonds, saying that Sony would mind if Arrowhead didn’t do so (thanks, games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-ceo-says-after-success-the-goal-now-is-simple-make-this-the-best-live-game-youve-ever-played/”>PCGamer). However, frequent poster and Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt offered some context and clarity to what the situation at the studio is actually like.

“I appreciate your sentiment and post,” wrote Pilestedt. “Let me add some context. Arrowhead is independently owned by people working at the studio and not swayed by shareholders in the traditional sense. Of course we are in a great partnership with Sony where we agree on targets to hit etc. But there isn’t a forcing function or requirement per se.

“We want to deliver the best in the industry and we are calibrating our efforts of fixing vs new stuff. It’s easy to say ‘just fix, don’t add’, but the reality of the competitiveness in this industry is that we have to do both to stay relevant. We are figuring it out, the demands and expectations on the studio is high, all eyes are on us, and we have a sole purpose – to make this the best live game you’ve ever played. We just need to find our stride and balance.”

This sub is riding fine line between constructive input and whiny entitlement.
byu/TheGentlemanCEO inHelldivers

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Live service games are certainly incredibly difficult to pull off, especially at this scale. Sure, Arrowhead might have Sony’s backing, but considering this is the studio’s first go at it, in a field where most others fail, it’s doing a pretty good job.

Earlier this week, Helldivers 2 players were set the task of killing two billion bugs in the space of a week, but they’ve managed to do it so quickly that they’re having to do… maths?