As a live-service title, Helldivers 2 has seen a tonne of ups-and-downs over its two-year history. Right now, despite a major update releasing just yesterday, the game is currently in one of those downs as players cite frustrations with the sheer number of warbonds and the lack of promised progression updates.
At the time of writing, Arrowhead is working on “meaningful progression” overhauls that will come to the game. In a recent discussion with fans, creative director Johan Pilestedt explained that “there are multiple plans and discussions” regarding progression, but major changes like this “takes time to get right”.
In a follow-up discussion with fans following the release of Helldivers 2’s 6.2.2. update, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani explained that managing a live-service game is not easy. While fans may comment on the directions that a game should take—or YouTube videos may claim what they think a game needs—the CEO explains that “it’s not an exact science”.
“We’ve had times when we’ve done tons of testing (internally and externally) and got OK feedback – only for it to be received much better than anticipated,” Jorjani said. While some updates are well received by devs, they may not be well received by fans, and vice versa.
Jorjani explains that, as the game continues, the community evolves with player expectations shifting over time, which can also make developing updates even harder. “The community changes as well,” Jorjani said. “You like one thing when you’ve played 10 hours vs 100 hours vs 1000 hours.”
The Arrowhead CEO explained that the launch of Helldivers 2 on Xbox was one example of the community shifting. “When we released on Xbox there was a ton of new players and the overall taste of the ‘community’ shifted,” the CEO said. “Live service is tricky as hell.”
While the community has asked for major features like 8-player missions and multi-faction missions, it seems that many highly-requested wants from the community are not easy to create. Arrowhead has confirmed that there are discussions regarding multi-faction battles—which would see multiple enemy forces come together in a single match, and other “sequel-level features”, but they may not ever come.
Right now, Arrowhead is currently investing in its internal game engine to be able to continue expanding Helldivers 2. “It’s a fine engine,” Jorjani said in the past. “We’ve just not invested enough in keeping up ship shape. We’re doing more there now than ever.”
