Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt believes that the studio will have to simultaneously add more content to Helldivers 2, while also fixing any issues that players might encounter in order for the game, to “stay relevant”. Responding to a thread on Reddit, Pilestedt talked about how the studio has been working towards this goal.
“Arrowhead is independently owned by people working at the studio and not swayed by shareholders in the traditional sense,” Pilestedt wrote. “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. It’s a hot topic at the studio, and I’m sorry for the sloppy mistakes we’ve made as of recent.”
Arrowhead has been releasing frequent updates and new content for Helldivers 2 through patches, Major Orders, and the release of multiple Warbonds, which bring new weapons, armour, and cosmetics to the game. Since the game’s release, the studio has also added new content in the form of Stratagems, like the mech suit, and other upgrades.
Despite the addition of new content, Helldivers 2 still faces some issues, like any game would, which largely revolve around bugs experienced by the player base. An example of one such bug is that, when the mech suit was first released, shooting a missile from it while also turning would cause the suit to take an immense amount of damage. This bug was eventually fixed, however.
Pilestedt continued interacting in the Reddit AMA thread in a later post, saying, “My intention was just to say that the games industry is a complicated beast. We need to stay relevant and keep everyone entertained while fixing stuff. The expectations from our friends at PlayStation are pretty simple: ‘make great game for players. We trust you.’ Nobody is forcing us. But at the same time, the pressure is real, it’s very abstract. All love.”
Helldivers 2 recently got an update that fixed various crashes, as well as the CE-27 Ground Breaker armour passive. For more details, check out the patch notes here. The game is currently available on PC and PS5.