Helldivers 2 Spent Nearly 8 Years in Development

Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 is available now for PS5 and PC and already off to a strong start. It’s peaked at 155,926 concurrent players on Steam, despite some issues at launch and shown no signs of slowing down. Amid its success, studio CEO Johan Pilestedt revealed that the sequel has been in development for nearly eight years.

He tweeted, “Helldivers 2 finally launched, seven years, 11 months, and 26 days of my life spent making a game that truly devolves into a farce of my favourite movies and books from my upbringing.” Said movies include Starship Troopers, which the series takes heavy inspiration from.

Over the years, Arrowhead was also busy adding new content and features to Helldivers 1, from expansions to the Dive Harder Edition with new modes like Proving Grounds. The latter launched in December 2015, but other updates, like A New Hell with additional difficulty options, enemies and Stratagems, arrived as late as October 2018.

As for the future of Helldivers 2, the developer confirmed that it would add new enemies, biomes, objectives and story content over time. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Ok! #Helldivers2 finally launched, 7 years, 11 months and 26 days of my life spent on making a game that truly devolves into a farce of my favourite movies and books from my upbringing. Thank you all for being in in the joke of shouldering the cape of a totalitarian soldier. <3

— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) February 10, 2024