Helldivers 2 continues its stellar run as a hot new multiplayer game, the Sony release doing incredibly well on Steam, part of the company’s PC-infused philosophy for live titles.
There is no official roadmap for Helldivers 2, but Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has been more than a little chatty on social media when it comes to talking about the game’s successes, failures, monetization and future update plans. Certainly more vocal than almost every other studio head I’ve seen.
Since a lot of this is buried in his replies, there are some interesting things to dig out here that I thought was worth featuring.
- On monetization, and concerns about paying for certain loot being “pay-to-win”: “I’m partial but we really applied ourselves to not make it p2w even though items are functionally different. The only item that’s p2w is the revolver – which will win you any “cool gun” competition. Only (minor) problem is that it’s not that good… “You have to earn the right to monetize” – I truly believe that. If people want to support this title they have an option, but we are never forcing anyone to do so.”
- On what he doesn’t like in Helldivers 2 right now: “I dislike the matchmaking. Everything else rocks! Well…actually, I don’t like that there’s no weapon customization.”
- On those disappointed by server issues: “Sorry for ruining your game night. I know what it feels like, and time is our most precious resource. I really want us to do good and ensure that our lovely community can rely on us as a studio.”
- On the concept of multi-squad raids, 8 or 16 players in a mission: “It actually exists in the “wild ideas but probably too hard to do” section of future content. It comes down to network traffic and assumptions in regards to how the game is built.”
- On an idea that helmets could have heat or night vision: “It’s actually one of the features that (unfortunately) had to be cut on the drawing board. Each helmet was supposed to have a visual trait or other boon (range finders, enemy stats, trajectory prediction, flashlight, night vision etc.)”
- On armor color customization: “It would be cool to have that basic func! Lemme bring it up with the team in the next design roundtable. No promises though!”
- On putting out an actual roadmap for future content: “Ironically. A roadmap was on our roadmap… But then our roadmap changed to prioritize the matchmaking issue There will be one, but we don’t want to spoil story beats with it.”
And all of this is just the last few days. It’s refreshing to see a CEO like Pilestedt be so forthcoming online, sharing ideas, receiving feedback. It’s great to see, and it gives some insight on what might be coming in the future. A roadmap for their roadmap, it seems.
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