How do you know things are going poorly with a video game launch? Well, when the CEO starts getting down with Reddit threads as a way to manage emotions.
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt responded to a lengthy Helldivers 2 diatribe on Reddit (here). In summary, the poster, who goes by TheGentlemanCEO, essentially said that Arrowhead Studios has the right to make the game how they see fit. The poster urges players who are deeply bothered by the game’s state to take a break instead of continuously voicing their frustrations. They emphasize that most players still enjoy Helldivers 2 despite its imperfections.
Arrowhead is likely under contract with Sony to produce regular Warbonds (content updates). Thus, they can’t divert all resources to bug fixing even if the community prefers that.
Pilestedt responded, saying:
“I appreciate your sentiment and post.
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.
It’s a hot topic at the studio, and I’m sorry for the sloppy mistakes we’ve made as of recent.”
Since the initial release of Helldivers 2, Arrowhead has consistently released premium warbonds deach month. Those are battle passes that help players unlock new content like weapons and armor.
There do tend to be issues associated with the game, something Arrowhead frequently acknowledges out of the gates as a way to maintain transparency. Some players wish that Arrowhead would place less focus on the release of new warbonds and more on fixing bugs.
But there’s a lot of cool stuff happening with Helldivers 2 as well. Some of the warbonds are super dope.
But this is such a tech-forward day and age where people absolutely expect games to be polished to the core. Emotions in gaming run high to say the least.