What you need to know
- Helldivers 2, a new co-op third-person PvE shooter, has been an explosive success for Arrowhead Game Studios and PlayStation Studios, with the game reaching over 150,000 concurrent players on Steam last weekend. It's been at the apex of Steam's Top Sellers chart since its release last week, too.
- In the wake of the astronomical launch, Arrowhead is looking to hire new developers as it gets ready to "accelerate and beef up" plans for content updates.
- Earlier this week, Arrowhead CEO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt said that the Stockholm-based studio is "hellbent on making this the best co-op game of all time."
- Helldivers 2 is notable for being the first major PlayStation console exclusive game to also launch simultaneously on PC. Past exclusives like Death Stranding, Marvel's Spider-Man, and God of War have come out on PC months or years after their arrival on PlayStation.
Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studios' new chaotic co-op third-person PvE shooter that feels like the military satire of Starship Troopers had a baby with the gritty sci-fi warfare of Terminator, has blown up the internet since its launch last week. It achieved a new record for PlayStation Studios by reaching over 150,000 concurrent players on Steam last weekend — at the time of writing on Tuesday morning, it's at just under 124,000 — and despite the bugs and launch issues that've arisen from all that success, ranks of fans ready to do their part have continued to swell, with the game itself still at the apex of Steam's Top Sellers chart.
Now, in the wake of that explosive start, Arrowhead is calling for reinforcements for its development teams as it looks to "accelerate and beef up" its plans for future content updates. The studio's CEO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt put out the recruitment ad on X (Twitter), noting that senior developers should fill out one of Arrowhead's open applications.
"With the success of @helldivers2, we are going to start looking for more amazing developers that can help us accelerate and beef up our content plans," wrote Pilestedt. "Jobs will be going up soon, but if you are a senior dev there's always the 'open application.' Enlist today with @ArrowheadGS."
According to the job listings on Arrowhead's website, the Stockholm-based developer is currently looking to recruit a talent acquisition partner, a production director, a monetization designer, and a variety of programmers and engineers. "Monetization designer" is a bit eyebrow-raising, but between Pilestedt's belief that "you have to earn the right to monetize" and Helldivers 2's current, very reasonable microtransactions, I'm not worried about greedy forms of monetization coming to the co-op shooter.
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Ultimately, there's no roadmap for future Helldivers 2 content yet, but Arrowhead's Community & Support team has confirmed that one's coming soon in the official Helldivers 2 Discord server. Given that the studio's listed goal is "being the best co-op studio in the world" and that it's "hellbent on making this the best co-op game of all time," I'm expecting ambitious plans for lots of new democracy-spreading weapons, gear, and stratagem call-ins, as well as new enemies to blast apart and new worlds to liberate.
"Indeed. I mean ... So much ... It is lovely seeing so many people have so much fun, and we are hellbent on making this the best co-op game of all time," said Pilestedt on Sunday in response to a fan commenting that the developer was "suffering from success." At the time, Helldivers 2 was having some big server issues, but now that things are, overall, pretty stable, I'm excited to see the studio reveal what it's planning for the game's future.
Analysis: The future looks bright
With its amazing gunplay, tense high-octane action that all-but-demands effective teamwork, and immaculate visual presentation and sound design, Helldivers 2 has quickly become one of my favorite co-op games to play with my friends, as well as my favorite game of 2024 so far. Thus, I'm ecstatic to see that Arrowhead is taking advantage of its astronomical launch to accelerate its plans for the game's future, and I can't wait to see the contents of that upcoming roadmap. Undoubtedly, Helldivers 2 has a bright future ahead of it.
I'm also hoping that moving forward, Sony — which is surely very pleased with Helldivers 2's success on Steam so far — brings more of its PlayStation console exclusives to PC on day one as Microsoft does with Xbox titles. I wouldn't be surprised if this continues to happen with live service multiplayer games, though Sony might still choose to keep exclusive single-player offerings console-only for a few years post-release like it did with Marvel's Spider-Man and God of War.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it's one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
