What you need to know
- Helldivers 2 is a third-person co-op shooter developed by Arrowhead Game Studios that released on Windows PC and PS5 in February.
- The game quickly became a massive hit shortly after its launch, with fans falling in love with the game's chaotic action and hilarious Starship Troopers-inspired satire. Unsurprisingly, many Xbox users have been asking for a port of the game.
- However, Helldivers 2 is published by Sony and is a PlayStation console exclusive, so whether the game eventually gets an Xbox version or not is up to Sony.
- Arrowhead community manager Thomas "Twinbeard" Petersson explained this on the official Helldivers 2 Discord server on Wednesday morning, noting that Sony might bring the game to Xbox "if both partners think it would benefit them from a financial/brand standpoint."
- An Xbox release could help raise Helldivers 2's player count higher, and would also mean lots of extra profit. However, Sony has to weigh the value of this against the game's ability to help sell PS5 hardware.
Arrowhead Game Studios' chaotic co-op shooter Helldivers 2 rapidly became a colossal hit and one of the best PC games when it launched on Windows PC and PS5 in February, with players falling in love with the game's high-octane action as well as its hilarious Starship Troopers-style satire. It's not surprising, then, that Xbox users have been clamoring for a release on Microsoft's consoles since its release — but since it's a PlayStation console exclusive, it's ultimately up to Sony to greenlight an Xbox version, which is what Arrowhead has told fans throughout 2024.
The studio's community manager Thomas "Twinbeard" Petersson reiterated this to players in a statement on Wednesday morning, though he included some additional context that goes over why the PlayStation maker might eventually agree to bring Helldivers 2 to its rival console.
"Who says it couldn't? It's not up to us but to Sony and Phil to duke out, but hypothetically speaking, if both partners think it would benefit them from a financial/brand standpoint, it could. If Sony believes it won't though, it won't," Petersson wrote in reply to someone asking about an Xbox port in the official Helldivers 2 Discord server.
Ultimately, this really isn't anything that we didn't already know, though Petersson's comment reminds me of the reasons why Microsoft and Xbox brought Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves to PlayStation earlier this year. At the time, Xbox head and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer explained that the former two were smaller titles that were no longer selling much, while the latter pair are live-service "community" games that benefit from having as many players as possible.
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Helldivers 2 definitely fits into the latter category, and given that there's no real developer-made alternative to the Helldivers gameplay experience (Halo Infinite Forgers are making something pretty fantastic), I'm sure tons of Xbox players would flock to the shooter if it got a port. In fact, those reinforcements may even elevate Helldivers 2's overall player count near the heights it reached closer to its launch, especially if the game runs well on Xbox Series X|S.
Sales of Arrowhead's co-op title also seem to have slowed down quite a bit since February, with the game currently ranked in the 37th position on Steam's top sellers list; previously, it was in the top five for several months. I'm sure Helldivers 2 is still making good money, and it's already proven to be more successful than anyone ever hoped it'd be, but an Xbox release would help rake in even more profit.
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Sony has to weigh the benefits of a higher player count and extra revenue against Helldivers 2's ability as an exclusive to move PS5 hardware, and that's data only it is privy to. As Petersson said, the firm may approach Microsoft and try to work something out if the value is there, but if it determines the best course of action for its business is to keep the game exclusive, it's all but certain that that is what will happen.
Helldivers 2 itself is in one of the best states it's been in for months right now, with recent tweaks and balance patches striking a very nice difficulty and sandbox balance. I've had a ton of fun going back to the front lines of the Galactic War with my friends lately, and all of us are looking forward to the game's faux "Liberty Day" holiday on October 26. In the original Helldivers, players were given surprise new weapons and stratagems to take into battle on this day, so I'm hoping something similar happens in the sequel this weekend.
Xbox (and Windows PC) users, meanwhile, can look forward to Helljumpers — the community-made Halo Infinite Helldivers 2 mode I linked to above — coming out a day earlier on October 25. Made by the talented The Forge Falcons team, the mode uses the entire budget of Halo Infinite's robust Forge level editor, uses over 4,000 code scripts, and features everything from randomized objectives and drop pod spawns to custom-made stratagems. Notably, since Halo Infinite multiplayer is free-to-play, you can try it out on Xbox and PC without spending a penny.
