Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 is currently one of the most popular co-op video games in the world, however, its journey was full of ups and downs. When the game was released in February 2024, it quickly became a worldwide sensation. However, a few months later, the game lost 90% of its player base. This was primarily due to the fact that the game no longer offered an exciting experience as Arrowhead made unnecessary nerfs and failed to add more content.
By July 2024, the game was on the verge of dying, but Arrowhead came up with a 60-day plan to save the game. At the time, the studio had been working on a lot of new content. However, all of that was put on the back burner because they realised that the game didn’t need new content, it needed to be fixed.
Arrowhead Game Studios pushed back a lot of new content to save Helldivers 2
In November 2024, Arrowhead Game Studios’ bosses, Johan Pilestdt and Shams Zorjani, appeared at the G-STAR Conference (G-CON) to talk Helldivers 2‘s strong comeback and the success of Arrowhead’s 60-day plan. During the conversation, Zorjani revealed that the studio pushed back a lot of new content when the game was losing popularity because the studio wanted to focus on improving the game. As reported by Inven, he said (translated from Korean),
We reviewed all these comments and complaints and prioritized the tasks that we had to solve first. Adding new weapons, mechanics, and stratagems was also necessary, but it was pushed back. To be honest, we admit that, what’s the point of adding something new when the game is broken? The most important thing was to get the game back to normal. So we calculated the time required for this work and announced that we would devote 60 days to fixing it, and asked for Sony’s cooperation. This process was not easy, but somehow we got it done.
It would be an understatement to say that Arrowhead “got it done,” because it not only managed to revive the hype for the game among existing players, but also managed to get a lot of new gamers on board. The game’s popularity multiplied by the end of November 2024, all thanks to the 60-day plan.
But what did the studio do in 60 days that saved a game that was almost finished? They simply listened to the fans. Arrowhead made so many nerfs to weapons and Stratagems hoping that it would balance the game. However, it completely ruined the gaming experience. As a part of their 60-day strategy, they started by buffing all the fan-favorite weapons and Stratagems that were nerfed.
The Omens of Tyranny update successfully boosted Helldivers 2‘s active player count
Shortly after fixing the game, Arrowhead moved on to adding new content to the game. This phase started with a bang as the studio added a new faction to the game, the Illuminate, as a part of the Omens of Tyranny update. The update convinced many veterans as well as beginners to play the game, successfully boosting its active player count.
The studio can’t be completely blamed for Helldivers 2‘s sudden downfall as Sony also had a lot to do with it. The company decided to impose a policy on PC players that forced them to create a PSN account to play the game. Since the PlayStation Network is banned in a few countries, players residing there had no other option but to delete the game. All in all, Arrowhead has now realized where it went wrong, and judging by its current strategy, it seems like it won’t make that mistake again any time soon.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
