Heavy is the head that wears the crown, or in Johan Pilestedt’s case, it’s whatever cosmetic-only helmet he fancies for his next playthrough in Helldivers 2.
Arrowhead Game Studios’ co-op third-person shooter has quickly shot up gaming charts ever since launching on February 8, quickly becoming one of the most-played titles on Steam and PlayStation 5. It has recruited a horde of fans to the cause, willingly spreading democracy by blowing up everything from Terimind aliens to Automaton robots to space dust with equal prejudice. However, this immediate success has come with its fair share of issues.
Just as the Automatons would’ve caught everyone by surprise in a recent event if not for the quick if overeager response from battle-hungry grunts who are willing to throw lives for the larger cause at a moment’s notice, the Helldivers 2 development team found itself biting off more than it chew.
Almost immediately since it launched, Helldivers 2 found itself bombarded by different bugs and issues. By “blowing through estimates”, Helldivers 2 overloaded the servers and forced the developers to go for days with little to no sleep, even after its launch weekend ended. But just as things are starting to look better for Helldivers 2, another ordeal comes – a new weekend.
An understandably tired but “very, very pleased” Pilestedt addressed the incoming weekend on X, rallying the troops and increasing morale. “While I dread this weekend from a technical perspective, the team has done a fantastic job in ironing out the kinks and I hope you all will be able to have a great time playing the game,” shared Pilestedt.
According to Pilestedt, many if Helldivers 2’s “various subsystems” weren’t doing so well last weekend (“NOT OK”, was the term he used) but now they’re all doing a lot better, suggesting that the servers are more than prepared for the expected influx of players over the next couple of days.
Fingers crossed, Pilestedt has his wishes heard if only for the weekend so the development team – they’re hiring, by the way – can take a breather.
Helldivers 2 finds itself part of a curious pair of platform exclusives that are performing much better than expected to start the year. The first one, Palworld, has mellowed from its record-setting peak but it’s still pulling in over 300,000 players on Steam. Meanwhile, Helldivers 2, following an initial delay, finds itself putting up record numbers on Steam as players live out their wildest Starship Troopersdreams, one bug or at a time.
