Helldivers 2 creative director and CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios Johan Pilestedt says games should have to “earn the right to monetise,” and that the developer wanted to avoid making their newest game pay to win.
Pilestedt’s comments come from an X (formerly Twitter) thread in response to a post from a player who noted that Helldivers 2 wasn’t pay-to-win, because Super Credits can be earned by “[playing] the damn game.” In his reply, the Arrowhead CEO said the team “really applied ourselves to not make it [pay-to-win] even though items are functionally different.”
“The only item that’s pay-to-win is the revolver – which will win you any “cool gun” competition,” he added. “Only (minor) problem is that it’s not that good.” Pilestedt went on to respond to another user who was happy to see Helldivers 2 not going down the pay-to-win route which they believe causes many live service titles to die off.
“‘You have to earn the right to monetize’ – I truly believe that,” he said. “If people want to support this title they have an option, but we are never forcing anyone to do so.”
As mentioned by the user that sparked the discussion, Helldivers 2 players can purchase Super Credits to unlock exclusive armour from the Superstore. However, these credits can also be found by exploring diamond icons on the map (for points of interest). While this free method of earning the premium currency is, of course, slower than shelling out real-life money for a lump sum, it does still offer players the option to purchase premium items without spending additional funds.
Helldivers 2 launched last Thursday and has managed to beat God of War as PlayStation’s biggest Steam launch, with over 155,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend, according to SteamDB. The title has received mostly positive reviews on Steam (from 26,000 reviews in four days) as players get stuck into the much-anticipated sequel to the first Helldivers.
Whether Helldivers 2’s success is in part due to Arrowhead’s philosophy around pay-to-win and the live service elements of the title is of course up for discussion, but it looks like Pilestedt and the team is hellbent on ensuring players have the choice of whether to spend their hard-earned bucks without impacting overall gameplay.
Image: Arrowhead Game Studios / PlayStation
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