A new patch hit Helldivers 2 on March 6 that unfortunately didn’t go over well with the game’s community. In Discord servers and Reddit posts, folks argued with Arrowhead Game Studios staff over the changes that were made to the third-person live-service shooter and the comments some developers gave back to the criticism they were receiving. And now, CEO Johan Pilestedt has commented on the “horrible” behaviour of his team.
Helldivers 2’s first update, patch 01.000.100, came with a lot of changes that fundamentally altered the nature of the game. There are newly introduced calamitous weather events, such as fire tornadoes and meteor showers, that you must contend with alongside the usual bugs and robots waiting to grind you up and spit you out. It also nerfed a plethora of weapons while buffing a handful of others, but it’s the negatives that have outweighed the positives for some folks, many of whom took to the game’s Discord and subreddit to complain about the changes.
As PCGamer reported, the official Helldivers 2 channels for community members have been recently inundated with players dragging the developers for what’s been perceived as an unbalanced update. According to the community, Helldivers 2 has become harder, while optimal strategies, such as the “meta” loadouts involving the OP railgun, have grown weaker as a result of the patch. It got so bad that some Arrowhead Game Studios developers began responding to the criticism with snark and sarcasm, with the comments screenshotted and then shared across the subreddit. “Man watching u all cry, amuses me so much,” said one Helldivers 2 dev in the Discord, according to redditor Curious_Influence185. “People are still clearing Helldive, so I’m not sure what to say here,” said Arrowhead Games Studios animator Fredrik Eriksson. “But ‘skill issue’ comes to mind.” There were enough statements like this that company head and creative director Johan Pilestedt stepped in to say that the comments don’t represent the studio’s ethos:
Hey! Thank you for bringing this up, this is not the intention from the studio perspective. But since I am a heavy subscriber of a communicative studio it means that I encourage developers to engage with the community. However this also exposes us to risks of miscommunication or heated arguments and it’s something that we actively discuss internally at the studio to improve on. While I understand that it reflects on the studio as a whole, it is not our intention that this should be the behavior from us. We want to ensure that you all have the best time possible in this game and in this community. As for the balance patch and the opinions surrounding it, we actively read as much as we possibly can and take what is said into consideration when we discuss things internally. Right now, the hot topic is your guys’ feedback and response to the balance adjustments and the feeling of the game experience at large.
In response to one redditor, Pilestedt said that the comments made by some Arrowhead Games Studios developers were “horrible” and he’s “extremely disappointed” in the behavior that was displayed. Responding to another redditor, Pilestedt said that the studio will teach its staff to be a little nicer.
“We are aware of this and have taken action internally to educate our developers on how to represent the organization,” Pilestedt said. “This is not a message that the studio stands behind. We are always working to make as an enjoyable experience and community that we can. We are taking your feedback and improving based on it. Thank you, all love ❤️”
Eriksson did apologize for his manners, saying he “went a little far with the trolling” and felt he needed to own up to the way fans perceived his statements.
“I’m sorry if people took offence [sic] to it, I’m not going to engage with the community anymore, since as many people have pointed out; we have a community team that should handle that,” Eriksson said. “I figured I’d have a little fun with the players, but I realize being a dev I’m in an unfair position.
Kotaku has reached out to Arrowhead Game Studios for comment.
Helldivers 2 has been a smashing success for the team. Despite struggling with some server issues following its massive February 8 launch, the third-person shooter is now trudging along toward a handful of updates that’ll introduce new gear and mechs In the near future. It seems it’s a good time to dive into hell.
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