Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has indicated it will slow down the release of patches in order to take more time to get them right.
The explosive PlayStation 5 and PC co-op shooter has set PlayStation sales records, and since launch Arrowhead has fed the live service beast with regularly released patches and Premium Warbonds to keep players interested.
But the game’s community has called on the developer to slow down when it comes to significant balance changes as well as Warbond releases, feeling Arrowhead has sometimes gone too far with nerfs and failed to include meta-affecting weapons and gear in the Warbonds.
Indeed earlier this month, in response to a player who said "Helldivers has just become un-fun for me" regarding balancing changes, Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt commented: "Hey, yeah I think we've gone too far in some areas. Will talk to the team about the approach to balance. It feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed."
Today, March 21, amid the expectation Helldivers 2 would get yet another significant balance patch, Arrowhead community manager Twinbeard took to the game’s Discord to let the community know about plans to calm things down a bit.
“We want to take some more time for this one and potentially between future patches since we feel cadence has probably been a bit too high to be able to maintain the quality standard we want and you deserve,” Twinbeard said.
“Patching a lot risks can easily disrupt work flow and takes more resources than you might think; it needs planning, implementing, monitoring, possible tweaking in hotfixes etc. For this one we prefer to stretch it out a little, hopefully with a good result.”
Then, responding to a user who asked if big balance patches would be released bi-weekly or monthly from now on, Twinbeard replied: “Nothing that detailed is decided. I'd say it's sth we have to try out and get a feel for. ATM we feel a slightly lower cadence overall will benefit both us, you and the game.”
Fans have reacted positively to the news and called on Arrowhead to take all the time it needs to get things right. Meanwhile, the Helldivers 2 community is currently wondering how it can get more people fighting against the Automatons instead of the Terminids with progress in the Galactic War at stake.
Arrowhead is emerging from a turbulent period in which it butted heads with publisher Sony over a requirement to link Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account. Sony U-turned after a backlash, but Helldivers 2 remains unavailable for sale in countries in which PSN is not live.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
