Helldivers 2 developer reveals ‘lowest point’ after PlayStation boss calls to discuss early struggles

Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani has described the moment the CEO of PlayStation Studios, Hermen Hulst, called him following Helldivers 2’s plunge in popularity and player sentiment.

Helldivers 2 was released last year and became a surprise hit. The game, which was a sequel to a little-played PS4 title, gained a massive audience, largely to the surprise of its developer, Arrowhead. While fans praised Helldivers 2’s gameplay, a series of unforced errors eventually led to a brief player revolt.

Following its successful launch, Sony stated that the game would soon require players to sign into the Steam version with a PlayStation Network account, and that all players would need to have linked their Steam and PlayStation Network accounts by June 4.

That news was met with huge backlash from players, and the game was hit with over 100,000 negative reviews on Steam in less than 48 hours, negativity that continued when the game was pulled from over 150 countries on Steam, due to them not having access to the PlayStation Network.

Sony would later reverse the decision, but many within Arrowhead and Sony feared the damage was done.

Arrowhead boss Shams Jorjani has now opened up about the moment the PlayStation boss called him to discuss how to revive the game.

“Maybe the lowest point during my tenure so far,” Jorjani told The Game Business. “I had to explain to the CEO why things were in the state they were, and what we were going to do to recover. And I had to say the awkward truth that there is nothing we can do in the short term. But in the long term, we have plans that will get us back on track.”

Sony said last May that Helldivers 2 had become PlayStation’s fastest-selling game launch ever, with sales “far exceeding expectations” at 12 million copies sold across PC and PS5 in its first 12 weeks.

That saw the live service game beat the 11 million copies sold in 10 weeks achieved by God of War Ragnarök in2023, according to the platform holder.

Jorjani also revealed that he took great inspiration from No Man’s Sky, another live service smash that was hit with a colossal wave of player revolt.

“I was inspired by No Man’s Sky and the team over there,” Jorjani says. “They had a similar journey. The game was hyped, then bombed, and then they put the head to the grindstone and just updated the game.”

Jorjani also described the jump in audience size for the game, and thus, audience expectation: “We were the same people we were 12 months ago. But suddenly, we’re in a different league. We were playing like in Division Three and now we’re in Champions League. And it takes time for us to figure that out. We are being scrutinized against a different standard. We need to rise to the occasion. But there’s a bit of a lagging effect to that as we catch up.”