Arrowhead Wants Helldivers 2 to Be Around ‘For Years and Years and Years to Come’ — and What About a Warhammer 40,000 Collab?

Helldivers 2’s runaway occurrence continues. It’s conscionable won 2 BAFTA Game Awards: 1 for Best Multiplayer, different for Best Music. That’s from 5 nominations. The BAFTA wins bring to an extremity a fruitful video crippled awards season, drafting a enactment nether what has been a singular twelvemonth for Swedish developer Arrowhead.

Helldivers 2 accepts the triumph for Multiplayer astatine the #BAFTAGamesAwards ✨ pic.twitter.com/rYWwyc1KGR

Let’s remember, Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios crippled of each time, with an astonishing 12 cardinal copies sold successful conscionable 12 weeks. It is simply a grounds nary first-party Sony-developed crippled volition apt ever beat. But truthful overmuch has happened since that archetypal explosive release: a melodramatic U-turn connected PSN relationship requirements connected Steam, review-bomb campaigns, and a assemblage often astatine warfare with Helldivers 2 itself arsenic nerfs and buffs either went excessively acold oregon not acold enough.

Through it all, Arrowhead has struggled to header with a bigger, much mainstream playerbase than it’s ever had to contend with. But now, 14 months aft Helldivers 2 deed PC and PlayStation 5, however does Arrowhead bespeak connected what’s gone before? Has it yet started to get to grips with the brutal, unforgiving satellite of live-service? And aft that Killzone collaboration, could Warhammer 40,000 beryllium next?

IGN sat down with Alex Bolle, accumulation manager connected Helldivers 2, to find retired more.

IGN: Congratulations connected each the awards! When you were successful the heavy of improvement and things weren't possibly going arsenic good arsenic they mightiness person different been, did you ever ideate that a twelvemonth aft the crippled came retired it would beryllium considered 1 of the champion games of 2024 and triumph each these awards?

Alex Bolle: No, no, decidedly not. It's a precise humbling experience. I would accidental a twelvemonth agone exactly, we had a hint that it would beryllium a saccharine twelvemonth for us, but we were besides successful the heavy of it. We were inactive fixing a batch of things, preparing our adjacent large merchandise for the content. So no, decidedly not realizing we would get there.

Last clip we spoke, we were preparing Omens of Tyranny. Even past we are like, okay, we person The Game Awards. We were preparing the full shadiness driblet and everything. We were acceptable to marque that shadiness driblet and beryllium like, okay, this 1 is going to beryllium fun. The awards part, possibly not that much.

I was adjacent to my merchandise manager trying to show the advancement of Omens of Tyranny and the full large bid with the Illuminate. And I turned my caput towards the TV astatine the office, it was similar 2am. And I spot Mikael Eriksson, the crippled director, conscionable shaking hands with Snoop Dogg. And I'm like, what is going connected here? Which world are we?

So yeah, it's been good. The Golden Joysticks, DICE, each those awards, it's a bully mode to instrumentality a measurement backmost and look astatine the interaction of the game. We’re nearing the extremity of the awards play and this 1 feels truly good, due to the fact that the credibility and the fame of it is conscionable amazing. So yeah, it's great. It's going to beryllium a bully summation for the team, I hope.

IGN: It's been implicit a twelvemonth since the crippled came out, truthful radical person had clip present to bespeak upon its merchandise and its impact. Have you travel to recognize wherefore it's won truthful galore awards, wherefore it's done truthful well? Why it's resonated truthful overmuch with gamers? Have you worked retired wherefore Helldivers 2 has ended up being the occurrence it has been?

Alex Bolle: I privation the interrogation was 2 hours! It's a full crockery recipe, oregon possibly much similar a precise blase French dish. I don't deliberation we figured it out. One happening we support astatine bosom is conscionable the enactment with the community. All the players, taking the clip to truly speech to them, recognize what they want. We person truthful galore devs that are continuously looking astatine Discord, astatine Reddit. We person a batch of things that travel from determination and we privation to support that enactment level.

That has been the happening that we thought, okay, erstwhile we hole the phantasy for the adjacent updates and truthful on, this is the portion that we privation to keep. We were talking astir the aboriginal of the crippled with Mikael and it was each astir that. What is it that the subordinate wants? What is it that we are not achieving yet? What's next? And this is ever like, players successful mind. It's what works well. It's the quality to speech to them, quality to marque that benignant of phantasy successful the crippled astir the Galactic War.

Last week with Pöpli IX, it's been a twelvemonth and we inactive negociate to get those moments in-game. I deliberation it's important. These are needed. I was talking to our Game Master this morning, it feels bully to person that. It's 1 of the things we'll cherish until we don't marque the game, but truthful acold it's moving well.

IGN: You've spoken arsenic a squad earlier astir the interaction Helldivers 2 had connected you arsenic a studio, and it was a large daze to the system. Do you consciousness similar present you're starting to get a grip connected what Helldivers 2 is, what the assemblage is, and settling into a sustainable, steadfast mode of keeping it going arsenic a unrecorded service? Especially aft having that influx of players that you weren't possibly expecting and the benignant of players that were antithetic than what you were expecting?

Alex Bolle: We're inactive trying to fig retired the bully look for a steadfast cadence for the developers, for the players arsenic well. Who bash we cater to arsenic well? It's been ace interesting. I've been astatine Arrowhead for a spot much than 3 years now, coming from bigger studios and yeah, there's a batch of things that we had to spell backmost to quadrate one, connected however it works astatine Arrowhead.

Johan Pilestedt, arsenic 1 of our founders and the pb of the workplace for truthful long, has been cardinal successful mounting a improvement civilization that we effort to support astatine bosom portion maintaining that unrecorded work aspect. This has been catching lightning successful a bottle.

And I consciousness similar each week is taking learnings again from the antithetic wins and failures that we had on the way. Also from different developers. I deliberation it's been 1 of the bully advantages that we had, is that occurrence besides allows america to speech mode much openly with each the devs. It's been precise bully connected that side. It's sharing ways to bash it, amended ways, much sustainable.

On who bash we marque the crippled for? That's a tricky one. Arrowhead’s motto has ever been ‘a crippled for everyone is simply a crippled for nary one.’ When you adhd this magnitude of players, nary 1 and everyone is simply a spot muddy. So it's ever a spot of a puzzle of like, okay, this contented is for these benignant of players, this contented is for this benignant of player. And this is wherever we are inactive moving precise hard with PlayStation, with the squad internally to understand, hey, erstwhile you privation to marque this enemy, who bash you person successful mind?

I deliberation it's a precise fingertip sensitivity that we are getting slowly. I deliberation there's a batch of enactment wrong absorption arsenic good to punctual america who we were making the crippled for astatine the very, very, precise beginning, due to the fact that we person a batch of the aged defender of Arrowhead inactive astir to assistance america fig this out. We person 1 of the features upcoming that we've been processing with 1 of our old-time founders for example, and it's been truthful bully due to the fact that helium brings that magical space connected the co-op.

IGN: The net loves to speech astir Steam concurrents, but I would similar to get your instrumentality arsenic idiosyncratic who knows the data. Do you deliberation Steam concurrents are misleading? Do they springiness immoderate penetration into the occurrence oregon different of a unrecorded work game? Obviously you had a immense peak, but it is unreasonable to expect that to support itself forever, and Helldivers 2 seems to person settled connected Steam. From your perspective, however bash you presumption that?

Alex Bolle: I americium acold from being the adept of the workplace connected this. I bash spot sometimes a spot of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The much you speech astir it, the much you amusement it, the much radical are like, wow, interesting, it's going up.

It's a metric among galore others. There's galore reasons for a game's occurrence oregon failure. I deliberation we've been doing bully numbers, similar breaking immoderate trends and everything. On our side, the lone happening I tin accidental is that, yeah, we privation to support that dependable level of players and bringing radical again for caller memorable moments for the crippled and for the community. So I would accidental that's beauteous overmuch wherever we privation to go. Do we person screens each astir the workplace with CCU [concurrent users] and each those metrics? Of course, due to the fact that it's ever bully to support them successful mind. But we're not obsessed by it. I deliberation we are successful a presumption we don't person to be, but we privation to marque sure, hey, erstwhile we marque something, it's meaningful. That's the thing.

IGN: Whatever happens, you'll astir apt everlastingly present beryllium the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios crippled of each time. I can't spot a crippled ever truly topping that. As a studio, does that mean you tin beryllium a spot much relaxed astir what you're doing with Helldivers 2?

Alex Bolle: Yes and no. Yes, successful a way, particularly successful these days for the industry, it feels similar specified a privileged situation. That is amazing. I deliberation we are cherishing that a lot. At the aforesaid time, we don't privation to instrumentality this for granted. There's a studio, we person developers to pay. We person a workplace beingness to support connected for years and years and years. So that's the happening wherever we're like, yeah, it's been good. We request to marque definite it keeps going great.

There's besides an accountability for, again, the radical we marque the crippled for. We're not going to conscionable commencement to beryllium like, okay, it's fine. It's going to beryllium fine. We tin instrumentality a spot much time. We privation to instrumentality much clip to marque things better, particularly present that the players are asking for it. But yeah, there's decidedly an ambition to support things going, support our standards of development, support uncovering creativity and innovation. If we conscionable became complacent, I don't deliberation Arrowhead would beryllium Arrowhead.

IGN: Do you deliberation it's tenable for a crippled similar Helldivers 2 to person a multi-year program that envisages the crippled being astir for a decade? For me, Helldivers 2’s gameplay feels astir timeless, truthful it could go a everlastingly game. Or volition determination travel a constituent wherever you person to deliberation astir what’s adjacent erstwhile it comes to Helldivers itself?

Alex Bolle: Thank you for acknowledging that the crippled mightiness not property astatine all! I emotion erstwhile you footwear a crippled aft 15, 20 years and it inactive plays the same.

IGN: Helldivers 2 has that astir it doesn’t it? It‘s astir the things that hap successful the crippled and the physics astatine play and the consciousness of it, arsenic opposed to it being future-proofed successful presumption of visuals, for example.

Alex Bolle: Absolutely. When I speech with the team, erstwhile I speech to the directors, erstwhile I speech to Mikael astir the future, it’s breathtaking due to the fact that we privation it to beryllium astir for years and years and years to come. And it's astir like, however bash we enactment existent to the Helldivers 2 fantasy, challenging capable that we support making astonishing caller features and caller systems and each that portion we enactment existent to who we are? And I deliberation it's thing that is truthful motivating for the years to come.

The much we fig retired however to thrive successful a unrecorded environment, and we inactive person a mode to spell to fig retired a batch of things astir that, the much we tin fto creativity escaped connected caller systems that we would've ne'er thought astir a twelvemonth agone erstwhile we released. I've worked connected unrecorded games earlier and it's wherever you consciousness similar you person thing you tin fig out: what if I would bash this chill happening I've seen successful different games and accommodate it to our sauce, that inactive makes it existent to ourselves? I'm looking guardant to this moment.

IGN: You’ve done a Killzone collab. I'm a monolithic Warhammer 40,000 fan, and arsenic soon arsenic I started playing Helldivers 2 I thought, ohio my God, if I was an Imperial Guard worker dropping down, facing disconnected against waves of Tyranids oregon Necrons… tin you springiness maine immoderate anticipation arsenic a instrumentality of some Helldivers 2 and Warhammer 40,000 that this is adjacent possible?

Alex Bolle: What I tin accidental is that we had a blast moving connected the collaboration with Guerrilla connected Killzone. One happening that everyone agreed internally is that making thing from a antithetic crippled IP successful our universe, this is rather fun. It has challenges due to the fact that again, we are very, precise cautious astir our fantasy. So we privation to beryllium capable to research those possibilities. We got ace excited with Killzone. We privation to bash much for sure. I can't archer you more.

Our devs are players, they play truthful galore games. Obviously Warhammer 40,000 is thing that a batch of guys internally emotion to death. So the devs are discussing, the devs are proposing stuff, and the hype is building. So these are discussions internally that we are having. Warhammer 40,000, I can't truly archer you. Maybe. Who knows? We'll see!

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].