Johan Pilestedt, the Game Director of Helldivers 2 and former CEO of Arrowhead, shared some interesting theses at the “Nordic Game” conference in Sweden, which are likely to upset the competition.
What did the Game Director of Helldivers 2 say? You might like this! Johan Pilestedt started his presentation with the words: “Live service is a good thing for the gaming industry – when done right.” He then made it clear that, in his opinion, a large part of the games industry is not doing it right at the moment.
“If you want to create a live service game, if you want to monetize the game, if you think people will buy something in the game… then you shouldn’t ask for $70 upfront and then rip people off for skins. That’s just wrong,” according to Pilestedt.
Furthermore, the lead developer explains: “Be nice to the users and do live service right by asking what the value for the players in this game is and that it is a live service and not what is good for the bank account.”
Who is Johan Pilestedt criticizing with his statements? Essentially all service games that also charge money for cosmetic skins on top of the full price. This includes various offshoots of the “Call of Duty” franchise from Activision, as well as the Battlefield series from Electronic Arts.
In February, Blizzard shot the greedy goat with Diablo 4, when they wanted nearly 30 euros for portal colors. In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, on the other hand, you can buy Luthor Coins for real money to secure cosmetic content from the shop.
Successful without greed, it is possible
Is Johan Pilestedt doing it better? Helldivers 2 has been one of the few positive examples since its release in February 2024, showing that a service model can indeed be valuable for the gaming experience.
The story in Helldivers 2 evolves organically, guided by the general commands of the developers who constantly interact with the community, sometimes even laying false trails or pulling surprises out of their sleeves.
The monetization of the third-person shooter is unusually fair. Besides the moderate purchase price of 40 euros, you can indeed sink more money into Helldivers 2 – for example, in the premium battle pass.
However, the developers neither play with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) nor do you have to spend more money to keep up. The premium battle pass and the associated weapons can be earned with the in-game currency of the previous pass.
