Helldivers 2 is undoubtedly one of the most hyped games of 2024. However, even the popular co-op shooter has its downsides. As the former CEO of Arrowhead recounts, there were many threats against the employees of the development studio.
Who is this about?
- Johan Pilestedt is the Creative Director of Helldiver 2 and the CCO of Arrowhead Games
- Until May 22, Pilestedt was the CEO of the studio, but he demoted himself.
- Pilestedt communicates a lot with the Helldivers 2 community and shares interesting insights into development on x.com.
What exactly does he say? In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Pilestedt spoke about toxic players among other things. He says that with the surprising success of Helldivers 2, the studio experienced extremely toxic behavior from some players for the first time, in a way they had not encountered before.
Pilestedt explains that there was a shocking number of threats and rude behavior directed at the studio employees. He refers to the toxic players as “f***** individuals”.
The big difference, which is shocking, is the amount of threats and rude behavior that people in the studio get from some really f***** individuals within the community. […] This is something new that we have to deal with.
Pilestedt via gamesindutry.biz
Why are the players so toxic? Of course, there is no rational explanation for insulting or threatening developers. However, if you want to pinpoint this behavior to a situation, it especially stands out after the nerfs of numerous weapons. Following the respective updates, many players flooded Reddit and the official Discord server of the game.
- The first major balance patch of Helldivers 2 sparked major discussions in the community. Players were angry because powerful weapons like the railgun and the breaker were heavily nerfed.
- The large balance patch at the end of April also drew a lot of discontent. Subsequently, even Pilestedt himself stated that he believed Arrowhead had gone too far with the nerfs.
The Sony account linking was also a major topic of discussion, where players even called for the dismissal of a community manager. The mentioned Helldivers employee indeed lost his job following the Sony fiasco.
The toxic behavior of players is a big topic in many different titles – both against other players and developers. Destiny developer Bungie has some unique experiences in this regard. A community manager even took personal actions and eventually switched to Riot Games: Destiny 2: Community manager resigns after death threats – Bungie: ‘Do not expect any answers anymore’
