HELLDIVERS™ 2 News

Former Helldivers 2 lead writer's next game is "Fire Emblem if it were published by Annapurna"

The former lead writer of charming super-fascist simulator Helldivers 2 is working on a strategy and tactics RPG in the vein of Nintendo and Intelligent System's Fire Emblem games, which aren't available on PC and as such, are a complete mystery to you, a lifelong desktop warrior who would sooner cut their hand off than suffer it to brush against one of those filthy Nintendo witches, I mean Switches.

To fill you in, Fire Emblem is known and sort of celebrated for being a rich ensemble fantasy story with character permadeath. Helldivers 2, meanwhile, is a game in which people are as expendable as bullets, and the storytelling is deliberately brittle because it consists largely of clownish propaganda. Put the two sets of inspirations together, and what do you get? You get a headline, that's what. Beyond that, we can only dream.

Ignoring that whole PSN thing recently, Helldivers 2 is probably everyone's favourite live-service game right now - but it wasn't originally meant to be.

Yeah, alright, sure, some players were unhappy about needing to connect a PSN account to their PC copy of Helldivers 2, but for the most part everyone is still loving it. No one expected it to take off as much as it did, but you'll likely be hard pressed to find a more loved live-service game this year, even with all of the ups and downs it's had. But when the game started development, much like the first game, it wasn't going to be a live-service title.

Speaking to Inverse, former lead writer on the game Russ Nickel explained that Helldivers 2 being an evolving experience felt "like what live service was born to do. For a while, Arrowhead [Game Studios] didn't know if the sequel was going to be a live-service title. But as we talked about it more, it was clear that this would make for such a cool live service experience, one where the story can change constantly so it really does feel alive."

Even with the PlayStation Network (PSN) requirement now reversed, Helldivers 2 is in a rough spot. The Sony-published game has been delisted on Steam in almost 200 territories, with developer Arrowhead telling players it's trying to bring it back to Valve's platform. What started as Sony's best PC launch to date has very quickly turned sour, as even with PSN no longer being required, the damage has been done.

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Helldivers 2 just made one of its biggest challenges yet even tougher

The Helldivers 2 mission statement of bringing players along for the constantly evolving narrative has just hit a new objective: eliminate two billion Automatons. The only issue is, that after we did the same to the Terminid swarm in less than a day, the exploit we accidentally used has been removed. So it's going to be a lot harder this time, and there's a returning stratagem on the line.

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Helldivers 2 still endures after this week's disaster - here's why

It's painful to see the back-to-back bad news in gaming nowadays, from studio closures to projects falling into limbo. I imagine myself clutching a well-used copy of Fallout: New Vegas and shouting into the sky that we have to go back, as it can feel as though the habits and trajectory of the past decade have failed us. The AAA industry's move to live-service games has ended in numerous storied disasters, and right now it feels like almost nothing new sticks around for long. The exception to the rule recently is Helldivers 2, which has deservedly found and retained an audience.

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HELLDIVERS™ 2 News

Former Helldivers 2 lead writer's next game is "Fire Emblem if it were published by Annapurna"

Helldivers 2 is everyone's favourite live-service game right now, but it almost wasn't one

Helldivers 2 Steam situation "doesn't look positive," CEO says

Helldivers 2 just made one of its biggest challenges yet even tougher

Helldivers 2 still endures after this week's disaster - here's why