Former Arrowhead CEO has an impromptu Discord Q&A about Helldivers 2 and beyond

It feels like Helldivers 2 has been in hot water for this reason or the other basically from the get go. The infamous Escalation of Freedom update didn’t fare all that well, either, prompting the former CEO of Arrowhead Games to talk to the community via an unexpected Q&A.

Pilestedt left his former position as the CEO to take up a more hands-on approach to developing Helldivers 2 as the new CCO. While the game hasn’t really made good on all of its promises from that point onwards, Pilestedt has remained one of the community’s favorite Arrowhead developers due to his penchant for discussing upcoming content and explaining the reasoning for why Helldivers 2 is going in the direction it’s been going. His latest Q&A on Discord is no different, in that respect.

Arrowhead CCO Johan Pilestedt reveals lots about Helldivers 2 in recent Q&A

The full Pilestedt Q&A is far too long to be discussed in a short article, but I highly recommend checking out the featured Reddit post to sell all the items he talked about there. If you’re interested in a short, to-the-point summary, though, I’m thrilled to oblige:

• Pilestedt says weapons “should feel powerful – as it says on the box”
• Arrowhead Games is currently operating at roughly 80% of capacity due to the recent vacation season in Sweden
• Helldivers 1-style boss encounters are “maybe” coming to Helldivers 2
• Review bombing cape is still on the docket, Arrowhead “don’t want to release it until [they] get more clarity on the country [availability] issue; the game may yet return to sale in some countries
• There’s some “tech instability” in regard to Helldivers 2‘s performance
• Arrowhead is working on a “color mod system” similar to the current vehicle customization feature
• Good chance of releasing weapons with infra-red and night vision optics in the “long-term”
• The current, nerfed version of the Flamethrower was “not iterated upon enough and the VFX looks like [Team Fortress 1]”
• A variety of Helldivers 1 content is bound to be released in Helldivers 2 down the line (e.g. LAS-13, AT-47, EXO-51, etc.)
• An experimental testing server for Helldivers 2 is coming “at some point,” is currently being worked on
• Pre-saved gear loadouts are in the works
• Some manner of weapon upgrading and customization is coming
• Removing the Eruptor’s shrapnel effect was “the wrong way to go”

That’s a whole lot of information, of course, and the really impressive bit is that Pilestedt’s interview goes into even more detail on each of these topics and then some. Seriously, I cannot recommend reading through the featured Reddit thread enough.

Keeping all of the above in mind, members of the Helldivers 2 community raised a very good point very recently:

Arrowhead Games is currently struggling to keep up with the community’s demands, often delivering nerfs where players feel none are needed, as was the case with the Flamethrower, Eruptor, and Railgun weapons – among many others.

On August 14, Arrowhead promised to deliver a balancing plan within the next 60 days that should inform players as to what’ll be happening with the game’s meta in the future, but who knows how that might pan out once it’s finally shown off. Further, even if the plan works out fine, can Arrowhead deliver upon its promises? Whatever the case may be, at least the game is fun as long as you stick to the lower difficulties.