"Games that get 19% user score do not generally recover": Helldivers 2 CEO reflects on Arrowhead's "summer of pain" and No Man's Sky-inspired redemption arc

Helldivers 2 Warbond
(Image credit: Sony)

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 launched out of t💎he gate to tremendous success last February, but as is the trend with big online releases these days, it eventually nosedived into a full-on tailspin due to various changes that upset fans.

In the case of Helldivers 2, you can mostly point to one big change at the root of its controversies: the one that required all players to sign into a Play🌄Station Network account even if they we🔥re playing on PC. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:backlash was swift, united, and forceful eno꧟ugh that, just three days later, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sony walked back the decision and then-Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt commended the "willpower" of 🐼the Helldivers community.

While that was undeniably Helldivers 2's fiercest headwind, there were also a number of balance changes, not t🌳o mention a perceived lack of fresh content in updates, that contributed to the game's fall from grace. At the game's lowest point, it had fallen to an abysmal 19% user score on Steam.

Talking to , cu𒉰rrent Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani opened up🎉 about what it was like heading up a studio during what he called its "summer of pain."

"Games that get 19% user score do not gཧenerally recover," he said.

"Maybe the lowest point during my tenure so far. I had to explain to [澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hermen Hulst] why things were in the state they were, and what we were going to do to recover. And I had to say the awkward truth thatꦜ there is nothing we can🎶 do in the short term. But in the long term, we have plans that will get us back on track"

In the ensuing months, Arrowhead drew up a co𓆉ordinated 60ꦇ-day plan to make things right, culminating in a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:big update that included significant buffs to grenades and🍎 sentries, as well as long-avoided anti-tank mines. Months later, the game ♒has managed to claw its way back up to a 76% positive reviews on , and the mood at the studio is reportedly much better.

"I was inspired by No Man's Sky and the team over there,✱" Jorjani said. "They had a similar journey. The game was hyped, then bombed, and then they put the head to the grindstone and just updated the game."

Helldivers 2 boss outlines the single design trick that eventually led to his breakout success: "This works, I think we're gonna be rich someday."

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about w💛hatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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