Arrowhead CEO says the 'live service' aspect of Helldivers 2 has to be secondary to delivering a 'full experience' for $40

Gamernyc78

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Arrowhead CEO says the 'live service' aspect of Helldivers 2 has to be secondary to delivering a 'full experience' for $40: 'We view ourselves as a live service game because it's unfair to say anything else'

By Andy Chalk
published 28 minutes ago
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt is just a little bit reluctant about embracing the live service label.

A soldier from Helldivers gives a patriotic salute while their comrade burns an alien corpse to death in the background.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Studios / PlayStation)

There are a lot of live service games out there these days, and it's not a trend we wholeheartedly love. But amidst the formulaic deluge, some games get it right. Helldivers 2 is a great example of that—but in a new interview with PC Gamer, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt sounded almost reluctant to embrace the label.

"We don't view ourselves—I mean, we view ourselves as a live service game because it's unfair to say anything else," Pilestedt said. "We are going to continue adding more stuff to the game, and there are monetization elements in the game."

But that aspect of the game has to "go hand-in-hand" with the base game, which Pilestedt said "should give you a full experience, like a really good several hours of good playtime." Further monetization should be entirely optional, and more importantly, shouldn't come into play until well after the experience of the base game is over.

If you imagine what's what's happening with the game in year two, year three, year four, at that point you need to shift the the model where the content that we put out for free, like new enemies, new missions, whatever it might be, we also give the players the opportunity to support us in continuing to build the title," Pilestedt said. "And that kind of has always been our philosophy and any game that we've made so far. And we expect to continue having the same mentality for as long as we can.
 

Gods&Monsters

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Damn if other CEOs could all be like that, instead of being greedy sociopaths
He says all the right things, that's great but Sony is bankrolling him and his studio. They paid for everything for a decade+.

Things would be way different if it was his money. MTX everywhere and still not enough to survive like everyone else.
 
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Gamernyc78

Gamernyc78

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He says all the right things, that's great but Sony is bankrolling him and his studio. They paid for everything for a decade+.

Things would be way different if it was his money. MTX everywhere and still not enough to survive like everyone else.
Possibly.
 

Wraith Phantom

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Ah an exec with simple common sense. See the difference with this guy is he is out there doing dev work and CEO stuff. Makes a big difference.

Simple common sense. Make a full multiplayer. Then add on top. Worked back in the day.

Get these investor , bean counters out of the gaming space.
 

Entropi

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It’s nice to hear a gamer CEO talk instead of the money-grubbing MBAs we are used to.
 

Yurinka

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I love this mentality and how it has been implemented in the game.

Everything you can buy with money inside the game is optional and can also be unlocked while playing, and regarding gameplay the paid stuff doesn't give you any serious advantage vs players who don't buy them.

And well, there's a ton of content in the base game. I assume that unlock everything available now between free warbond + stratagems + ship upgrades a few hundred hours of content.
 
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Gamernyc78

Gamernyc78

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I love this mentality and how it has been implemented in the game.

Everything you can buy with money inside the game is optional and can also be unlocked while playing, and regarding gameplay the paid stuff doesn't give you any serious advantage vs players who don't buy them.

And well, there's a ton of content in the base game. I assume that unlock everything available now between free warbond + stratagems + ship upgrades a few hundred hours of content.
Love the optional, either grind or buy but you can still get.
 
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