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The Helldivers series went from a relatively niche release that very few people had heard of to a global juggernaut seemingly overnight after the release of Helldivers 2. Despite a very dedicated development team and an engaged community, it has seen its share of problems in recent weeks. for various reasons. Arrowhead Game Studios still has a very good standing in the gaming community, but it feels like the game is walking a tightrope at the moment and the team needs to tread carefully over the next few months if Helldivers 2 is to remain a success.
U/Ebicat took to Reddit to discuss the recent Helldivers 2 update 01.000.400 as well as Arrowhead Game Studios’ future plans. They also note that they are game developers and have delivered over 20 games of varying quality and success, providing a unique insight into the mindset of a developer that we don’t often hear from the outside looking in.
They start the post by saying that “the latest patch brought some initial relief only because it wore off quickly. For example, no ship module was affected in the last patch, but Supply Packing broke… meanwhile, new features were released for months but never worked, looking at your improved missile defense for patrols. As you all know, the list goes on and on.”
According to the developer, this is likely due to the choice of engine, which is the discontinued Autodesk Stingray, which was used for the original Helldivers game, as well as Helldivers 2 and the three Warhammer titles. The engine was discontinued already in 2018.
The developer goes on to say, “The first game was built on this engine, and that’s probably why they chose it for the second game, but I’m pretty sure it was a huge mistake. When you’re using something like Unity, Unreal, etc… you’re part of a community of people solving problems together, you get a lot out of having an engine in active development. I bet that’s one of the biggest reasons for the mess they’re in right now.’
Engines like Unreal Engine and Unity have become two of the most popular choices for game developers, and thousands of games have been created with them, from small single developer projects to big AAA releases, including Fortnite, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Tekken 8. , Sea of Thieves , Pokemon Go, Genshin Impact and many more. These engines have an incredibly dedicated community behind them, and more importantly, their creators are actively working on them. It seems like an odd choice to stick with a subpar discontinued engine, and it could explain a lot about the technical issues that Helldivers 2 continues to struggle with.
The developer captioned the post saying, “I hope they can fix their issues as the community is running out of patience. This last patch was supposed to come out with only fixes and no regressions, but that’s not the case, including things like performance and crashes. I also hope they do a big autopsy on their processes and decisions on this matter.”
The developer won’t confirm what titles they’ve worked on in order to maintain anonymity, but they note that some of the games they’ve worked on have shipped “10-25+ million copies.” Much of this post reflects many of the community’s opinions and thoughts regarding the state of the game. But the team has been using the engine for a decade, so despite its limitations, it’s perhaps the most experienced out there when it comes to using the Stingray.
Now that Johan Pilestedt is moving on to game development, he seems to be heading in the right direction if the recent update and Viper Commandos Warbond are anything to go by. With so much changing in the game over the past week, we highly recommend checking out our guide to the best Helldivers 2 weapons and armor to keep your loadout up to date to ensure the automatons and Terminids are served the most Liber tea.