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- Helldivers 2 was launched on 8th February and has overtaken Palworld on Steam.
- This success was the result of eight years of work from Arrowhead Game Studios.
- The long development time shows that even smaller-scale games require several years to create in the modern industry.
Helldivers 2 is proving to be another surprise this year. Taking Steam by storm, the game has become one of PlayStation’s best-selling and most-played releases, reaching over 150K concurrent players to beat God of War as the biggest PC game.
However, this success did not come without hard work from Arrowhead Game Studios. According to the CEO, it took the team nearly 8 years to develop Helldivers 2.
Why it matters: Games nowadays take several years to create, and the time duration, along with development cost, is just going up.
Ok! #Helldivers2 finally launched, 7 years, 11 months and 26 days of my life spent on making a game that truly devolves into a farce of my favourite movies and books from my upbringing. Thank you all for being in in the joke of shouldering the cape of a totalitarian soldier. <3
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) February 10, 2024
The CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, Johan Pilestedt, took to Twitter recently and revealed an oddly specific amount of development time for the game.
Helldivers 2 finally launched, seven years, 11 months, and 26 days of my life spent making a game.
John Pilestedt
As a co-op shooter inspired by movies like Starship Troopers, Helldivers 2 captures the campy nature of low-budget action movies. This gives it a unique charm compared to most games on the market.
That being said, the development took much longer than most had expected. This also means that Helldivers 2 likely required a lot of resources despite the lack of AAA production values.
Games like God of War Ragnarok from PlayStation were released in four years. While such sequels reused many assets and animations, Arrowed Game Studios’ development cycle is still quite eye-opening.
This once again highlights the impending threat of long development cycles harming the gaming industry in the long run.
While Helldivers 2 has received praise for offering fun gameplay at a lower price than the usual AAA release, it seems the game could not avoid the traditional AAA development timeline.
Many believe PlayStation should look toward more AA games in a similar vein to release such titles between its blockbuster games.
The original Helldivers was released in 2015, and Arrowhead surprised everyone back then. However, the studio’s latest release has exceeded all expectations, selling one million copies in the limited span of three days.
The studio will now focus on sustaining this player base, keeping the million players engaged through new content and updates. We also hope to see similar success for the rest of PlayStation’s live service slate in the future.
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[News Editor]
Obaid is pursuing a Law degree, while working as a content writer. He has worked as a gaming writer for over a year because of his passion for the medium and reporting the latest updates in the industry. Having played hundreds of games, Obaid finds himself coming back to Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Red Dead Redemption 2, with these games being among his favorites. He has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as Wccftech, Metro UK, PS Lifestyle, GamePressure, VGC, and Gamespot.
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