Helldivers 3 isn’t in development because its biggest competitor would be Helldivers 2, Arrowhead CCO says
“Making Helldivers 2 better every day makes way more sense than throwing away its momentum”
There are no plans to release a new Helldivers game any time soon, according to Arrowhead Game Studios’ CCO.
In a conversation with Rock Paper Shotgun, Johan Pilestedt was asked about the studio’s upcoming plans, to which he replied that 95% of the studio was still working on Helldivers 2 updates, while a “small team” was prototyping the studio’s next game.
It doesn’t necessarily appear certain that this game will be Helldivers 3, however, with Pilestedt noting that the studio’s priority is to continue nurturing the existing Helldivers 2 player base instead of pulling the plug and starting from zero again.
“For now, my view is that a sequel resets everything and forces players to start over,” Pilestedt said, adding that “a continuation turns the game into a lifelong hobby, like Lego or Warhammer”.
“Some studios can treat players like a short-term cash grab,” he said. “We see players as the actual engine of the game – they’re the ones bringing in friends, making memes, and keeping the game alive. When you have an active community doing that, you don’t need a sequel.”
Pilestedt added that if Helldivers 2 continues to be popular, there’s no point in releasing a third game unless it’s wildly different, otherwise all it will do is split the player base.
“The industry is panicking because the old live-service tricks don’t work anymore,” he explained. “And the biggest competitor to a Helldivers 3 would be Helldivers 2.
“It only makes sense to make a distinct sequel if it’s so different that both games can exist side by side. For now, making Helldivers 2 better every day makes way more sense than throwing away its momentum.”
Helldivers 2 was released on PS5 and PC in 2024 and later made its way to Xbox Series X and S last summer. The game was one of Sony‘s biggest recent hits, becoming PlayStation’s fastest-selling game launch ever with sales “far exceeding expectations” at 12 million copies sold across PC and PS5 in its first 12 weeks.
