‘Helldivers 2’ director shrugs off ‘Halo’ rivalry

4 March, 2024

Halo Infinite

Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt has dismissed comparisons between Helldivers 2 and Halo.

Both titles are military-driven sci-fi games that involve missions to liberate planets with as much fire-power as possible.

Over the weekend, PlayStation fan account OmoiteS posted a series of posts comparing the two franchises. “Almost a month later, Helldivers 2 still has over 400k concurrent users on Steam. Meanwhile free-to-play Halo Infinite turned out an utter FLOP,” they wrote alongside an image that showed just 7,500 players using Steam to play Halo Infinite. “Maybe Sony should teach Microsoft on how to do Live Service games,” they added.

They then shared a post saying Helldivers 2 was better than Halo.

Helldivers 2 creative director wasn’t having it though. “Why compare,” asked Pilestedt. “Just let gamers love and enjoy both, either or neither. We need more compassion and union in the world, and less rivalry.”

“A bit of friendly rivalry can be a great thing. But it should stay friendly,” replied one user. “Indeed. Also in business. Neither monopoly or cut-throat competition makes the world a better place,” explained Pilestedt.

The rivalry doesn’t look like it will be quashed anytime soon though, with Halo an Xbox console exclusive and the Sony Interactive Entertainment published Helldivers 2 only available to PS5 and PC users.

“When I look at a game like Helldivers 2 — and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation — I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox,” said Xbox boss Phil Spencer following the news that four previously-exclusive titles would be available on “rival” consoles.

“But I get it,” he added. “There’s a legacy in console gaming that we’re going to benefit by shipping games and not putting them other places. We do the same thing.”

After fixing a number of server issues last week, Team Helldivers confirmed they could begin working on a number of improvements for the game.

In other news, an Illinois police department have apologised for an offensive recruitment poster that took heavy inspiration from the trigger-happy Call Of Duty.

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