“We’re not micromanaged by our CCO” - as Helldivers 2’s last big patch earns praise, Arrowhead reiterates that it wasn’t a one person job

“C-level executives have more important things to do.”

Some players shaking hands in Helldivers 2. - 1

Image credit:Arrowhead

Despite some gripes about spawn rates and some lingering bugs , Helldivers 2 ’s community seems to be a lot happier with the game since last week’s big patch dropped. A lot of the praise from players for the change in direction has been going solely to ex-Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt, but the studio wants to make it clear that the patch was a team effort.

If you’re out of the loop, Pilestedt made the decision to give up his CEO duties at the studio late last month , staying on as chief creative officer - a role designed to allow him to spend more time focusing on helping to oversee development of the game, rather than business stuff. While it’s worked out pretty well so far - with enough goodwill having been restored that players recently chose to obey Arrowhead’s insistence that they save some poor Super Earth kids , Pilestedt’s work hasn’t been the sole factor in the turnaround.

In response to some of the praise the patch has spawned, Pilestedt’s issued a response via Twitter . “I’ve seen a lot of people give me lots of cred for this patch as if I am the sole person responsible,” he wrote, “I want to make it clear that the team are the ones that made it happen. Without their effort, design sensibilities, diligence and passion none of this would have been possible.”

Meanwhile, over on the game’s Discord server, Arrowhead senior game designer Alexus Kravchenko, who’s previously caught a lot of the flak for unpopular tweaks to weapons like the R-36 Eruptor , has also put out a message to players.

Arrowhead game designer Alexus Kravchenko's post on the Helldivers 2 Discord server. - 3

Image credit:VG247

“It’s been fun being villain of the month, but the witch hunt has reached a level uncomfortable even for me, so I’d like to clear up a couple things,” he wrote. “No, we’re not micromanaged by our CCO [Pilestedt]. C-level executives have more important things to do.” Stating that he hasn’t been fired and has “never been in charge of game balance decisions”, Kravchenko continued: “I’m a mere game designer and it’s always been a team effort. Our balance philosophy stays the same though, turns out we just needed more time to cook!”

He also added: “I’ll take the L for the Eruptor situation though, I shouldn’t have rushed to Discord with the first knee-jerk reaction. I feel like the new blog posts format is much better at getting our point across, so I’ll refrain from public discussions to avoid saying something stupid again.”

So, there you go, don’t give one bloke all the credit or blame for an entire team’s work, including the little hotfix Arrowhead’s put out today to rectify a number of bugs and crash scenarios - with the most noteworthy one being the final tweak that should finally make the previously aim-issue afflicted spear 100% viable again.

Helldivers 2

PS5 , PC

As Helldivers 2 players splatter bug babies, the cause of its pesky sprinting issue might finally have been found

No, it seems it’s not your keyboard being faulty, just someone nearby deciding they need a pick-me-up.

A helldiver wearing a Polar Patriots armour set in Helldivers 2. - 5

Image credit:VG247/Arrowhead

A member of Helldivers 2 ’s community might have just unearthed the bizarre bug behind an issue that’s been leading PC folks to believe their keyboards might be faulty. Yup, if you’ve ever had your helldiver suddenly slow from a sprint to a jog without you doing anything, it turns out they may well just be feeling the effects of someone else’s stim.

While some players have been busy investigating this, they’ve been taking time out from the latest Major Order , which tasks folks with following up their valiant efforts in saving those poor Super Earth kids by, uh, killing some baby Terminids. Come on, stop feeling conflicted and get em’ in your sights.

The person who looks as though they’ve blown this case wide open claims to have “worked in the games industry for 20+ years” and did it just as an aside at the end of a lengthy post on the Helldivers 2 subreddit outlining why they’ve found the game’s lifespan so far quite interesting in terms of the issues that have cropped up.

“I’ll leave one final bug with you that I haven’t heard anyone call out,” they wrote, “Go into a game with a friend, injure yourself so you have like a quarter health. Have your friend start to sprint and then use a stim. Yup, if you stim while anyone is sprinting it will stop them from sprinting. This is why you keep slowing down while sprinting randomly.”

I’ve worked in Game Dev for 20 years and I’ve never seen patch after patch like this. by in Helldivers

While trusting someone not working on the game to have accurately unearthed the exact reason behind something that’s previously had legions of hardcores thinking their keyboards might be to blame might seem like a long shot, some players have quickly tested it out and provided a bit of evidence to back up the poster’s claim.

Yep

“Both players on PC, did not slow down a player sprinting with controller, but did slow them down when they switched to mouse and keyboard,” user MikeAmelung explained regarding the clip above, which definitely looks like to confirms the theory that folks in your squad injecting stims is what causes the animation to momentarily switch to a light jog, then immediately be restored to the sprint the player is pushing the input for.

While some have theorised that factors like the distance between you and the player injecting the stim and whether you’re serving as a host might also play into whether you’re affected, this definitely looks like something Arrowhead’ll want to add to its list of things to look into .

Also, in case you missed it, the studio’s CEO has recently outlined that it’s go no plans to create a dedicated co-op story mode for Helldivers 2 , since that’d be akin to making a whole new game in terms of effort required.

Helldivers 2

PS5 , PC

“We’re not micromanaged by our CCO” - as Helldivers 2’s last big patch earns praise, Arrowhead reiterates that it wasn’t a one person job#

As Helldivers 2 players splatter bug babies, the cause of its pesky sprinting issue might finally have been found#

“We’re not micromanaged by our CCO” - as Helldivers 2’s last big patch earns praise, Arrowhead reiterates that it wasn’t a one person job

As Helldivers 2 players splatter bug babies, the cause of its pesky sprinting issue might finally have been found