Helldivers 2 has been out for over a year now, and it’s been “one heck of a roller coaster year,” as described by Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani. In a new interview with The Game Business, Jorjani explained how Helldivers 2 recovered from an overwhelmingly negative Steam user score–and how No Man’s Sky provided the template.
Helldivers 2 has seen massive highs and lows in its first year of release, from becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation game ever to being review-bombed almost to oblivion by angry fans. When it came to recovering from the lows, Jorjani looked to another legendary video game comeback.
“We went down to like 30 [percent positive] in [Steam’s] user score, and usually that’s the death knell for a game, but we came back from that,” he recounted. “Then we fumbled with balancing and the focus for the game, and that sent us all the way down to 19%, I think was the lowest. Games that get 19% user score do not generally recover.”
To make matters worse, the 19% user score happened while the majority of the Swedish studio was off on summer break, something Jorjani says is taken very seriously in Sweden. The CEO had to have an awkward conversation with the head of Sony, explaining that Helldivers 2 could recover, but they couldn’t act on it straight away.
“We issued a 60-day plan that put us back on track, and we did an update, and an update, and an update,” Jorjani said of the recovery plans. “I was very much inspired by No Man’s Sky and the team over there, that had a similar kind of journey: very hyped, and then bombed, and then they put their head to the grindstone and just updated the game.”
No Man’s Sky has become emblematic of the power of post-launch updates, spending years creating an in-depth and beloved game after a notoriously rocky launch. No Man’s Sky’s turnaround happened over many years–only just reaching a “Very Positive” rating on Steam for the first time last November. While Helldivers 2 may have followed in its footsteps, it’s taken a far shorter time to turn opinions around.
“Since September we’ve been on a very good trajectory,” Jorjani said. “We went from 19% to 94% positive on Steam.”
The studio’s commitment to continued updates and addressing player feedback has earned it a loyal player base, allowing Helldivers 2 to stand comfortably in a gaming landscape with a glut of live-service titles to vie for players’ attention. The game’s popularity has even seen a Helldivers feature film announced, which is in development now with Sony’s film division.
