Helldivers 2 Director Says Devs Should ‘Earn the Right to Monetize’ Games

Arrowhead Game Studios' high-octane third-person shooter Helldiverse 2 has been a success since its release a few days ago. Recently, in response to someone on social media, the game's creative director made his thoughts on monetization of releases known.

Resisting the pay-to-win model

In a post on They added how many “live services” end up “dying because they seek greed instead of pleasure.”

In response to this, director Johan Pilestedt – who is also CEO of Arrowhead – said that game developers “must earn the right to monetize”. The response also makes it clear that the Helldivers studio is open to optional support, “but we never force anyone to do it.”

This is a rather refreshing stance, especially in an age where many video game companies are eager to “give a nudge” to players after a title's launch.

Helldiverse 2 was released on February 8 on PS5 and PC to great praise. At the time of writing, the game has a score of “Mostly Positive” on Steam. The sequel also changes things up from its predecessor – released in 2015 – by being in third person rather than top-down.

However, as with many new releases these days, there were some issues during launch, with fans experiencing crashing errors. Fortunately, the studio looked into the matter, and a recent post on said he was “performing live server maintenance.”