Games Should 'Earn the Right to Monetise', Says Helldivers 2 Director

I will say I appreciate that the micros are... actually micros where an outfit costs less than 5 bucks whereas Destiny's costs 15 to 20 dollars.

This is a brilliant game; a perfect 2D-to-3D translation of the original Helldivers and a triumph for PlayStation. It looks amazing and plays great. The writing is hilarious — it evokes classic 80s TTPRGs while satirizing hit games. The pay2win elements are trivial. Couldn't be happier and I'm glad I bought it on PS vs. Steam.

Yes there are server issues, but they will pass.

"Micro transactions should stay micros", indeed .... Recently I bought Elden Ring for $20, and I can't imagine that GaaS are selling useless cosmetic outfits for the same price as such a masterpiece that required so much work. People should really start to value what they are paying for.

This looks as if arrowhead have found the ideal compromise. I really like the look of this game but unfortunately I don't have the time required to play it properly. Once I've cleared what I'm currently kneck deep in I'll give it some serious consideration.

Ive never understood companies that add Micro T's in to their games. They sell a skin for £16 when they could sell 8 times at £2. I know what one id rather purchase as a customer and im sure they would end up making more money that way. Glad these guys seem to be selling at the latter and have their heads in check. I may grab this game at somepoint.

I’m doing my part!

For those that are playing... Is Helldivers 2 a hoard mode where your just fighting off waves of Alien bugs whist trying to stay alive. Not really read much in to it but thats the take i get from the footage ive seen. Glad its doing well and hope the server issues are sorted soon for all you guys.

@Kidfunkadelic83 how it works in practice is actually quite hard to describe but basically there are different levels with different objectives on each planet. Some levels are simply protect an area from waves of enemies but most of them have a bit more stuff to do like facilitating a missile launch, blowing up a massive bug base, turning on a reactor etc. All levels have a time limit and the larger ones (usually 40 minutes) also have side objectives and little points of interest that give you more xp for completing but if you stick to the main objectives you could whizz through most of them in 10-15 mins.

On top of this everyone who plays the game is working towards global objectives so you can see the percentage of completion ticking up. There was a big celebration on Reddit over the weekend when we all finally liberated the first planet 😂….its actually quite cool.

Sorry for the brain dump but hope it helps!

@GeeEssEff it does help alot buddy, cheers. Seems there more to it than i origionally thought. I will defenately put it on the watch lost but i dont think i will get time to play it any time soon. The combat does look pretty cool tho. Reminded me of Starship troopers 😂😂

I really like that attitude. As a consumer it feels like businesses think they're entitled to my money. No no. You have to earn it.

I don't play online multiplayer but it's refreshing to still see somewhat decent monetisation models every now and then.

Yeah the micro transaction stuff is pretty minimal and it's like hidden in the background unless you pull up the menu specifically.

I guess my point is I appreciate that they arent shoved in the players face the entire time. I played yesterday with another person and even though a session was bugged and we didn't reap our rewards I wasn't even slightly mad because the core gameplay experience was legitimately satisfying.

In any other game id be pissed if I did a 30 minute mission and got nothing for it lmao

@Kidfunkadelic83 It definitely doesn’t shy away from its starship troopers influence. I think it is a bit of a time sink overall so if you have got other stuff going on it’s probs best to wait….i also don’t have time but i bought into the hype. While it’s nice you can unlock everything without microtransactions I would be lying if I said progress was particularly fast but it’s definitely designed with the view that people will still be playing it in years to come. It’s live service through and through but at the same time doesn’t feel predatory.

@Kidfunkadelic83 The kinda of people who are only willing to buy a skin for $2 vs $16 isn’t the kinda of spender these companies want. They want whales, the one who will drop a couple grand on the game. You’re not attracting those kind of buyers with $2 skins.

More devs need to allow in-game items to be earned at a good pace and with in-game currency without having to resort to real cash to fight the horrid grind or the microtransactions being shoved in your face

Prefer in-game currency. Or progression. No tedium unless endgame and balanced.

For servers sure I get that with multiplayer, for cosmetics I mean their cosmetics I don't care. But we used to have cheats or just access to them with progression/in-game currency.

Companies could just have donation options or buy merch? If they offer them that is.

I don't care for any micro/macro transactions. Micro are still more preferred then whatever high prices, bundled items just make them cheap individual ones for cosmetics at least.

The free pass and later purchaseable pass is a fair idea I think from what I've heard at least.

If the game is cheaper at launch even more reason for me to question do you really need the micro-transactions then you set the price after all you could set it higher and wait for the game to go cheaper over time. It being cheaper at launch is fair though as many people probably weren't too sure about 2 if newcomers to the series so the price helps.

It's not like I don't question what customers think of the worth of something we all have our cut off for affordable or desperate to buy for IPs.

Is the game good yes. I am playing through 1 and it was a fair experience not my type of game but I'm intrigued. Compared to everything else on PlayStation not interesting me Helldivers 2 does stand out at least. I think 2 is probably a fair game. Fair multiplayer or solo fun for people.

But for cosmetics that are optional 'sure' I'll be lax about it still doesn't need to be the case.

I mean for games with smaller budgets, not as high quality of assets (or stylised instead), no high budget cutscenes/high budget actors and this and that I'd say sure but if they do push high quality focus that I didn't care for and want more money out of me why not just put games at a higher price then. Sure less will buy it but it makes the point more.

To me brands may be a thing but I just don't care. I do care who makes the products sure but I also don't need big people of devs, actors more so or people as brands/licensed products to make me care about a game I just buy a game if it's interesting in gameplay. Hearing about it, videos, box art physical screenshots being clear as many still aren't or the descriptions are brief and vague and make me go so what is this thing about?

Games don't need to be movies. If many games are just not cutscene heavy (aka mobile games or particular artstyles too console/mobile and it's whatever they look like, play like, whatever this and that it proves a point even if customers are very particular yes) and making their money why should we care and have big budget games pushing them when they can just do in-game scenes not FMVs still. Or whatever mo-cap or other things to push the budgets up.

If I see a bunch of Bejewelled/Candy Crush clones clearly shows a point, or many Wordle, or Flappy Bird or others. It proves a point. Sure console deserve more quality and to showcase the hardware but I mean phones offer more than Infinity Blade did back in the day but still Angry Birds, Cut The Rope and more were the hits too.

Sony offers party games with Playlink, Eye Toy or others over years besides just their cinematic games. Nothing wrong with wide appeal though just to a point.

I don't need 200+ people teams working on a game to care. I bought Song of the Deep, sure it's Insomniac but to see what Spyro sized team game they had made of a metroidvania and as Gamestop published I was intrguied. Pentiment does that too.

Expectations are set of big budget, so CGI in many things, why not curb the expectations or balance out projects more.

Sure animation wise scenes flow well but at the same time we have formulaic animations anyways in gameplay for characters, not just camera positioning that can make a difference how we view scenes.

We don't need high budget actors. It helps but usually to sell a game. Any actor could be there and I wouldn't know or don't care. I couldn't care less who acts in a TV show/game but most people do, people are brands or help something thrive these days. I don't care for the graphics/artstyle that much, let alone the themes, they help but to me if it does suit the level design, tone and gameplay by all means.

Games are so many things these days, simple puzzle games, complex puzzle games, action games, FMV games, quizzes, cinematic, live service and more but I'm still going to be particular and buy games with gameplay/level design/modes first, artstyle/themes second if matters to story or just the way the world is presented for the gameplay and music is whatever and pretty forgettable to me these days anyway, when I remember menu ambience in modern titles [nothing else just menus.

So I do respect Helldivers 2. Playing 1 gave me more context than it being a crossplay title I always heard about.

It says a lot (at least from my perspective, everyone's is different of course), sure racing menu OSTs are good (used to be) but most times modern other genres have the most high budget arrangements and I just don't care and forget it later anyways] or older OSTs there, if low budget they get the job done, high budget meh their good anyway so I don't care.

@B0udoir We are living in sad times indeed thats why we should not want that Sony, Microsoft or even Nintendo or any other massive corporation owning everything.

@SuntannedDuck2 I agree that seems to be a utopia that will never happen. Investors see nothing more then a piece of fruit they can squeeze all the juice out of. The reverse side of the medal where the bigger and more profitable it gets the worse investors get where money is the ONLY thing that matters.

@Flaming_Kaiser I agree very fair points made, thanks for reading my long comment.

@SuntannedDuck2 Don't you miss the smaller games a pallet cleanser like a Dark Cloud or a simple Twisted Metal World Tour without all overkill just fun games. And I do miss the smaller experimental games that's why I loved the Sony platform.