Helldivers 2 Devs Gift Players Second Wave of Killzone Crossover Content for Free

Pseudo-currency where you buy fake currency with real money in only a few select options straight up needs to be outlawed. It only serves to confuse customers, obfuscate how much they’re spending, and could lead them to buying digital waste. For instance, I bought Terry in SF6 as my only DLC character. He cost 500 fight coins, but there’s no 500 fight coin option. I had to buy the 610 fight coin option, and now I have 110 fight coin sitting in my account that I’m just never gonna use for anything I care about. I feel like this leads to the backlash behind these prices actually being understated.

"Deciding not to pick them up means you're likely not a real Killzone fan"?
No, it just means you're not willing to be ripped off for useless cosmetic garbage.

I bought everything lol, don't know why but I did. They should have made everything a 15 dollar war bond.

Sometimes i wonder what is considered a backlash, and if it isnt just an overused term for a few people voicing their concern, but not a widespread issue. Are backlashes happening every day now or what?

Maybe some things dont need to be considered backlashes, just opinions by a small minority that’ll fade away. That is, untill enough news outlets amplify it which snowballs into more people complaining, making it a full on backlash.

News outlets, by bringing extra weight to it, can definitely make small things seem much bigger than they are. Regarding the cost of cosmetics, it might be that there are some loud voices out there, but that its just a small minority and most people dont care.

I do like this Killzone collab/crossover though!

@BeerMonster I don't make the rules

@LogicStrikesAgain And sadly that is all the majority of news outlets are interested in, get clicks on their website and making revenue, not reporting factual information.
The more outrageous they can make a story sound, the better it is for them.

I mean, there is a strategy here.

Update de game, get some goodwill from the players and then sell them something "cool".

They (not sure if Arrowhead or Sony) are clearly testing the waters, checking if they can increase their profits.

Also, this is not purely "cosmetic stuff". The armor and the AR have gameplay traits.

Optional 💩. You want it, buy it. You don’t wanna pay, skip it. Da 🤬?!

@RogCorr the ceo of arrowhead admitted on the game’s discord that it was his decision to change the Killzone collab from a single warbond to separate items in the in game store, as well as how much to charge.

@Khayl Like the way you edited that quote aswell, just to try and make it seem a little more controversial.

@BeerMonster I agree, i definitely respect the hard work this site puts in their content. But yeah, it does seem like taking a more sensationalist approach helps news sites generate more clicks. Not saying this article is doing something wrong or anything, but there have been articles in the past where engagement numbers seem to have taken priority. Which on the other hand, i do understand the need for balance, after all they’re not doing this for free.

@BeerMonster That sounds like treason against Super Earth, citizen!

@PloverNutter well, that's not nice of them.

Normally I think players overreact to a lot of stuff,

but this is different. They're trying to change the monetization of Helldivers 2... in a bad way.

honestly, it's good that this is generating some noise... if players don't complain, they'll keep moving forward with monetization

@RogCorr I agree, monetization is a tricky deal. But they will only go forward with it if people buy into it, if enough people dont, they will reconsider. That is how these things usually work right?

I’m not familiar with buying cosmetics, but isnt $3-$5 a standard price range for such items? I think i remember some games charging as high as $40(which is crazy) for some of their cosmetics.

These super credits remind me of the early Xbox 360 days, when you had to buy points to buy anything from the store. That system was rightfully left in the dust, so it's unfortunate to see it's return here, albeit on a much smaller scale

Sometimes I wish this site would act more like a news site and not interject opinion in their articles (except reviews of course). It’s off putting and this isn’t even the worst offender.

@awp69 News doesn't get clicks, fake news however...

@LogicStrikesAgain Well, in Helldivers 2, each warbond costs 1000 supercredits (10 USD)... each warbond has 3 pages of items... something like 24 items in total. These items are weapons, armor, cosmetic items such as capes, titles, etc.

However, this time, a single Killzone automatic rifle costs 615 supercredits...

do the math...

Also, the armor has a 50% damage resistance to fire, gas, acid, and electricity. No other armor in the game has that trait. So, it is not just cosmetic stuff.

I've seen a lot of people wearing it in matches. So I wonder if this is a loud minority situation. It is on the expensive side though.

@RogCorr But isnt this like a special edition or something? Did earlier warbonds also include special crossover skins/items from other games?

Again, i’m super unfamiliar with buying stuff in-game. So yeah if its too much for people, i’d suggest they dont buy it.

Isnt Helldivers supposed to be very reasonable with their time to credit building ratio? You can always opt to just play and earn those credits right?

Greg Miller complaining about paying money for optional cosmetic items in a game that he got for free is laughable. Not to mention, this is all currency you can earn in game.

Worst "community" in gaming. Giving these terminally online idiots any voice at all was a mistake.

Yet another piece of evidence of poor decisions made about this game post-launch. Cannot believe this won best ongoing game- they really keep shoving the stick in their own spokes.

@LogicStrikesAgain

"Isnt Helldivers supposed to be very reasonable with their gametime to credit building ratio"

Honestly, at this point ? No. Not anymore, I think. See, you would not get 1000 supercredits by just "playing the game". A good amount of grinding is required.

Tbf, I have 190 hours on HD2. I just can't do boring grinding anymore.

I haven't played in awhile, but can you still find super credits by just doing missions, are they not still just spread around maps? If so, what are we doing here? Complaining about armor sets that have to be purchased using currency that you can get free in the game?

Helldivers 2 is back on everybody's radar and still the same complaints about the mtx..its real simple folks as you can grind the ingame credits as always and then get the things you want or you can just purchase the relevant warbonds. Nobody's forcing anybody to part with real cash so I guess it all depends on how much you really need those killzone 2 outfits. I'll purchase it because I like supporting arrowhead because I love HD2 and I would like to think my paltry £7.99 or whatever it is will help further the HD2 ecosystem and keep it alive longer. Everybody has a choice here so I don't see the problem.

@ZeroSum yes the credits can be obtained through playing. You don't even need to find them yourself so long as one player finds a stash you all get them..a load of noise over nothing again.

@RogCorr really? It takes maybe an hour to a couple of hours to get enough credits. If you have a team of 4 it takes hardly anytime at all. And don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about as I've played a serious amount of HD2 with people from the pushsquare community who will also tell you that the grind is not that bad.

Overpriced cosmetics is nothing new and every game that does them will normally have a battle pass style approach where the battle pass offers much better value than the standalone cosmetics to make the season pass appear to be “good value”.

These prices are not even egregious within this model, they’re on the lower-middle ground. Diablo IV for example is a $70 game that has a battle pass, paid yearly expansions and cosmetics are all like $10-30 and you can’t earn the premium currency in game in Diablo IV. The there’s the upper end of the market where games like Marvel Snap hide exclusive cosmetic card variants in bundles that cost $100 and are only available for 5 days.

If they wanted to test the waters with cross-over content on the rotating store, maybe using stuff from Resistance would have been better as there's not really enough there to fill a whole Warbond, just a couple of Chymera guns and maybe a skin from the armored ones. With Killzone you can do a bit of everything with the Helghast theme, from their various armors and guns to vehicle skins and victory poses, and still have space left over for a separate ISA Warbond.

The argument that “it’s cosmetic” so it’s fair dues how much they want to charge is literally the wrong way round. Cosmetics should be cheap. Proper content that takes time and development costs should be properly charged. “Real” Killzone fans will skip this. Ridiculous pricing. The gaming world has lost its mind. £40 for two outfits and people justify it

@LogicStrikesAgain a comedy actress, Jameela Jamil, raised a similar point a few days ago. She posted something about Luigi Mangione and every single person, but one, agreed with her. That one person was a new account with just one post. Nonetheless, the were countless articles about the "backlash" she was facing solely based on a single comment. So, sometimes, backlash can even be manufactured to sell stories/ attract traffic.

This is a little different, imo, but your point still stands.

Who's laughing now? I called a killzone collaboration and i have been calling the devs out for their greed since the game launched, people should have complained about the warbonds from the start because they have always been predatory with how grindy the game is and how much it costs, you get 20% of the game when purchasing it at full price with the rest paywalled.

It's an ip there is a cost for licensing its not gonna be the normal price of a dlc u ever seen the dlc pricing in a fairy tail game

20 for the entire set and a time limit that expires in a few days is a bit too greedy. I would have no problem paying or grinding for a Killzone war bond that remains available. The monetization on the normal war bonds is fair. For me this leans a little bit too much on the Fomo of Killzone fans.

Edit: OK, I stand corrected. Kudos to Arrowhead for the way they are engaging with their community. Now I am considering buying the entire set 😂🤦🏻‍♂️

@breakneck The loud minority would be the people buying it. There's things are designed and expected to sell to only a fraction of the playerbase to begin with.

Pay to win for the best armor and machine gun in the game is very undemocratic.

Lol. People complaining about the price of optional, cosmetic items as if they're entitled to them. Buy it or don't buy it. Either way, stfu.

@get2sammyb it's funny how people forget that.

Apparently this was not an SIE mandate but Arrowhead who chose to release it like this. As per Playstation Lifestyle

@get2sammyb

That is exactly the point. HD2 shouldn't be "like other games".

Remember all the "this is how live service should be done" praise it got ?

I am OK with their warbond system for monetization. But they are changing that, is seems they are looking for ways to increase profit, by charging more and offering less stuff

Here's a radical idea, don't see the value in purely cosmetic themed dlc added to a game? Don't buy it and continue as normal. All problems solved.

If it impacts the game for others, there's an argument to be had, if it doesn't, there isn't.

@Gunnerzaurus you and a lot of other people are missing the point that the currency used to buy the DLC is currency that can be obtained in game for free, quickly and easily. Every mission has 200-500 Super Credits scattered around the map for players to find. For free.

I was on the fence as I love killzone and now the developers have come back with this update/response - I’m going to have to get it to support them. Arrowhead are so good compared to the rest

It’s not just cosmetic. It’s weapons, which matter a lot and the armor has a new affect, which is also not cosmetic. It’s also crazy you how you went from “it’s cosmetic” to “it’s actually not, but that’s okay” within the same paragraph. I expect better journalism than this PS, that’s accurate and doesn’t contradict itself within two sentences or less.

I did some grinding with a friend last night to gather a bunch of super credits so I can afford the helmet and the rifle. Now that Arrowhead extended the time and added the second set for free, I can get the rest of the first wave.

It’s great this was free after the outrageous prices, but now we need to get the other KZ stuff and superstore weapons given away. This is simply not good enough and after the big mistep.
They should have simply made all of this a war one from the start. It costs super-credits, but it’s reasonable.
Helldivers 2 is the only game I have ever bought currency for because it doesn’t feel like it’s nickel and diming me, it’s feels fair. I hope they don’t lose that.

@Deoxyr1bose Exactly. Just like the old “Microsoft Points” currency they had for Xbox. Always sold in totally inconvenient quantities in the hope that you would buy more to top up. Crooked.

@Jaz007 Let me get this straight. This company does microtransactions the best way in the industry. You can easily earn credits by playing the game. They’re even giving items away for free now, after users complaining about it being too expensive(even though licensed items are also more expensive for them)

And you’re STILL complaining? Wow, Arrowhead really is lucky with such a fanbase.

@Gunnerzaurus oh yeah, my bad. Carry on!

@LogicStrikesAgain they’re giving them away for free because people called them out for getting for dipping into garbage MT practices. I’m glad they listened, but we shouldn’t have to call them out in the first place.
Also, both Helldivers and Killzone are Sony franchises. There are zero listening fees here.

@Jaz007 I understand they’ve listened. Which is more than other companies do. But you repay them by complaining even more? Saying its not good enough. That was my point. I dont see other companies doing this, most if not all companies are way more egregious and expensive with their microtransaction.

Most people agree Arrowhead is one of the fairest in the business when it comes to these things, just read @ChrisDeku comment comparing this to Diablo and Marvels mtx. Also, they listen very well to their fanbase, and decided to give free things immediately. Which in my book, deserves them getting a bit of slack.

Again, you have to keep in mind you can also just play the game and get all these things for free.

Regarding the licensing you’re probably right. Although Arrowhead is not a Sony developer, though. So i’m not entirely sure Sony just hands out other IP licenses for free to 3rd party developers. But since Sony is the publisher and IP holder, they likely have an agreement.

Arrowhead needs to stop bowing to the crazies. Sure, all the stuff should have been the price of a Warbond, not more, but giving half of it away for free in a game that has more than earned our money is not the right answer. Arrowhead keeps finding themselves in these situations because they keep letting the vocal players who complain about everything dictate what they do.

@Jaz007 Btw, I dont want to give the impression that i disagree with voicing your concern to them. Im very much pro consumer. And its good that you let them know.

I more have an issue with people immediately yelling and grabbing their pitchforks. Eventhough Arrowhead has been very generous and polite from the get go and listens very intently to their fanbase. Heck, they’re Swedish, i bet if everyone had just asked politely they would have given it for free as well 😂

@LogicStrikesAgain Sony published Helldivers 2 and controls which platforms it’s on and whatnot. It’d pretty much be Sony paying Sony lol.

I hear you though, there is a balance to strike and AH is far better than most, I’m just worried about a slippery slope. I think superstore weapons are a bridge too far, so that needs to addressed in general. I feel giving some stuff away for free is a very nice band-aid, but only a band-aid.

I think they also put themselves in a bad spot by making it kinda too late to turn it into a warbond which it easily could have been and should have been.
@The_Wailing_Doom See above paragraph, they made it so there is no right answer by their own hand and fault. This is the only game over eve bought current for because it wasn’t trying to Nickel and dime me. This cross-over was nickel and diming me.

Managed Democracy corrects it's wayward course yet again.

It shocks me and has never set well with me that micro transactions higher than $10 have ever done well.

It seems insane to me that even during the last generation when games were $60 that you would get DLC that was near $20 or higher when the entire game cost 60. I’ve always thought that a majority of micro transaction content should be around five to $10 at the absolute most. And I’ve always felt that true expansions should be the content that’s $20 or higher.

But people are free to spend their money however they want.

Gamers complaint how they missed the old days where additional contents can be unlocked by just playing the game.

But then complaint about DLC is expensives when when the devs gave the option that it can be obtained by just playing the game 🙄

Gamers this days became really b*tchy and entitled like kids.