Helldivers 2's Creative Director Latest Comments Have Landed Him in Hot Water 1

One thing that’s been clear ever since Helldivers 2 burst onto the scene and became one of the biggest games in the world is that Swedish developer Arrowhead has no media training.

Why would it, though? The original Helldivers was a modest success at best across multiple platforms, but no one really expected its successor to be this big.

Creative director Johan Pilestedt’s latest social media comments seem unadvised, to put it politely. He was told by one particularly aggressive fan to “never add DEI to your games”. DEI, for those who don’t know, stands for “diversity, equality, inclusion”.

Pilestedt replied: “If it doesn’t add to the game experience, it detracts. And games should be a pure pursuit of amazing moments.”

In defence of Pilestedt, he never outright says DEI is bad; our reading of his comment is that every element of a game should contribute cohesively to the overall experience. There are RPGs, for example, where allowing you to create a character that best represents you can improve the campaign.

Helldivers 2 has, to put it politely, attracted a sub-optimal community since it exploded, though; most recently, Arrowhead pandered to its outspoken fans after the game’s Killzone crossover content was considered overpriced. Previously, publisher Sony was forced to walk back its PSN login plans after the title was aggressively review bombed for retroactively adding the “feature”.

Ultimately, we agree with Pilestedt that “games should be a pure pursuit of amazing moments”, but representation doesn’t necessarily detract from that. We’re struggling a little bit by the insinuation that it does.

At the end of the day, a great game is a great game.

[source x.com]