As the calendar turns to 2025, it sounds clear that the studio behind one of last year's biggest games doesn't intend to rest on its laurels. Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead's CCO and long-time figurehead Johan Pilestedt seemed to hint that the long-term plan may well end up having the second game “grow” into its successor through updates.
Yes, while a lot of people are struggling with Light over the holidays, Pileste has been taking to social media after Arrowhead almost managed to quash a price boycott of the game's Killzone crossover Talk to some of them about what might happen in the future.
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In a Twitter post just before Christmas, the developer responded to someone asking about the possibility of Helldivers 2 being updated to allow for eight-player co-op. For now at least, the answer is no, with Pilestedt saying the game's “engine, network architecture, user interface, performance and difficulty can't handle” hosting eight players at once.
He added that while it would require “significant investment,” such a thing is “not impossible and something we talk about a lot in the studio.” The next point, though, is probably the most interesting part of the response.
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Despite a joke that Hellraiser 3 would launch in 2032 and be limited to eight players, Pilestedt said: “We're developing Hellraiser 2 into Hellraiser 3… so you might That's right. I don't think so except for swimming in a heavy plate carrier with a rifle and support weapons. “
Naturally, this sparked a lot of discussion on the game's Reddit subreddit. There's a lot of support for it, at least in theory, as the game is less than a year old and people are keen that Arrowhead will continue to focus on creating major updates for it in the near future.
Some do have concerns, though, with user pokiane writing: “You have to wonder how limiting their ancient engine is going to be. I'm all for adding something to the game rather than making a third one, but this would be a It would be a shame if we lost important new features because of this (more than 4 players, huge maps, more enemy types, etc.).”
While everyone was left debating the issue among themselves, Pilestedt got busy talking about something else that might appear in Helldiver 2 in the future – a full-sized minigun. “We want to do something before this happens,” one Reddit user wrote in response to a video of a man firing what looks like a Nerf minigun. “Miniguns as carry weapons.” is a notorious problem that you can see in every video of people hip-firing with miniguns – they're more or less being thrown backwards by the crazy recoil.
“The way we solve this problem is to have the player move backwards unless they take up a stable shooting position. This may also apply to the HMG (perhaps a bit premature to add). Also, backpack magazines are required, which unfortunately – the game currently Weapons taking up 2 slots are not supported, this must be resolved before the minigun can be added Once all of this is done, the 5.5mm minigun can be deployed.”
He ended by asking if people had “any other design suggestions on how to implement miniguns in Helldiver,” so be sure to let him know if you have any – it looks like someone has already combined the gun with the stamina consumption-based idea Combined. There was a flashback in his mind.
