Helldivers 2 boss says “realism is not the goal” and “player fantasy matters more,” but Arrowhead is still careful to remember that “it needs to be Helldivers”
By Kaan Serin
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Helldivers 2 boss says “realism is not the goal” and “player fantasy matters more,” but Arrowhead is still careful to remember that “it needs to be Helldivers”
Kaan Serin
26 September 2025
Wrangling a team as big as Arrowhead is the tricky part
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(Image credit: Sony)
Helldivers 2 has always been a sort of wacky game. Like, have you seen the way divers ragdoll after being body tackled by a comically large beetle? Even the fact that troopers can, and will regularly, hug in the middle of an incoming enemy swarm is kinda ludicrous in the best way possible. But Arrowhead Game Studio’s CEO Shams Jorjani has explained what you can already feel just by playing: “Realism is not the goal.”
Speaking about how the team views the hit shooter in a series of new Discord messages, Jorjani said the developers aren’t aiming for pure realism when making Helldivers 2 – the fantasy is the more important priority.
“There’s a balance there in keeping it real within the fantasy,” Jorjani continued, probably explaining why friendly fire is enabled for everything that can also deal damage to enemies, but “it’s not a [military simulator]. Fun/player fantasy matters more, I think.”
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Keeping that “balancing act” in harmony is a harder ask, though, especially with a now sizeable studio like Arrowhead. Jorjani said “one of the challenges of running a big team is for direction to align” because “we have many designers all with their own internal compasses.”
“Sometimes we drift here, sometimes there. The beauty of games is that magic is created in the diversity of peoples creativity. But again it needs to be Helldivers.”
Essentially, any possible future content that will serve this player fantasy is fair game as long as it operates within the established rules of Helldivers. Real world science and logistics have no place in Super Earth’s democratic reality.
Arrowhead boss wants Helldivers 2 to be a “forever game” like RuneScape that can keep improving, with “no plans” for a sequel
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Freelance contributor
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
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Arrowhead boss wants Helldivers 2 to be a “forever game” like RuneScape that can keep improving, with “no plans” for a sequel
Helldivers 2 community’s favorite conspiracy theory shut down by Arrowhead CEO, who says Major Orders are not scripted and the devs are as clueless as players: “Our predictions are often wrong”
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Helldivers 2 studio CEO says the “vast majority” of people “silently play” the shooter, which means the devs can’t just look at Reddit and what streamers are saying for feedback: “This is a challenge for all games”
Helldivers 2 players were already getting obliterated, so now it just feels like game master Joel is taking their lunch money, kicking their teeth in, and spitting in their eyes
Helldivers 3 is “hopefully many years away,” because Arrowhead is “focusing on the here and now” and Helldivers 2 “can run for a long time if people keep playing it”
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