By Ashley Bardhan

Copyright gamesradar

Skip to main content

GamesRadar+
The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love

View Profile

Search GamesRadar+

Game Insights

Games Features

Games Reviews

Games Guides

The Big Preview

On The Radar

Future Games Show

Action Games

Action RPGs

Adventure Games

Third Person Shooters

Xbox Series X

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch 2

Tabletop Gaming

Grand Theft Auto

Assassin’s Creed

Monster Hunter

The Elder Scrolls

Entertainment

Anime Shows

Sci-Fi Shows

Superhero Shows

Animated Shows

Marvel TV Shows

Star Wars TV Shows

DC TV Shows

Movie Reviews

Superhero Movies

Action Movies

Sci-Fi Movies

Anime Movies

Horror Movies

Marvel Movies

Apple TV Plus

Disney Plus

Amazon Prime Video

Marvel Comics

Toys & Merch

Toys & Collectibles

Dungeons and Dragons

Hardware News

Hardware Reviews

Hardware Features

Desktop PCs

Peripherals

Headsets & Headphones

TVs & Monitors

Gaming Mice

Gaming Keyboards

Gaming Chairs

Speakers & Audio

Accessories & Tech

Gaming Controllers

SSDs & Hard Drives

Accessories

Buying Guides

Newsletters

Retro Gamer

Game Insights

Games Features

Games Reviews

Games Guides

The Big Preview

On The Radar

Future Games Show

Action Games

Action RPGs

Adventure Games

Third Person Shooters

View Platforms

Xbox Series X

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch 2

Tabletop Gaming

Franchises

Grand Theft Auto

Assassin’s Creed

Monster Hunter

The Elder Scrolls

Entertainment

View Entertainment

View TV Shows

Anime Shows

Sci-Fi Shows

Superhero Shows

Animated Shows

Marvel TV Shows

Star Wars TV Shows

DC TV Shows

View Movies

Movie Reviews

Superhero Movies

Action Movies

Sci-Fi Movies

Anime Movies

Horror Movies

Marvel Movies

View Streaming

Apple TV Plus

Disney Plus

Amazon Prime Video

View Comics

Marvel Comics

Toys & Merch

Toys & Collectibles

Dungeons and Dragons

View Hardware

Hardware News

Hardware Reviews

Hardware Features

Desktop PCs

Peripherals

View Peripherals

Headsets & Headphones

TVs & Monitors

Gaming Mice

Gaming Keyboards

Gaming Chairs

Speakers & Audio

Accessories & Tech

Gaming Controllers

SSDs & Hard Drives

Accessories

Buying Guides

Newsletters

Retro Gamer

Gaming Magazines

Why subscribe?

Subscribe from just £3
Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
Try a single issue or save on a subscription
Issues delivered straight to your door or device

From£9.99Subscribe now

PS5 State of Play
Ghost of Yotei
Battlefield 6
New Games for 2025

Don’t miss these

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 players fume over performance issues, Arrowhead CEO admits “it’s not good enough” but promises “a fix for some of the most immediate things is being prepped”

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 rivals Call of Duty’s notoriously chunky file sizes as its latest update takes the shooter above 140GB on Steam: “This is getting beyond ridiculous”

Third Person Shooters
Arrowhead CEO says he wasn’t talking about Helldivers 3 in recent tease, but “our next game” – which raises a whole other question

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 devs address performance complaints, say “we want things to be in a better state, we are taking it very seriously” with an update next month just the start of “a bigger development plan”

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 devs say DLSS and FSR are “on the wishlist,” but there are “other more fundamental problems that impact performance” to fix first

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 devs have heard our complaints and “have escalated the priority” of addressing the absurd 140GB PC file size, but there’s no word on when changes are coming

Third Person Shooters
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

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 CEO knows “we’re not getting a passing grade on performance and stability” right now, but another 60-day action plan wouldn’t be enough to fix everything

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 devs generate “a bajillion ideas a minute,” but Arrowhead’s CEO uses the perfect Star Wars line to explain why it can’t bring them all to life

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 players ask for better UI with in-game info but joke it “would break 50% of the game,” director says “that’s mean… and also sadly true” but “we are working on an improved system”

Third Person Shooters
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”

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 studio CEO says Arrowhead’s eventual next game will start pre-production with a smaller team: “HD2 started with a big team and that was baaaaad”

Third Person Shooters
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”

Third Person Shooters
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”

Third Person Shooters
Helldivers 2 players are blaming everything from bugs, to the other kind of bugs, to Arrowhead itself for them failing the latest Major Order: “The caves did things and it was not pretty”

Third Person Shooters

Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 won’t get bigger lobbies because 16 players would come with a side of “16 FPS,” Arrowhead CEO says: “We’re trying to fix performance. Not kill it”

Ashley Bardhan

29 September 2025

Sorry about that

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

I hope you don’t have a truck full of 15 friends waiting expectantly to play Helldivers 2 with you, because that would be really inconvenient. Developer Arrowhead’s CEO Shams Jorjani suggests the third-person shooter isn’t getting expanded lobbies any time soon.

Jorjani doesn’t try to spare anyone’s feelings while responding recently to a Helldivers 2 player on Discord asking, “how impossible from scale 1 to 10 would you say more people in a lobby is.” He delivers the bitter truth: “my man, we’re trying to fix performance. not kill it.” Some players are already unhappy with Helldivers 2’s performance as it is, reporting that it regularly drops to at least 40fps.
“I can give you 16 player lobbies tomorrow. and 16 fps. want it?” Jorjani continues.

You may like

Helldivers 2 players fume over performance issues, Arrowhead CEO admits “it’s not good enough” but promises “a fix for some of the most immediate things is being prepped”

Helldivers 2 rivals Call of Duty’s notoriously chunky file sizes as its latest update takes the shooter above 140GB on Steam: “This is getting beyond ridiculous”

Arrowhead CEO says he wasn’t talking about Helldivers 3 in recent tease, but “our next game” – which raises a whole other question

“this was a joke,” he adds, just in case, “plz don’t quote me.” (Sorry.)

Helldivers 2 can currently accommodate four players in a lobby, though Arrowhead seems well aware that grunts want more. But Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt already said on Twitter in 2024 that, “The engine, network architecture, UI, performance, and difficulty can’t cope” with something like eight players to a lobby. “We need to do significant investment for 8p coop to work.”
“As a catch all reply: Its not impossible, and its something we talk about often at the studio,” he added. “Future will tell what happens.”
But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Jorjani also pokes fun at the idea that increasing a Helldivers 2 lobby’s player cap would be simple, writing sarcastically on Discord that, “there’s a file called config.ini in there, there’s a line that says “players = 4,” change it to “player = 16″ and it you can bring more friends.”

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
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.”

See more Xbox Series X News

Xbox Series X

PlayStation

Ashley Bardhan

Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She’s been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she’s written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she’s not covering gaming news, she’s usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

Helldivers 2 players fume over performance issues, Arrowhead CEO admits “it’s not good enough” but promises “a fix for some of the most immediate things is being prepped”

Helldivers 2 rivals Call of Duty’s notoriously chunky file sizes as its latest update takes the shooter above 140GB on Steam: “This is getting beyond ridiculous”

Arrowhead CEO says he wasn’t talking about Helldivers 3 in recent tease, but “our next game” – which raises a whole other question

Helldivers 2 devs address performance complaints, say “we want things to be in a better state, we are taking it very seriously” with an update next month just the start of “a bigger development plan”

Helldivers 2 devs say DLSS and FSR are “on the wishlist,” but there are “other more fundamental problems that impact performance” to fix first

Helldivers 2 devs have heard our complaints and “have escalated the priority” of addressing the absurd 140GB PC file size, but there’s no word on when changes are coming

Latest in Third Person Shooters

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”

Arrowhead CEO blames Helldivers 2 performance issues on tech debt accumulated thanks to goalposts being “moved a few times” during development: “The foundations of this big tower were made for a little bungalow”

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”

Arrowhead boss wants Helldivers 2 to be a “forever game” like RuneScape that can keep improving, with “no plans” for a sequel

Returnal is still one of my favorite PS5 games, and its successor Saros looks even better thanks to the “permanent progression” my brain craves

Helldivers 2 devs address performance complaints, say “we want things to be in a better state, we are taking it very seriously” with an update next month just the start of “a bigger development plan”

Latest in News

Helldivers 2 won’t get bigger lobbies because 16 players would come with a side of “16 FPS,” Arrowhead CEO says: “We’re trying to fix performance. Not kill it”

The “twink with glowing cartoon eyes” in Peacemaker season 2 isn’t a Creature Commandos Easter egg, confirms James Gunn

Capcom warns it “will no longer guarantee” Monster Hunter Wilds, Rise, and World “will run” on PCs using Windows 10 as of mid-October, also advises Wilds players to check your dang drivers

21 years after Scooby-Doo, Matthew Lillard wants to reunite with “dear friend” James Gunn in the new DCU: “Tell him I’m available”

Capcom wanted to focus more on the RPG aspect for Monster Hunter Stories 3, director pulls a Final Fantasy and says it’s set 200 years in the future so don’t worry about playing the first two

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 director says fan feedback can only go so far, the upcoming JRPG “should be a better experience” but the “creative vision” at Square Enix won’t change

GAME REVIEWS
MOVIE REVIEWS

Ghost of Yotei review: “One of the first PS5 games to feel truly boundary-pushing, this hyper violent samurai revenge quest truly hooked me”

Hades 2 review: “Impeccable combat and flawless characterization across a huge roster make for a follow-up that surpasses even its excellent roguelike predecessor”

EA FC 26 review: “Ultimate Team’s huge, divisive changes have me torn – FIFA’s successor has moved away from serving football purists”

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review: “Fantastic tweaks elevate a classic while leaving its spirit intact – this seminal tactical RPG has never been better”

Baby Steps review: “If you craved a tougher hiking challenge than Death Stranding, this is for you – though prepare to get dropped from many great heights”

One Battle After Another review: “One of the best studio movies in years and an instant classic”

The Conjuring: Last Rites review: “Not bold or memorable enough for the Warrens’ final chapter”

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: “Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer’s best adventure yet”

The Long Walk review: “One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made”

Frankenstein review: “A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation”

Marvel Zombies review: “A fun expansion of the What If episode with delightful MCU Easter eggs and truly gross R-rated kills”

Gen V season 2 review: “As strong as the first season, if not stronger”

Wednesday season 2 part 2 review: “Ortega shines, but it’s a zombie who steals the entire show”

Peacemaker season 2 review: “Darker and sadder than the first year, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids.”

Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: “Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots”

GamesRadar+ is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Contact Future’s experts

Terms and conditions

Privacy policy

Cookies policy

Advertise with us

Review guidelines

Write for us

Accessibility Statement

Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury,

BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait…