Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has addressed player complaints about the pricing of the recently released Killzone crossover, insisting it is the driving force behind the decision making, not Sony.
Part one of the Helldivers 2 and Killzone crossover includes a Killzone-themed armor set, assault rifle, banner, cape, and player title. If you want all the Killzone items you’ll have to hand over Super Credits to the value of nearly twice the cost of a premium Warbond, and nearly half the price of Helldivers 2 itself.
Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani took to the Helldivers Discord to answer questions with varying success, at points angering the studio’s community even further.
“Firstly – this is our first collaboration so we’ll be figuring it out as we go along,” Jorjani began. “Let us know what you’d like to see in the future. Secondly it’s optional – the more of this we sell – the more Illuminate type stuff we can keep dropping for free.”
That comment in particular didn’t go down well, with players pointing out that Helldivers 2 is not a free game and therefore should not take a free-to-play pricing strategy.
Continuing to put out fires, Jorjani said the pricing backlash was discussed during Arrowhead’s monthly townhall meeting on Wednesday, and promised the studio was looking at how well the items were selling, whether or not they were being used, and feedback to get a sense of the “gripes” from the community.
“Clearly we’d love to find the sweet spot of people loving the content AND the price and buy the bajeesus out of it,” Jorjani added. “This clearly didn’t hit that mark.”
While the pricing of the Killzone items has hit the headlines, fans are also expressing concern at the FOMO associated with their limited-time sale. Part one of this Killzone crossover will only be available in Helldivers 2’s in-game store for five days before it’s rotated out.
Jorjani then said that running Helldivers 2 was “hard,” and admitted the studio has never run a big live service game before. “The last release Arrowhead had was in 2015 and the studio was much smaller,” he said. “We’re doing our best. Sometimes we fumble. I think we’ve shown that we will persevere and improve things in due course. I understand you’d like us to never fumble – but I can’t promise you we’ll hit our mark every time.”
Amid the backlash, some fans had wondered whether the Killzone pricing was forced upon Arrowhead by publisher and IP owner Sony. After all, Sony has a controversial relationship with Arrowhead and Helldivers 2 players following the company’s decision to force PC gamers to link to a PSN account to play. Even now, Helldivers 2 remains unavailable to play in the many countries in which Sony does not support PSN accounts.
However, Jorjani insisted that in the case of the Killzone item pricing, Arrowhead was in charge. “It’s a partnership [with Sony],” he said, “but we are in the driving seat behind the decisions. This one is on us.”
Meanwhile, players have wondered whether the Killzone crossover was intended to be sold as a premium Warbond (Helldivers 2’s take on a battle pass of sorts), given leaks prior to its announcement and release suggested as much. Taking to Twitter to respond to further complaints from fans, Arrowhead CCO Johan Pilestedt confirmed the Warbond theory, and explained why it was changed to individual item sales on the in-game store.
“The reason we changed it from a Warbond was actually because there were concerns that having a higher priced Warbond would carry negative sentiment.”
It turns out that negative sentiment hit the studio anyway, a point made to Pilestedt. “We just want to create great experiences that are sustainable for years to come,” he countered. “As part of that, we need to figure out how to make HD2 financially sustainable in the long term.”
Thoughts now turn to the release of part two of the Killzone crossover next week. Will Arrowhead adjust the pricing in response to the backlash, or stick to its guns? We’ll find out on December 23.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.