Because the studio is independent and not a subsidiary of a major company or publisher (for how long is a question, as there have been rumors that this situation may change), the team does not receive such top-level direction.

There was a thread on Reddit where a critical user said that the subreddit walked a fine line between constructive opinion and selfish entitlement. The user who wrote the post knew that what he was saying would not be popular, because the studio CEO has already said that transmog will not be allowed in Helldivers 2, and their community director has said that the same people who make the new war bonds are the same people who fix the bugs.

Arrowhead has a vision of what they want the game to look like, and the author of this post says that they are on the right track by sticking to their vision. Sony, he says, would pay attention to bug fixing instead of war bonds as a priority for the studio. The studio has a contract with Sony, and one of the requirements is a deadline for war bonds, and no one would be interested in Helldivers 2 if the studio went on a big bug-fixing spree.

The game’s director and founder of Arrowhead, Johan Pilestedt, responded: “I appreciate your sentiment and your post. Let me add some context. Arrowhead is independently owned by the people who work at the studio and is not influenced by shareholders in the traditional sense. Of course, we have a great partnership with Sony where we agree on goals to hit, etc. But there’s no coercive function or requirement per se.” So he clarified exactly what the situation is between the publisher and the developer.

So Sony can’t influence the team in this way, but there’s no doubt that Arrowhead’s goal of creating the best live service game (something that was in the news earlier today) is not easy, but the studio can achieve it.

Source: Reddit, Reddit