Arrowhead’s new CEO has told us succinctly whether Helldivers 2, which will use the live service model, can hope for some kind of offline, or at least story-driven, mode.

Helldivers 2 has become one of the best-selling games of 2024, with more than 12 million copies of the live service title sold so far, according to Sony interactive Entertainment, the game’s publisher. But not everyone is thrilled with the game’s model (after all, if it can’t be played offline, alone, or without a PlayStation Network account, it’s not a keepable title, i.e., a throwaway game), so Arrowhead’s new CEO Shams Jorjani was right to ask: Could the game get a dedicated story mode?

“Not happening. Sorry bro. It’s like building a whole new game,” Jorjani wrote in his reply. He added that the studio will now take a short summer break, so the pace of the game’s development will be somewhat affected, but there’s no need to worry that they’ll stop development immediately: they’ll just put it on the back burner and pick it up after a well-deserved break (they have one, at least); continuous development is essential for live service games.

Not happening. Sorry bro. That's like building an entirely new game.

— Shams Jorjani (@ShamsJorjani) June 13, 2024

Helldivers 2 managed to maintain its position in North America in April, coming in second in sales (only Stellar Blade was ahead of it) according to Circana, formerly the NPD Group, and if Arrowhead’s game is still in first place in May, it’s safe to say it’s a hit. The studio has admittedly set its sights on becoming the next FromSoftware or Blizzard, and it may be on the right track.

Helldivers 2 was released for PlayStation 5 and PC, and the PC version had a bit of trouble as it didn’t require a PlayStation Network account at first, then it was made mandatory (although not all countries are served by Sony’s network), then it was withdrawn, but other games (such as Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut) have kept it as a requirement.

Source: WCCFTech