Helldiving hero Harvey Randall said last week that things need to change at Arrowhead, because the is starting to take a visible toll on [[link]] developers and players alike. Apparently Arrowhead agrees: In response to an inquiry about the release of the next patch, community manager Twinbeard said it'll be out "when it's done."
It's been genuinely remarkable to watch Arrowhead build Helldivers 2 into a game experience that feels genuinely alive. Eschewing a regular schedule of updates, Helldivers 2 developers appear to just do things, an embrace of chaos that keeps everyone on their toes. For the most part it's been a smashing success, but it's also led to some criticism as fast-and-furious balance changes, sometimes bringing unexpected results, have frustrated some members of the community.
Personally, I'm inclined to agree with Helldivemaster Morgan Park's assessment that the in a strictly PvE game, but I'm also someone who stuck with the IKELOS SMG for the entire time I played Destiny 2, meta be damned, because I like how it sounds. (For the Destiny fans out there, I have been informed [[link]] that IKELOS actually was the meta, but that's not the point.) So, fair play, I may not be the best judge of these things, and in fact Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt recently acknowledged that the studio's approach to game balance in Helldivers 2 .
"We want to take some more time for this one and potentially between future patches since we feel cadence has probably been a bit too high to be able to maintain the quality standard we want and you deserve," Twinbeard wrote. "Patching a lot can easily disrupt work flow and takes more resources than you might think; it needs planning, implementing, monitoring, possible tweaking in hotfixes etc. For this one we prefer to stretch it out a little, hopefully with a good result."
In a separate message on Discord, Twinbeard said the specifics of a new, slower update schedule haven't yet been decided. "I'd say it's something we have to try out and get a feel for," he wrote. "[at the moment] we feel a slightly lower cadence overall will benefit both us, you, and the game."
It's a tough spot for Arrowhead. A large portion of the player base wants , but there's also a growing sense that too much is, well, too much: There's a risk that quantity may outweigh quality. And even when that's not the case, as online editor Fraser Brown , none of it really gets a chance to breathe. Let us not forget that developers need to sleep now and then, too. It's been an admirable effort on Arrowhead's part, and Helldivers 2 has been great for it, but I think [[link]] at this point it will be even better if all involved can slow down a little bit and take some time to smell the victory.