Helldivers 2 has lost 90% of players since launch

Helldivers 2's player numbers are far from awful, but the declining trend is definitely a bit concerning. The game has a great foundation, so I think players will come back to the game if the devs give them a reason to. I think it needs expansion-sized content additions, and I imagine that's going to take time. We'll see if the devs and future updates can revitilize this game. PATREON: www.patreon.com/yongyea TWITTER: www.twitter.com/yongyea INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/yong_yea TIKTOK: www.tiktok.com/@yongyea TOP PATRONS [BIG BOSS] - Devon B [BOSS] - Gerardo Andrade - Michael Redmond - Phil

The game is still blocked on 177 countries and they're wondering why it isn't resurging.

Well, Sony killed their golden goose.

For those who only know bout this game from news, not from playing it all the time: The glory time 1- Game launched and it was a bigger success than anyone expected; 2- Content creators and social media boosted the game through videos and memes; 3- Server issues + forced link to psn account for PC players (the colossal biggest share of the total player base) was turned off since it didnt even work correctly; 4- Servers expanded and the game grew really fast; The Dev Problem 1- Developers had a vision for the game, setting it up to be a parody of StarshipTroopers, which meant playing non-trained soldiers with garbage guns and and even worse armor sent to die in suicidal missions; 2- To enforce that vision they started to nerf every resource the player had in the game: Weapon DPS, Weapon TTK(time to kill), Ammo, Accuracy, Armor Penetration, Stratagems CD, Stratagem Quantity, etc. While also buffing every aspect of enemy units: AI behavior, armor, damage, increased critical hit rate, quantity, etc. 3- Every new patch would proceed to nerf and ruin whatever was most used by the community to enforce the sense of weakness and loser grunt life the developers intended as the theme of their game; The Beggining of The End 1- Content Creators, Guide Makers, Build Makers, Helldiver Mechanics Researchers on Reddit started to question why the developers were so hostile towards fun and viability in their game, they kept posting videos showcasing the decline of player options and the frustration generated by those nerfs while scrambling to offer players solutions to the problems imposed by the developers ways to succeed when everything was set to fail; 2- players started to get fed up with every patch nerfing their favorite weapons, builds and playstyles and hostility and toxicity started to spread across the game, when before anyone could just join in and have a good time now everyone is scrutinized before the mission even begins bout their off-meta gear choices, and how those players would be kicked and gate keeped off higher difficulty missions; The Sony Situation 1- Sony enforces the account link on PC players months post launch, a situation that would be normal for any PC player, except sony straight up doesnt work in certain regions of the world, so players who legaly purchased their game would suddenly lose access to it for reasons outside their control; 2- The sony situation explodes and a mass hate campaign begins, several players affected refund the game, other several players not affected but displeased with the dev problem also take this opportunity to refund the game, massively dropping active players on all difficulty missions; 3- The sony situation if partly solved, the account linking is suspended but the game remains restricted in hundreds of regions, blocking all players in those places from playing the game; The Dev Redemption Arc 1- CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Arrowhead (Helldivers 2 Developers) decided to demote himself to CCO (Creative Chief Officer) to have more direct control over the game, he had spent months prior to the sony incident consuming Youtube, Twitch, Reddit media and reflecting about the feedback given by the games Top Players, Content Creators, Promotes and Player Communities and decided that their original vision for the game, was murdering the game, he chose to personaly lead Developers, Designers and the Balancing Team in Arrowhead to shift their focus and vision from 'Disposable Loser Grunts' to 'Super Earth Elite Soldiers', focusing on empowering the players to allow more build diversity, less online toxicity and for fun to once again exist in Helldivers 2; 2- The biggest and most recent balance patch has partially fulfilled their promise and even though it hasnt fixed the game it, at least, has moved it towards a better state not seen in months; 3- New Content for the game has been slowed from once every 30 days to once every 60 days to give the devs more time to bug test and balance content; And here is where we are today, watching to learn if the devs will actually 'no man sky' this game back to life or if sony will murder it before they have the chance to fix it.

This is one of the only cases I've seen where i think the live service model could've worked. Instead Sony banned 177 countries from even participating, and Arrowhead blew their chances by failing to provide a fun experience, instead choosing to continuously nerf whatever players found worked well. Not too mention the game just needs more content desperately, we need the vehicles they've been in the game files since before release, we need the illuminate, and we definitely need the clan system. The game just released unfinished, in their own words, there was tons of cut or indefinitely delayed content.

Sony holding the murder weapon in-hand: I don't know how this could have happened.

"If you're no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you'll come back for round 2 when you're ready. Play lots of games, try different genres, and frequently flick through indie libraries to find hidden gems" - pokemon w/ guns dev

Helldivers has had a mixed cocktail of major issues. -Sony PSN forcing -an us vs them mentality between players and devs, resulting in highly controversial patches and drama. -poor weapon balancing -lack of meaningful content -long lasting technical issues and bugs that negatively impact gameplay

Such a let down, a perfect game ruined by bad balancing, awful community management, and outright dumb decision making.

Sony: "Man thats a nice community. Would be a shame if something happened to it." 😂 Proceeds to destroy player relations

People won't buy and play your games if you don't sell it in their countries. Can someone explain this to Sony?

nerfing this shit out of all the good weapons is really frustrating as a player i wish they'd just leave them be , they seem to be more worried about people using the same guns than anything else it seems

The reason is, in every update, they developers take one step forward and 3 steps backwards

Helldivers is such a tragic case study How to gain mass popularity over night, and how to immediately piss it away

The 3 main reasons for this downfall. -Sony banning over 150 countries of playing -weapon/enemy balance making the game almost unplayable and punishes most builds -increasingly hostile communication with Devs

Everyone complains about the whole PSN account linking thing, but honestly if you've played the game you've felt the lack of content; the exhaustion of two factions. The constant teasing about a new faction. The crashing, the spawn rates. There are a lot of issues. But most hard core players don't pay attention.

Multiplayer games are cyclical. “Live service” is a myth in games. Investors are wasting their money chasing a unicorn while developers miss great opportunities of creating amazing experiences.

Well essentially 2-3 reasons. 1 - Sony is a Piece of S..t. 2 - Community Managers from Arrow Head are terrible. 3 - Too many unreasonable nerfs on a PVE game

That is what happens when you block your own game for 177 countries just because they dont have PSN accounts

People rightfully blame Sony, but Arrowhead played a huge part as well. Each patch they made was one more nail in the coffin.