Helldivers 2's launch was so successful it broke the game
The incredible success of Helldivers 2 was a huge shock to the industry, but then again, in a genre already cornered, it's always a treat to see a new title rear its head.
As a bug-blasting team shooter, Helldivers 2 has already proven itself by steering into the satire and silliness of its Starship Troopers inspirations. Fans love killing big bad bugs just as much as they love swan-diving from high rooves and watching their players writhe in agony on the floor.
But it seems that the success of Helldivers 2 is too much for some to handle - that 'some' being the game's team itself. Now, the team at Arrowhead Game Studios have explained what's going on with Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 was maybe too successful
Click to enlargeHelldivers 2 has been crushing it, both on the Steam charts and the PlayStation sales market - and it seems that it has been causing the game trouble, keeping players from unlocking the rewards they had earned.
A new server update from Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt has revealed that the shooter has struggled to accommodate all of the players wanting to get involved with the bug-blasting mania, but went on to promise that the team is working on fixes.
"To speak in technical terms, our services as well as our partner services have a rate limiter that denies connections beyond a volume per minute to prevent the entire system from failing," Pilestedt says. Basically, too many of you were trying to jump into matches at the same time.
He continued, "We managed to increase the rate limit from 10,000/min to 20,000/min and the total capacity of concurrent players was increased from 250,000 total to 360,000 total. This was however still not enough as the player count jumped to 360k after 5 1⁄2 minutes."
Helldivers is working on fixes - but isn't risking the health of its staff
Click to enlargeIn a pretty refreshing turn, Pilestedt has revealed that some fixes are in the works, but in the meantime, he's asked that players leave the game's developers alone so that they can sleep and reap some kind of reward for squeezing out Helldivers 2.
"I know the progression issue is frustrating, especially for newer divers that want to unlock sweet gear,” the CEO adds. "For now, please once again accept our sincere apologies for the issues you’re facing and rest assured, we’re doing our utmost to make it right. In order to do so, right now it is crucial that our team gets some sleep and we will be back at this again in a few hours."
It's nice to see the CEO of a gaming company prioritise the health of their team, even if issues are pressing. Luckily for us, we can imagine it'll be worth the wait.
