Sony reportedly in talks to bring Helldivers 2 to Xbox
Following the runaway success of Arrowhead Games Studios' Helldivers 2, the co-operative shooter is reportedly in early talks to come to Xbox. Launching in February 2024 on PlayStation and Steam, Helldivers 2 has unfortunately locked Xbox players out of the fun... (potentially) until now.
As an impressive sequel to 2015's Helldivers, Arrowhead revamped the top-down game as a third-person shooter. It's since toppled the Xbox-exclusive Palworld from the top of Steam and continued to ride the wave of success as we blast bugs and bots to pieces.
Helldivers reportedly in early talks for Xbox release
Speaking on the XboxEra podcast, Shpeshal_Nick said that there are "very, very early preliminary discussions about the possibility of Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox." It comes after Sony Interactive Entertainment interim CEO Hiroki Totoki took over from Jim Ryan, with plans to be "a little more open" with multiplatform releases.
Although Shpeshal_Nick says it makes sense for the PlayStation bedfellow to land on Xbox, he reminds us, "It doesn't mean it's coming for sure, I just said there's very early discussions about it. It could all fall to pieces. . . They might not come to an agreement or something."
Arrowhead has a strong history with Sony, and following 2014's Gauntlet, the two Helldivers games have been tethered to PlayStation. Still, it's much like Palworld, with the potential of coming to your biggest rival being a lucrative way to boost your playerbase.
Console exclusivity is a thing of the past
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These rumbles come after Xbox has already proved it's more open to sharing its first-party titles. Although we're still a way off from Starfield taking flight on PlayStation, the floodgates have been opened with the likes of Grounded and Sea of Thieves jumping over to the Blue Team.
PlayStation is similarly a long way off from releasing its first-party Goliaths like God of War and The Last of Us on Xobx, although we've seen a recent shift into PC ports of its flagship franchises. As much as the media tries to hype up the 'devastation' of the console wars, we've seen Microsoft and Sony become a lot closer recently.
Back in February 2024, Xbox boss Phil Spencer told Game File that he's "not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by Helldivers 2 not being on Xbox," so we know at least one person would be happy with the news. Even if hands haven't been shaken on Xbox players getting to fight for democracy with Helldivers 2, we're one step closer to making it happen.
