The Helldivers 2 CEO Is Lying To Your Face

While players have been having a blast waging war in "Helldivers 2," the people at Arrowhead Games Studio have been aggressively pursuing a different campaign. Everyone at the studio wants to give the "Helldivers 2" community the best experience possible, and they're clearly willing to do anything to make that happen. Thus far, the studio has had some pretty big success using unorthodox methods, including asking the community for help with toxic players and — from time to time — straight up lying to players about what's happening in the game. Lying in a fun way.

Sometimes the company has been completely open about the fact that it's keeping players distracted. We know that the game has a roadmap for big changes coming in 2024, but Arrowhead has decided to keep many of those plans top secret. Other lies are quite a bit more difficult to spot. Did the Automatons really find a way to blow up your critical operation, or did the Game Master behind "Helldivers 2" send in extra reinforcements to make your mission all the more exciting? With "Helldivers 2," Arrowhead has basically created a surprise machine that's been successfully keeping us all on the edge of our seats.

You might expect in-game white lies, but Arrowhead has taken things even further. The company has repeatedly shown that it's willing to lie directly to your face if it means the end result will be more fun. It ties the player community even closer to the satire at the heart of the game's story, which is full of in-universe propaganda. Everyone involved has clearly been having an absolute blast, but maybe none more than Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt.

We got our first big hint at how Arrowhead's CEO is toying with fans when gamers started encountering a new enemy in the game. A little under a montha ago, players began reporting sightings of flying bug creatures. They would pop up seemingly at random in various missions, and evidence of their existence began to pile up. Players began speculating about how and when the bugs would officially make themselves known and start appearing more regularly.

Some players really had their fingers on the pulse, speculating (or maybe just hoping) that Arrowhead would make the bugs an even better surprise by not acknowledging them in patch notes. Johan Pilestedt did much more than that. He took to social media to officially deny the existence of flying bugs altogether. Suddenly anyone spouting bug theories was labeled a bug sympathizer, and the over-the-top satire of military propaganda seen in "Helldivers 2" spilled out into the real world.

I've heard rumors of flying bugs in @helldivers2. I want to officially refute such preposterous claims.

Everyone knows that "Bugs can't fly".

And I'm not alone in thinking this. The Ministry of Truth agrees that this is propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash...

— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 12, 2024

Arrowhead's fibs didn't stop with the bug incident. Johan Pilestedt is currently telling "Helldivers" players that they can't trust their own eyes. Players have been spotting blue laser beams in the game, even posting video evidence of the sightings.

This is a huge deal, because these lasers greatly resemble the blasts fired by Illuminate sniper rifles. The Illuminate were some of the most powerful enemies in the original "Helldivers." and fans think it's only a matter of time before they show up in "Helldivers 2." However, Pilestedt has a different opinion on the matter.

Blue beams aren't real, it can't hurt you.

— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 15, 2024

First bugs couldn't fly, and now the blue sniper beams aren't real. Arrowhead has effectively turned the discourse surrounding "Helldivers 2" into part of the game, and Pilestedt has cast himself as one of the main propagandists. It's an incredibly fun and refreshing way for a developer to handle community engagement, and it makes the entire not-quite-live-service experience even more exciting. The initial success of "Helldivers 2" was a bit of industry magic that Arrowhead couldn't have expected, but the developer has shown that it's more than prepared to keep the hype alive for a long time to come.