Helldivers 2 bossman Pilestedt rocks up on Discord for the first time in a little bit to answer about ten million questions and reflect on the criticism

It’s been a little bit of time since Helldivers 2 players have heard much from former Arrowhead CEO and still very much chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt, with the developer seemigly having enjoyed some very well-earned time off. Now, however, he’s made a bit of a return in rather grand fashion, by answering Discord questions from everyone and their mum.

Naturally, the flak the studio has faced from players following the deployment of the most recent batch of weapon balancing changes – the one Arrowhead announced that much-discussed 60-day plan of changes that it’s already acting upon in reponse to – came up, as it has in 99% of dev chats about the game over the last little while.

“It’s hard. It’s a tricky situation. The criticism is valid, but it causes low morale, and low morale causes slow development speed. Talk about negative spiral,” Pilestedt said in response to a player asking how the game’s developers are currently feeling. “I think it’s important for us to reiterate to the team that criticism happens because people care, ” he added in a separate response, “The worst thing would have been if we fucked up and oo one cared.”