Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani has said that Helldivers 2 was a free-to-play game at one point in its development. The studio head has also suggested that multiple pivots like this could be to blame for Helldivers 2's tech debt and ongoing performance issues.
In some ways, the live-service approach of Helldivers 2 almost feels similar to the model employed by many existing free-to-play games. Arrowhead Game Studios drops free content regularly to bring players back to game, and players are able to buy Super Credits micro-transactions to buy in-game items. To its credit, players can earn this premium currency by playing the game, and there's no significant pressure for players to spend to avoid being left behind. Still, it's interesting to see how it compares to a typical free-to-play game in this regard.
As spotted by GamesRadar+, Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani was speaking about the potential reasons for Helldivers 2's ongoing performance issues in the game's Discord server. Jorjani says that "HD2 started as a AA game," before it "grew in scope, then pivoted to a launch title for ps5, then pivoted to f2p, then back...
