Helldivers 2 CEO is worried it's 'too soon' after the PSN fiasco to release a $10 warbond, so he's letting players vote on a delay

helldivers 2 polar patriots warbond — (Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Recent updates

May 9: As expected, players voted not to delay the warbond, and it's out now.

Temperatures have chilled in the Helldivers 2 barracks since this weekend's PSN account linking meltdown that saw an influx of 200,000+ negative reviews on the best-selling game of the year.

Sony backed down from its unpopular decision, and Helldivers 2's Steam rating is steadily recovering, but Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt is worried about opening up fresh wounds by going through with tomorrow's scheduled release of the Polar Patriots premium warbond, a $10 DLC pack that adds three new armor sets, guns, and other cosmetics to the game. The most democratic course of action, the CEO figures, is putting it to a vote.

"With the negative sentiment around account linking, a concern from the team came up about 'is it tone deaf to release a new (paid) warbond this soon?'" Pilestedt tweeted today. "And therefore we are putting it to a real vote in true democratic fashion."

The poll, which is live now and ends Thursday in the early morning hours in the US, has two options: "Release tomorrow" or "Delay release." With over 50,000 votes submitted so far, "Release tomorrow" has a healthy 74% lead.

helldivers 2 — (Image credit: Johan Pilestedt via Twitter)

As you can see, I voted tomorrow as well. Not to try to sway the vote—I'm just excited for new guns—but I'm not surprised by the early lead. The majority of the PSN linkage frustrations were leveled at Sony, not Arrowhead, after the developer made it clear the mandate wasn't coming from them. It's understandable many are ready to move on and get some new stuff in the game.

Still, it's a nice gesture to let the community decide, and it shows an uncommon sensitivity (maybe even an oversensitivity) to the community's feelings on microtansactions. Helldivers have 10-ish more hours to let their voices be heard.

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.