Helldivers 2 and Palworld devs wish players understood that 'easy' additions and updates are sometimes really hard: 'That's half a year's work. That takes six months'

helldivers 2 illuminids — (Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

I don't envy game developers sometimes, nor do I envy the assumptions they have to hear time and time again from their players. Assumptions like, 'Why didn't they add a theft/crime system?' or 'Why don't they just do this, it's so simple?' and, most infuriatingly, 'These devs are so lazy'. As a critic, I might absolutely dunk on the end product—but I'm never in doubt that folks worked hard, even when it's a stinker.

That same frustration comes clear in some responses to a recent mega-interview by GamesRadar's Austin Wood—which is well worth a read. It's an assemblage of dozens of developers across the industry, who're keen to dispel myths about how they make their games.

"The one thing people misconstrue the most is—if you think about when movies are made," Pilestedt explains, "You get an actor and they're there, and you tell them what to say. But games are so meticulously crafted. You have to build the actor from the ground up."

Buckley echoes this later in the piece, as well—though he also side-eyes the live-service churn of our modern gaming landscape. "I think gamers have just become so used to this kind of constant cycle that they're now applying it to every game they play."

It does seem that way, sometimes—and while I'm guilty of having a moan about game content cycles myself on this very site (though I maintain that Square Enix isn't a small studio, and probably has enough money to hasten Final Fantasy 14's glacial patch schedule a bit) I try to at least understand that those issues, as always, stem from outside and logistical factors rather than the sin of sloth.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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