Summary
Helldivers 2developer Arrowhead Game Studios donated money to charity in honor of players' recent accomplishments regarding one of the game’s latest major orders. The popular co-op third-person shooter has been a massive success for both Arrowhead and publishing partner Sony Interactive Entertainment, so seeing the creators ofHelldivers 2spread their wealth by aiding real-life people in need will likely go down well in the eyes of fans and fellow developers.
Once every week or so, Arrowhead plays around with theHelldivers 2community by giving fans in-game challenges, or major orders, to complete that help determine the game’s over-arching meta-narrative.The latestHelldivers 2major orderwas a little bit different from usual, however, as it gave players the task of facing a tough moral quandary in a limited period of time. Fans were given the option to either liberate the planet Marfark and get ahold of the MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines strategem or rescue the survivors trapped within Super Citizen Anne’s Hospital for Very Sick Children at Vernon Wells instead. To the surprise of some, theHelldivers 2community made the choice to turn down the opportunity of nabbing more mines in favor of saving the children, despite the lack of any tantalizing in-game rewards for doing so.
To celebrate this decision for the greater good, the current Arrowhead CCO andformerHelldivers 2CEO Johan Pilestedttook to Twitter to reveal that the developer had made a donation of $4,311 to Save the Children, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to aiding endangered youth worldwide. If the amount of dollars Arrowhead contributed to the organization seems oddly specific, that’s because it’s equivalent to the 4,311 children that players rescued withinHelldivers 2itself. That aside, the company’s major donation was met with very positive reception from players, especially those who fought to liberate Vernon Wells in the game themselves.
In a post on the game’s official Twitter account, Arrowhead Game Studios commemorated the outcome of this major order by sharing a message from the children that players saved at Super Citizen Anne’s Hospital. “Dear Helldivers, thank you so much for saving us. They told us you made a lot of sacrifices (mines/lives) to help us. We’ll always be grateful. Now, we can grow up to become Helldivers too. With Liberty, the Very Sick Children of Super Citizen Anne’s.” Unlike otherHelldivers 2major orders that ended in failure, this one fortunately had a happy ending.
The new Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjanireacted to the major order’s outcome as well, jokingly stating that theHelldivers 2developer would have donated to weapons manufacturers Raytheon and Northrop Grumman had players decided to get the mines on Marfark instead of saving the children. These sorts of playful interactions that Arrowhead executives have with the community, combined with the studio’s frequent implementation of meta-narrative lore exposition, is what makesHelldivers 2stand out among its live service competitors in the eyes of many fans.
Helldivers 2
WHERE TO PLAY
Do you believe in freedom? Can you stand in the face of oppression – and defend the defenceless? Wage war for peace. Die for democracy.Join forces with up to three friends and wreak havoc on an alien scourge threatening the safety of your home planet, Super Earth, in this multiplayer co-op shooter for PS5 and PC from Arrowhead Game Studios.Step into the boots of the Helldivers, an elite class of soldiers whose mission is to spread peace, liberty and Managed Democracy using the biggest, baddest and most explosive tools in the galaxy.Helldivers don’t go planet side without proper backup, but it’s up to you to decide how and when to call it in. Not only do you have a host of superpowered primary weapons and customizable loadouts, you also have the ability to call on stratagems during play.Helldivers 2 features Arrowhead’s best cooperative gameplay yet. Collaboration will be vital: Teams will synergize on loadouts, strategize their approach for each mission and complete objectives together.1Enlist in Super Earth’s premier military peacekeeping force today. We are heroes… we are legends… WE ARE HELLDIVERS.
