Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead is already talking about features they want to add to the inevitable Helldivers 3.
It’s not an understatement to say Sony’s live service games strategy has been disastrous. At one point, it planned to have 12 games as a service titles out by 2026, but in that time, several have been quietly cancelled, and the only one that did launch, Concord, was such a flop that it was completely shutdown after only a couple of weeks.
Sony has enjoyed one live service game success, though, and it’s ironically the only one that wasn’t even made internally: Helldivers 2 by Arrowhead Game Studios. The online co-op shooter has remained popular since its February 2024 launch and recently enjoyed a very successful debut on Xbox.
Many live service titles aim to last at least a decade, and while Helldivers 2’s momentum doesn’t rule that out, Arrowhead is already talking about a full sequel.
Over in the Helldivers 2 Discord (and later shared to the Helldivers 2 subreddit), one fan mentioned how they’d like to see the game receive a dedicated social hub area, where players can interact and hang out outside of all the bug hunting.
They use the Tower from Destiny 2 as an example, which is devoid of any combat and is instead home to various side activities and minigames. Although the fan acknowledged this’ll probably never happen in Helldivers 2.
Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani responded to this comment, and while it indeed sounds like there are no plans for such an area in Helldivers 2, Jorjani revealed, ‘It’s on the feature list for the next one.’
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Update: Jorjani has claimed that when he said ‘the next one’ he just meant Arrowhead’s next game, not necessarily Helldivers 3.
This isn’t actually the first hint towards a Helldivers 3. Last December, Arrowhead’s former CEO, Johan Pilestedt (who later demoted himself to a chief creative officer position), talked about ‘growing Helldivers 2 into Helldivers 3.’ Then, in July, Jorjani mentioned that any sequel is ‘hopefully many years away’ (via Rock Paper Shotgun).
Sequels to live service games are a big risk, since it usually means players have to start from scratch with their characters and progression, so it’s certainly very unusual for a successful game to talk about a new entry so soon after launch.
Plus, while it does have optional microtransactions and battle passes, Helldivers 2 isn’t free-to-play. You still need to spend £34.99 to start playing, so seeing it replaced with a Helldivers 3 risks upsetting players, especially if the new game is not perceived as a major improvement.
However, Pilestedt’s comment suggests Helldivers 3 would be something Helldivers 2 naturally evolves into through updates. So he may be thinking more along the lines of Helldivers v3.0.
This is precisely why there’s never going to be a Fortnite 2. Especially as we’ve seen other studios struggle when it comes to live service game sequels. Overwatch 2’s launch, for example, was incredibly polarising for how it replaced the original game and, at the time, was the lowest-rated game on Steam.
Destiny 2 was able to pull it off and seemed to prove very successful, but one of the reasons Bungie stopped working with Activision is because they didn’t want to make a Destiny 3 so soon after.
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