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1 week ago
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After the week that nearly ended all weeks for Helldivers 2, things appear to be settling back to normal. Well, as normal as possible in a game where humanity takes the fight to the stars to destroy bugs and bots in huge numbers. Things may be returning to a more normal state of being but there are still some concerns, especially as the release of a new premium warbond is right around the corner.
The next warbond for Helldivers 2 is titled Polar Patriots and it’ll add an absolute ton of guns to the action co-op game. The sticking point, at least for the development team at Arrowhead Game Studios, is that this is a premium warbond, meaning it’ll cost in-game currency to buy your way into. This currency can be earned in-game, of course, but it can also be purchased for real money, setting you back $9.99 / £7.99.
If this were a normal week than there’s no doubt that this latest warbond would go ahead as usual, but Arrowhead Game Studios has raised a concern that it may simply not be the right time. Following on from the PSN linking furor which engulfed the game at the end of last week, the developer is concerned that this may simply be a bit too much to segue straight into a premium warbond release.
“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?’.” says Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt on X, formerly Twitter. “and therefore we are putting it to a real vote in true democratic fashion.”
The two options for the community to choose from are to release as planned on Thursday, May 9, or to delay the warbond until a later date. Currently at the time of writing, the option to launch the warbond as planned is leading with a considerable lead of 74.7% vs. 25.3% recommending a delay, with over 33,000 votes cast.
So it looks likely, should the voting continue in the same vein, that Polar Patriots will launch as planned. It’s understandable considering the context of the current climate around Helldivers 2 why the developer would gauge the community like this, even if the end result is to simply stick to the plan. If nothing else it should help flag up potential issues before they happen, if the developer keeps this style of communication up.
If you have an X account you can head over to the @Pilestedt account to cast your vote. If you just want to see what’s coming next, check out our guide to everything you need to know about Helldivers 2 warbonds. You can also optimize your time in the game with our guide to the best Helldivers 2 Stratagems out there.
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