Helldivers 2 Is Now Comfortably Sony's Biggest Ever PC Launch

I put more time into it last night and have been having a lot of fun. What makes me curious is if these current numbers (which are great, don't get me wrong) fall in line with what the higher-ups at PlayStation and Arrowhead anticipated. I've also seen a lot of people playing with the helmet exclusive to the deluxe edition, so I wonder how much revenue they've already gotten from it.

Regardless, Arrowhead should feel proud of what they've accomplished, and I bet they've shot up on the list of acquisitions PlayStation is considering.

Great achievement. I'm curious what this means in the long term strategy for Sony. Have to figure there's already boardroom discussions about how much this success is attributed to being day and date on PC vs it being a coop shooter that many gamers prefer to play on Steam with a mouse and keyboard.

I also think people are overlooking the price factor. This is a cross-play game and retailing on PC and PS5 for around the £30 mark is going to be part of the reason it's doing so well

this is a rare day-and-date release on PC from PS Studios

Is this a Sony Studios game? I know Sony are the publisher but it's not made by a Sony owned studio as Arrowhead are independent. So maybe it was their decision to put the game on PC.

Either way the game is great and this studio has some talent so maybe it's time Sony actually brings them in officially.

I think what people don't realise when it comes to looking at the numbers is that the game just happens to have that "thing" other similar games lack that actually makes it good. Which means it just comes down to the old adage of make a good game and people will like it!

I still can't find quickplay matches on PS5

I'm really happy for Arrowhead. I hope it has legs!

Maybe Sony should have put Dreams on PC. And Foamsters. Anyone talking up those Foamsters numbers yet, has to be helping its on PS+ Essential?

Edit: It helped knock Palworld off the number one spot, maybe Nintendo will thank them.😁

@UltimateOtaku91 Sony also owns the IP so it might as well be a PlayStation studios game.

@get2sammyb I didn't think it would flop per se, but I assumed it would have a modest launch; not 100,000k concurrent players on one platform in less than 48 hours.

It's an interesting co-op shooter on PC. That is totally the right market for it. The first game was definitely a cult thing, but people that got into it seemed to really love it, so I bet there was some interest for this and people could easily convince a friend or two to grab it since it isn't full MSRP.

What I would be really curious about is what the numbers are on PC versus console. I bet PC totally dwarfs console.

You never quite know what gonna be a hit on PC, and that's a good thing imo.

@UltimateOtaku91 It's not made by 1st party but Concord will be day & date as well. It is part of Sony's new strategy of live service games day & date to PlayStation and PC because live service games require big communities to thrive.

I don't see anything wrong with it because singleplayer system sellers won't be day and date, they are reserved to attract people onto Sony's platform.

Happy to hear. It’s a fun game. Hopefully they fix matchmaking.

@UltimateOtaku91 Also I think this is Sony's second collaboration with Arrowhead, the first obviously being Helldivers 1 and as we know Sony likes to build a partnership first before they acquire studios so I wouldn't be surprised if they did try and buy them.

If Stellar Blade is a hit as well I wouldn't be surprised if Sony tried to buy Shift Up.

Everyone forgetting the fact it’s only 30quid or so too certainly helps it

@UltimateOtaku91 That line threw me off as well. Arrowhead is not a PlayStation first-party studio but if the early success of Helldivers 2 is any indication, they must be high on Sony's list of potential acquisitions.

@MrMagic I'd argue this is still the best approach when it comes to acquisitions. Sony have always tried to grow their first-party network organically by acquiring long-standing second-party studios with a great track record (e. g. Insomniac, Bluepoint, Housemarque, etc.).
Bungie is a major pivot from their tried and true strategy and it's already causing them a ton of trouble.

@Paleblood Yeah they should definitely stick with that approach because it gives them a good idea of what they are getting into instead of just jumping in head first like they did with Bungie, although there's still time for the Bungie acquisition to pay off. Hopefully Marathon is a hit and the destiny expansion goes down well.

Well deserved! The game is a lotta fun and everything I personally wanted from a helldivers sequel.

Wish there was a single player, offline mode as well. Not interested in playing online. But the game looks fun!

I not sure why people would think Helldivers 2 would flop as Helldivers has it's fan base. Even now you can easily find a game online if you want , or players joining you. For me the reason for good sales is a mixture of price, already having a fan base and word of mouth, unlike GOW this is the 2nd game so people know what they are buying into.

It’s going to hit close to 200k concurrent users tonight and word of mouth is extremely positive. Steam review score is going up quickly and will be in the “Very positive”range soon.

It’s looking like a pretty massive hit.

@MrMagic Yeah it makes sense for live service games to be on multiple platforms to reach a bigger audience as your game will rely on a consistent player base for a decent revenue.

Sony's acquisition strategy is quite impressive as like you say they are buying studios who they are already working closely with and also not taking away games from the competition whilst they build up a great portfolio of exclusives.

Also Concord is actually a playstation studios game, they acquired the developer last year I believe.

Even my PC-playing Dad bought it and he never buys new games (he's proper tight 😂)!

Its just one of those 'pure fun' titles. Bar some minor connection issues on launch day I was never not having fun 😌 fun is good.

@DanteDevilHunter I was pleasantly surprised to try out the first game again and see it was more alive than a lot of current multiplayer games.

Make that 152k concurrent now. I don’t think many people expected these numbers.

I can’t wait to check it out for myself next month even though I’m getting a late start.

This game is absolutely brilliant. For example I played with some guys last night from the states and I don’t know how many times I killed them with the orbital strike but every time they creased. Such a laugh

Congrats to Arrowhead and PlayStation. I noted that even Amazon UK was sold out of physical copies and would be for two weeks. I had to pop into town and visit GAME of all places for the first time in a long time.

Got it this evening only seen the screen telling me servers are full, also been reading that players are not logging out to keep their place. Hopefully ArrowHead patch in a away from keyboard type rule to kick people out or something to get rid of static players to free up slots