You’ll soon be kicked out of orbit if you idle for too long in Helldivers 2.
It’s often been said that Helldivers 2 has been “suffering from success” since its February 8 launch earlier this month. The game’s concurrent player count on Steam alone rocketed past 400,000, surpassing records held by titles like Destiny 2, Starfield, and even GTA V. However, this success has had its drawbacks, one of them being that the game’s servers were constantly full, preventing many fans from partaking in the co-op shooter’s bid to spread democracy. The strain on the network also caused numerous progression and multiplayer connectivity bugs.
The developers at Arrowhead Game Studios have been industriously upgrading Helldivers 2’s server infrastructure since Friday. They are also planning to install an auto-kick feature to regulate players who go AFK to avoid server queues when they log in to play next. As fans on the Helldivers subreddit and other social media platforms have highlighted, idle players use up spots that could be beneficial to active gamers.
Johan Pilestedt, the CEO of Arrowhead, confirmed Arrowhead’s plan to implement this system this past Sunday on X (Twitter), in response to a fan’s request for an AFK timeout. “Agreed, I have already mentioned this to the team,” he announced.
I can’t exactly blame anyone for taking advantage of a way to avoid annoying login queues — especially when Helldivers 2 is as much of a blast to play as it is. But even so, Arrowhead is making the right call by prioritizing online and active space marines over the ones standing motionless on the bridge of their destroyer.
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Ideally, the game will get to a point where we don’t have to worry about server capacity during weekend primetime at all, though so far, Arrowhead has had trouble raising supply to meet demand. As I was writing this, though, the studio confirmed in the official Helldivers Discord server that a patch is coming tomorrow to address “login, matchmaking, and server load” problems, with further improvements coming “over the days and weeks to come.”
Overall, it’s a frustrating situation for both the players and the developers, but it’s also ultimately a good problem to have. Clearly, Helldivers 2 has resonated with gamers more than Arrowhead ever expected it to, and the PvE co-op shooter is poised to soar even higher with server improvements as well as the future content updates the studio is ramping up development for.
One good thing that’s come from this is the sarcastic banter between Pilestedt and Helldivers 2 fans on social media, with the CEO posting several replies that gave me a good chuckle.
“Oh THE BUTTON, I had completely forgotten about that one as well! Imagine how many players we could have had online if we had remembered it,” he wrote to one player to suggested pressing “the button that says fix.” Then, in response to a comment that simply read “Servers”: “Thank you for reminding me, I almost forgot about it!”
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it’s one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
Helldivers 2 — $39.99 at GMG (Steam)
Battle aliens, robots, and other beasts in humanity’s quest to spread democracy through an unforgiving galaxy. It’s 4-player co-op at its absolute best, and its most refined.
Also at: Amazon (PS5, Physical) | Walmart (PS5, Physical)
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. You’ll find him doing reviews, editorials, and general coverage on everything Xbox and PC. Follow him on Twitter.
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