Helldivers 2 developer donates to Save the Children because players saved the children in-game, too
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has donated $4311 (£3397) to the Save the Children charity after Helldivers chose morality over manslaughter earlier this week.
Arrowhead CCO and Helldiver 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt confirmed the donation after Helldivers players chose to save the trapped survivors – which turned out to be thousands of sick children – on Vernen Wells rather than hunt down the raw ingredients they could use to make MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines on Marfark.
Helldivers 2 – PlayStation 5/PC – The Digital Foundry Tech Review
Why $4311 exactly? Well, that’s because Helldivers managed to save 4311 in-game children, which turned into a charity donation to save real-life children, too.
“Since the Helldivers 2 community chose to save the children, [Arrowhead Game Studios] does the same,” Pilestedt wrote. “We have made a donation to, well, Save the Children. Great job Divers!”
Players were also then treated to a follow-up message from The Very Sick Children of Super Citizen Anne’s.
“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.”
Players were then encouraged to go for the mines, too, even though the development team was certain “they never will” get it done in time…
Sorry, Helldivers, but no – Arrowhead has no plans to introduce a story mode for Helldivers 2.
Responding to a commenter on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, newly-appointed CEO Shams Jorjani confirmed a story mode was “not happening”.
Helldivers 2 may be PlayStation’s fastest-selling game ever, but despite its initial success, player numbers have declined. A look at the game’s Steam charts shows a steady drop since February, when the game launched. According to SteamDB, at its peak in February shortly after launch, there were 458,709 concurrent players. In comparison, its peak over the last 24 hours is 80,038, although that only accounts for Steam players, of course.
