Helldivers 2 CCO reveals Arrowhead was approached by United Nations about game’s satirical “totalitarianism”

Helldivers 2 has been one of the biggest games since its launch last year, and the developer has recently been talking about its success at the Game Developers Conference 2025. Arrowhead CCO, Johan Pilestedt, talked about how other studios need to stop chasing the trends, and he also revealed that Arrowhead was approached by the United Nations over “totalitarianism” in Helldivers 2.

Helldivers 2 devs were approached by the United Nations

At the Game Developers Conference 2025, Arrowhead CCO, Johan Pilestedt, discussed the ironic and self-aware tone of Helldivers 2. As relayed by PC Gamer, Pilestedt said the premise of the game was to play a fun “co-op action shooter where you’re put in the shoes of the evil side grunts of pop culture”.

It’s well understood that HD2 is self-aware and ironic, much like its biggest inspiration and comparison, Starship Troopers. In Helldivers 2, players are dressed up in ‘fascist uniforms’ with everyone egged on to die repeatedly in a supposed fight for democracy.

Acknowledging the game’s totalitarian state, Pilestedt revealed that Arrowhead wondered if they could “brainwash an entire community” into roleplaying soldiers fighting for a fascist state. Upon reflection, Pilestedt added “yeah, actually,” Arrowhead could.

Now about being approached by the United Nations, Pilestedt said, “we got a message from the UN asking if we want to talk, in some form, about psychological defense against manipulation”.

In response to reports of this story, Pilestedt said on X that he “was a bit uncareful with how [he] expressed this, and didn’t realize it could be picked up as something negative”. The CCO elaborated that the United Nations reached out to Arrowhead “after the game blew up to talk about ‘what role satire in games play in psychological defense against totalitarianism’”.

Pilestedt also elaborated that “The quote on us [Arrowhead] wanting to ‘brainwash’ the community was made as a note on getting everyone to roleplay the message of totalitarian state of Super Earth”.

Lastly, at GDC, Pilestedt explained that the totalitarianism depicted in Helldivers 2 is done in “fun and good spirits, and we actually try to get people to recognize the science of what is a totalitarian state. If you start wearing the same uniform as everybody else and do salutes constantly, you might be in a totalitarian regime”.

For more Helldivers 2, check out our guide to the best warbonds ranked, along with the best stratagems and best throwables. We have also a guide to the best weapons, and, if you’re coming back to HD2 for the first time in a long while, we have a bunch of tips and tricks to help you get reaccustomed to the battlefield.