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Just yesterday, Helldivers 2 received the Into the Unjust update. This added a lot of new content to the game including an onslaught of new enemies, unique missions, the Hive Worlds, and a lot more as laid out in the patch notes. Unfortunately, while all the new content is great, the update resulted in a horrible day of players complaining about crashes and really poor optimization. Performance has been a recurring complaint amongst the HD2 community, and the Arrowhead CEO has confessed that “technical debt” is part of the problem. The studio is continually seeking to improve performance, and they are also discussing the insane size of Helldivers 2 on PC.
Helldivers 2 CEO discusses “technical debt” and PC size
On the Helldivers Discord, Arrowhead CEO, Shams Jorjani, responded to a lot of complaints about performance following the new Into the Unjust update. In one message, the CEO said that part of problem is that “the technical debt is crippling,” however, “with the Xbox release behind us we’ll be able to take a much better stab at it”.
One user asked Jorjani why Arrowhead doesn’t slow down on new content, asking if it’s because of pressure from Sony. The CEO firmly stated that there is “no pressure” from Sony and that PlayStation is “100% supportive” of Arrowhead. Instead of any blame on Sony, Jorjani confessed the issues are the fault of Arrowhead “trying to get our s*** in order”. The developer wants to “make fun content and keep tech afloat,” but “people internally are super frustrated” because the studio’s efforts “isn’t giving the result we’d hoped for”.
As for where performance problems stem from, Jorjani said “it’s based on a bunch of different factors,” however, the basic math is that “old tech + infinite pc hardware config = unreliability in reproducing s***”.
Quite a few fans asked Jorjani whether it’d be wise for the studio to release an update based solely on performance and optimization. The CEO explained that a performance-only update would be a last resort as “not everyone [at Arrowhead] can make an impact on performance and the issues that need to be fixed are complex and take time to work at”.
Lastly, one of the most egregious examples of poor optimization is the size of HD2 on PC. We recently reported on why the game is unfathomably 100GB bigger on PC than PlayStation and Xbox, with bizarrely duplicated assets largely to blame.
One user asked Jorjani if Arrowhead could “put file size reduction and improvements to performance to the top of the priority list [as] the sheer unreasonable size requirements and ever worsening framerates makes this game just simply not worth it to play anymore”. The CEO said that the “game size is being discussed” and that Arrowhead will “have to throw coding resources” at both the size dilemma and bug fixes.
Although it can’t happen immediately, hopefully Arrowhead can significantly improve the performance and optimization of HD2. The game is fantastic regarding content, but the sinking performance is resulting in players leaving as if the game is the Titanic. Jorjani has said he hopes players that have departed will return after Arrowhead improve the performance, but for newcomers the game’s first impression has been sullied.
For more Helldivers 2, check out our guide to the best warbonds ranked, along with the best stratagems and best throwables. We also have 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.
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