In a recent social media post, Arrowhead Studios’ CCO and the creative director of Helldivers 2, Johan Pilestedt, revealed he’s working on the high concept for the studio’s next game. Under the post, he engaged in a brief discussion regarding ‘DEI’ and the act of ‘shoehorning’ it into a game just to have it there.
The comments drew a mix of feedback from the community, with some praising Pilestedt’s transparency while others pointed out some potential flaws with what he said.
‘Pure Pursuit of Amazing Moments’
Helldivers 2 turned heads when it was released in February 2024, with the game going on to sell millions of copies with ease. It had a rocky moment when it was review-bombed following a change on PC that required users to have and link a PSN account to play the game, but that wrong was righted quickly enough.
Now, Arrowhead Studios is preparing to piece together something new, and Johan Pilestedt is working on the concept for whatever comes next.
In a recent post on social media, the CCO revealed just that, and in the comments, he engaged with the community. One user made a bold statement: ‘Never add DEI to your games.’
Instead of ignoring the comment, Pilestedt went in with solid responses that kickstarted a wave of comments:
If it doesnt add to the game experience, it detracts. And games should be a pure pursuit of amazing moments.
I don’t like labels. But mankind is united in its extreme xenophobia on Super Earth. #Inclusion so, maybe that’s DEI? I really don’t care.
Make good games, don’t make a contemporary political statement.
Some users were quick to point out that Helldivers 2’s ‘entire setting is a political statement’, while others maintained the stance that Helldivers 2 is more satirical and rooted in absurdism than anything else.
What we can take away from Pilestedt’s comments is that adding DEI elements to a game just to ‘tick a box’ is wrong if it doesn’t add value to the game. In that case, it’s detracting value and serves no purpose, potentially spoiling the ‘pure pursuit of amazing moments’.
His latter comment suggests that games with these ‘contemporary political statements’ are inherently ‘not good’.
One game that was heavily criticised under topics like this in recent years was The Last of Us Part II. That game featured two lead female characters, one of whom was outwardly gay, and had a relatively major storyline concerning a trans character. These topics were targeted quite severely by review bombers angry at the game being ‘woke’ and forcing these elements on players.
But The Last of Us Part II is one of the most highly awarded games in history, so perhaps you can make a good game that also makes contemporary political or cultural statements.
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