Helldivers 2 dev springs into action over its growing list of performance issues

It feels like Helldivers 2 is defined by its rollercoaster relationship with its community at this point. How many times have we seen the game hit stratospheric heights with amazing updates and incredible moments of emergent storytelling, only for a miscommunication or an ill-received balance change to result in sour sentiment and review bombing? Recently, performance issues have been irking players, with Arrowhead remaining fairly tight-lipped and more focused on pushing out new Warbonds and content updates. However, it's now apologized to fans, saying it's heard the feedback on Helldivers 2's growing list of performance gremlins, and is springing into action to fix them.

Despite the aforementioned rollercoaster ride that Helldivers 2 has been on, it remains one of the best co-op games money can buy. Arrowhead has always managed to bounce back from rough spots, and I'm confident it'll do so once again now that it's acknowledged the recent slip in quality.

"We know many of you have been experiencing issues including performance drops, stability hiccups, freezes, and the annoying audio bugs," the studio says in a new message. "We've seen the feedback across Discord, forums, Reddit and our dashboards. You've been loud, clear, and absolutely right to expect better. We also recognise that our recent updates haven't hit the mark, and our silence hasn't helped. That's on us. We read all of it and we are hard at work creating a roadmap to address this."

In a few weeks' time in "mid-October," an update containing plenty of important bug fixes and performance improvements will arrive. Arrowhead says it'll tackle crashes, bugged audio involving primary weapons and sidearms, and "long-overdue" fixes for issues such as Chargers having incredibly quiet footstep sounds. There will also be a slew of balance changes.

However, Arrowhead concedes that some of Helldivers 2's more major performance issues could take a while to resolve.

"For some of the bigger performances pieces unfortunately we can't wave a 'short-turnaround-magic-wand,' nor would a 60 day patch fix them fully (rather it would be duct tape where we need to solder); so we're working on a bigger development plan as to how we can address some of the larger concerns. Short term, we think the above will make a noticeable improvement and beyond that we'll keep working on the top issues you keep raising."

It also says that it's committed to improving transparency and communication, with another blog post slated for next week that goes into more detail about some of the game's biggest issues, how they came to be, and what's being done to fix them. You can check out today's message from Arrowhead in its entirety here.

While disappointing, it's slightly understandable that Arrowhead would let performance and bug-squashing standards slip. It's been a jam-packed few months for the game since its debut on Xbox, which attracted hundreds of thousands of new players. It had that sick Halo crossover too. However, the recent disgruntlement shows that striking the balance between creating new content, expanding your horizons, and tending to the health of the game is super critical.

For more galactic adventures like Helldivers 2, check out our list of the best space games. On the subject of performance, it might be worth taking a look at our best graphics card guide if your PC is overdue for an upgrade.

If you're a regular Helldivers 2 enjoyer, let us know your thoughts on Arrowhead's statement in our Discord server - you may even find some other democracy defenders to squad up with.