Helldivers 2 didn't exactly come out of nowhere if you played the brilliant original back in 2015, but just how successful the game would become was probably a massive shock to everyone. But the thing about Helldivers 2 was it wasn't a game that fit into the massive trends of current gaming. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League arrived a week prior to it and followed an almost Destiny-style, and that game royally shit the bed, and I don't need to tell you how many battle royale games have arrived and gone in the wake of Fortnite (RIP Rumbleverse, you deserved better). If anything, Helldivers 2 was a throwback to the early days of online co-op games you would find on the Xbox 360.
Speaking at a 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) panel attended by GamesRadar+, Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt talked about chasing popular trends and why he thinks it's partly to blame for the massive amount of layoffs currently affecting the industry right now. He said, "The games industry is caught in a vicious cycle of death and rebirth. Every so often we lay off thousands of people suddenly, and then nobody understands why. And I think it's just because we converge. We will always go through the cycles of death and rebirth, but now that cycle is unnecessarily brutal, because we don't diversify enough."
While the people at the top of companies may see the success of Fortnite and think that's easy money, it's not quite as simple. "A lot of publishers try to play it safe by taking safe bets, but one thing that's guaranteed is those safe bets are a death sentence for the studios that try to make it." Pilestedt said, adding, "We are in the business of taking risks, and if we don't take risks, we're never going to be able to achieve success. Few people believe that Helldivers would amount to anything, and yet here we are."
Pilestedt finished his presentation with a message to the industry at large, saying, "So here's a challenge to the games industry - we have to take more risks if we want to avoid mass failures. We have to stop chasing traps. It's too risky for us as a business to do that in the long run. And make your games according to your studio's foundational style. Don't copy others, instead, think about what you want to make and take a gamble on it."
