Helldivers 2 Gets First Update to Improve Matchmaking

After years of waiting, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has finally released Helldivers 2. The sequel to the original twin-stick shooter switches it up by turning the game into a third-person shooter, but players still have to go up against hordes of enemies. Some might've expected players to be miffed at the change. Instead, the fanbase has more than shown up, making Helldivers 2 pass Palworld on the Steam charts for a time. However, with all of those players jumping into Helldivers 2, the servers were sure to be tested. Fans ran into all kinds of issues, but Arrowhead has released its first hotfix to iron out some of these issues.

Helldivers 2 Matchmaking Hotfix

A message to the HELLDIVERS 2 community from Game Director Mikael Eriksson: pic.twitter.com/LC38UgcSQV

— Arrowhead Game Studios (@ArrowheadGS) February 8, 2024

Soon after Helldivers 2 launched, the team at Arrowhead posted on Twitter that it was working on an update to the various day-one issues. The team was quick to update players, saying, "We've made a patch, and are about to start playing alongside you to check it works as intended. If it's a success, we'll trigger a hotfix and get it out to the Steam community first, then roll it out to PS5 players as quickly as we can."

Within an hour, the team was able to get things under control and deployed the patch onto Steam. While Arrowhead didn't share the official patch notes, the team did say, "We've uploaded a patch to Steam that should improve matchmaking for PC. The patch also includes some other crash fixes we've identified. We know there's more to solve, and we're working our way through it. Nevertheless, we hope this rapid patch goes a long way to making your experience better."

The speed with which Arrowhead was able to get this patch out to Helldivers 2 players should be commended. Of course, there is still plenty to work on and improve, but if Arrowhead keeps dropping quick, relatively small patches, it should help the team target the most pressing issues. Then, when Helldivers 2 is more stable across its platforms, the team can focus on adding more substantial content to the game.

Fortunately, we recently learned that post-launch content for Helldivers 2 will be free. While Arrowhead Game Studios is making a live service game with Helldivers 2, it doesn't want players to feel like the experience is pay-to-win. We don't know exactly what the post-launch content will look like or when we should expect the first chunk of it to drop, but that info is probably coming relatively soon. For now, players can dive into the first Warbond, which is Helldivers 2's version of a battle pass. Importantly, Arrowhead has committed to never taking a Warbond out of the game, so even if you start late, you'll still be able to earn all of the rewards.

Helldivers 2 is out now on PlayStation 5 and PC.