Summary
- Helldivers 2 developer donated to Save the Children in honor of players' choice to save children over gaining in-game rewards.
- Arrowhead Games Studios engages with community through in-game challenges, promoting positive interactions with fans.
- Arrowhead CEO jokingly mentioned donating to weapons manufacturers if players chose mines over saving children.
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios donated money to charity in honor of players' recent accomplishments regarding one of the game's latest major orders. The popular co-op third-person shooter has been a massive success for both Arrowhead and publishing partner Sony Interactive Entertainment, so seeing the creators of Helldivers 2 spread their wealth by aiding real-life people in need will likely go down well in the eyes of fans and fellow developers.
Once every week or so, Arrowhead plays around with the Helldivers 2 community by giving fans in-game challenges, or major orders, to complete that help determine the game's over-arching meta-narrative. The latest Helldivers 2 major order was a little bit different from usual, however, as it gave players the task of facing a tough moral quandary in a limited period of time. Fans were given the option to either liberate the planet Marfark and get ahold of the MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines strategem or rescue the survivors trapped within Super Citizen Anne's Hospital for Very Sick Children at Vernon Wells instead. To the surprise of some, the Helldivers 2 community made the choice to turn down the opportunity of nabbing more mines in favor of saving the children, despite the lack of any tantalizing in-game rewards for doing so.
To celebrate this decision for the greater good, the current Arrowhead CCO and former Helldivers 2 CEO Johan Pilestedt took to Twitter to reveal that the developer had made a donation of $4,311 to Save the Children, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to aiding endangered youth worldwide. If the amount of dollars Arrowhead contributed to the organization seems oddly specific, that's because it's equivalent to the 4,311 children that players rescued within Helldivers 2 itself. That aside, the company's major donation was met with very positive reception from players, especially those who fought to liberate Vernon Wells in the game themselves.
Helldivers 2 Developer Arrowhead Game Studios Donated to the Save the Children Foundation
In a post on the game's official Twitter account, Arrowhead Game Studios commemorated the outcome of this major order by sharing a message from the children that players saved at Super Citizen Anne's Hospital. "Dear Helldivers, thank you so much for saving us. They told us you made a lot of sacrifices (mines/lives) to help us. We'll always be grateful. Now, we can grow up to become Helldivers too. With Liberty, the Very Sick Children of Super Citizen Anne's." Unlike other Helldivers 2 major orders that ended in failure, this one fortunately had a happy ending.
The new Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani reacted to the major order's outcome as well, jokingly stating that the Helldivers 2 developer would have donated to weapons manufacturers Raytheon and Northrop Grumman had players decided to get the mines on Marfark instead of saving the children. These sorts of playful interactions that Arrowhead executives have with the community, combined with the studio's frequent implementation of meta-narrative lore exposition, is what makes Helldivers 2 stand out among its live service competitors in the eyes of many fans.
Helldivers 2
- Released
- February 8, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
The Galaxy’s Last Line of Offence. Enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across a hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic, and ferocious third-person shooter.
URGENT BROADCAST – SUPER EARTH ARMED FORCES
Freedom. Peace. Democracy. Your Super Earth-born rights. The key pillars of our civilization. Of our very existence. But the war rages on. And everything is once again under threat.
Join the greatest military force the galaxy has ever seen and make this a safe and free place to live.
BECOME A LEGEND
You will be assembled into squads of up to four Helldivers and assigned strategic missions. Watch each other’s back – friendly fire is an unfortunate certainty of war, but victory without teamwork is impossible.
LOADOUTS
Rain down freedom from above, sneak through enemy territory, or grit your teeth and charge head-first into the jaws of combat. How you deliver liberty is your choice; you’ll have access to a wide array of explosive firepower, life-saving armor and battle-changing stratagems… the jewel in every Helldiver’s arsenal.
REQUISITION
Super Earth recognises your hard work with valuable Requisition. Use it to access different rewards that benefit you, your squad, your destroyer ship and our overall war effort.
THREATS
Everything on every planet wants you dead. That’s what we’re dealing with. Each enemy has distinct and unpredictable characteristics, tactics, and behavior – but they all fight ferociously and without fear or morality.
THE GALACTIC WAR
Capturing enemy planets, defending against invasions, and completing missions will contribute to our overall effort. This war will be won or lost depending on the actions of everyone involved.
We stand together, or we fall apart.
- Developer(s)
- Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Franchise
- Helldivers
- Number of Players
- 1-4 players (online)
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Extraction Shooter, Action, Science Fiction
- Platforms That Support Crossplay
- PC & PS5
