Helldivers 2 Dev Insists It’s to Blame for Killzone Pricing Debacle Amid Concern Over Sony Influence

ign.com:

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has addressed player complaints about the pricing of the recently released Killzone crossover, insisting it is the driving force behind the decision making, not Sony.

Part one of the Helldivers 2 and Killzone crossover includes a Killzone-themed armor set, assault rifle, banner, cape, and player title. If you want all the Killzone items you’ll have to hand over Super Credits to the value of nearly twice the cost of a premium Warbond, and nearly half the price of Helldivers 2 itself.

Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani took to the Helldivers Discord to answer questions with varying success, at points angering the studio’s community even further.

"Firstly - this is our first collaboration so we'll be figuring it out as we go along,” Jorjani began. “Let us know what you'd like to see in the future. Secondly it's optional - the more of this we sell - the more Illuminate type stuff we can keep dropping for free."

That comment in particular didn’t go down well, with players pointing out that Helldivers 2 is not a free game and therefore should not take a free-to-play pricing strategy.

Continuing to put out fires, Jorjani said the pricing backlash was discussed during Arrowhead’s monthly townhall meeting on Wednesday, and promised the studio was looking at how well the items were selling, whether or not they were being used, and feedback to get a sense of the “gripes” from the community.

"Clearly we'd love to find the sweet spot of people loving the content AND the price and buy the bajeesus out of it," Jorjani added. "This clearly didn't hit that mark."

While the pricing of the Killzone items has hit the headlines, fans are also expressing concern at the FOMO associated with their limited-time sale. Part one of this Killzone crossover will only be available in Helldivers 2’s in-game store for five days before it’s rotated out.

Jorjani then said that running Helldivers 2 was “hard,” and admitted the studio has never run a big live service game before. "The