Helldivers 2 will soon kick AFK squatters
Helldivers 2’s launch has been so successful that players are reporting long queue times to even get into the game; it peaked at 457,649 players on Steam alone. But while developer Arrowhead Game Studios has been working on upgrading the Helldivers 2 servers, players have been “squatting” in-game to avoid the lines — i.e., players are keeping their game running while they’re not playing. It’s a move that’s caused frustration with other players who are booting up normally and waiting for their turn.
Arrowhead is looking to address this, however. CEO Johan Pilestedt posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday to say the team is working on a patch that would include a way to kick AFK squatters. “Team is working on it,” he said. “Will probably be in next patch.”
Team is working on it. Will probably be in next patch.
No word on when the next patch is expected to be released. Helldivers 2 did get a patch on Tuesday, though, which addressed matchmaking issues and fixed some bugs, all while prepping the game for updated servers. Arrowhead release manager Max Calberg said in the patch notes published to Steam that the team is working on several known issues, like “login rate limiting,” server disconnections, and delayed rewards.
Related
Pilestedt and the Arrowhead team have been unusually forthcoming about the Helldivers 2 launch as they work to upgrade the game’s servers — a feat that requires much more work than just tacking on some more. Pilestedt thanked the Arrowhead backend engineers on Helldivers 2 — a group of four people — for “5x-ing the max of what they designed for in one week,” and now looking to push that further. “I don’t think you understand what a massive feat this is,” Pilestedt said on X. “It’s like tuning a vespa to compete in F1.”
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