Don’t hold your breath for Helldivers 3. Arrowhead Game Studios chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt says there are still no plans for a third game, and the reason is simple: the studio thinks its biggest rival would be Helldivers 2 itself.
What Arrowhead said
Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Pilestedt said about 95% of the roughly 150 person studio is still working on Helldivers 2, while a “small team” prototypes Arrowhead’s next, unannounced game.
“The biggest competitor to a Helldivers 3 would be Helldivers 2,” he said. “It only makes sense to make a distinct sequel if it’s so different that both games can exist side by side. For now, making Helldivers 2 better every day makes way more sense than throwing away its momentum.”
He also argued that “a sequel resets everything and forces players to start over,” while “a continuation turns the game into a lifelong hobby, like LEGO or Warhammer.” In his view, players are “the actual engine of the game,” and an active community means “you don’t need a sequel.”
So what is the small team making?
Nobody outside Arrowhead knows yet. Pilestedt didn’t name the prototype, a genre or a release window, and he didn’t say it’s a Helldivers game. Read his comments closely and the bar for a true Helldivers 3 is high: it would need to feel as different from Helldivers 2 as Helldivers 2’s third person shooting was from the top down original.
Why this matters for players
If you’ve sunk hundreds of hours into Helldivers 2, this is good news. Your Warbonds, armor and Super Credits aren’t about to be left behind. The game is still getting regular content: the Scope of Authority Premium Warbond, with the R-40 Sightliner sniper rifle and active camouflage armor, arrived on October 20, following August’s Warhammer 40,000 crossover Warbond.
The player base backs up Arrowhead’s bet. When Game Beacon checked Steam’s live count at about 7:30 AM CT today, 50,635 people were playing Helldivers 2 on PC alone, more than two and a half years after its February 2024 launch. That doesn’t count PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, where it arrived in August 2025.
The bigger picture
Pilestedt framed the decision against an industry that, in his words, is “panicking because the old live-service tricks don’t work anymore.” After a run of studio closures and canceled online games this year, Arrowhead is choosing to keep growing one hit rather than reset it, and to keep its own headcount in check. “Studio-wise, we want to grow on our own terms and know when to stop,” he said.
For now, the next big thing from Arrowhead is still Helldivers 2. Helldivers 2 costs $39.99 on Steam.
Featured image: Helldivers 2 screenshot, Arrowhead Game Studios / Sony Interactive Entertainment (official Steam store media).
