Helldivers 2 lead says the game's balance problems were 'a leadership issue more than anything' and the new buff patch was made by 'the same people' who made the nerfs

Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt acknowledges leadership issues and lack of cohesion as the cause of the community backlash to the Escalation of Freedom update, leading to the recent buff patch and a 60-day plan to address player concerns.

Helldivers 2 game director and Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt says a lack of cohesion and leadership issues are to blame for the backlash from the community following the controversial Escalation of Freedom update. For that reason, the devs behind the recent buff patch are the same devs who worked on the nerfs that are now being fixed.

Although the first big patch of Arrowhead's 60-day comeback strategy has been a major hit with freedom fighters, Pilestedt recently took to Reddit to engage directly with that ever-vocal corner of the Helldivers community. In response to a player who thought Pilestedt was trying to "shift the blame on the dev team as if you weren't the person in charge," Pilestedt had this to say:

"Hey, thank you for the feedback. Not my intention to do so! There are plenty of talented developers at the studio that have a desire and ability to make the game as good as possible for the community."

Pilestedt went further to place the majority of the blame on a lack of cohesion stemming from a "leadership issue," which of course would fall mostly on him considering he's the head of the studio.

"For instance this last patch, when it came to bringing the balance into a good place, we had the same people on it as before and they worked together to deliver a good update, but in times when we have had weak direction the cohesion falters and we misstep," Pilestedt said.

Helldivers 2's first grand onslaught of buffs to make the game fun again is here, forming just part of developer Arrowhead's 60-day plan to return to the third-person shooter to surer footing.

The aforementioned 60-day plan to win back divers started with a modest update simply intended to get the ball rolling. Pilestedt laid out a list of plans to address some of the loudest feedback from the Escalation of Freedom update, and those include a restructured approach to balance, updates to fire damage, updates to address excessive ragdolling, and more.

Meanwhile, with Space Marine 2 out, Helldivers 2 players can't help but notice a familiar 40K face in the superstore.