One of Helldivers 2’s more unique features is the presence of a human Game Master who orchestrates its galaxy-spanning war. However, it seems to be a challenging job, as Arrowhead Game Studios needed to deploy “emergency” assistance to cope with the game’s massive player base.

Helldivers 2 GM “was just not sleeping,” says Arrowhead’s community manager

Last week, Arrowhead revealed that it employs a Game Master named Joel to oversee Helldivers 2’s galactic war. His role resembles a D&D Dungeon Master, crafting the story around the players’ actions. However, DMing for half a million players is a tall order. As GamesRadar reported, Arrowhead’s community manager, Baskinator, said the studio had to dispatch additional personnel to help manage the workload.

“Sounds incredibly daunting when you have to juggle the expectations set by the roadmap/dev studio vs what the 500K+ active players want and do,” said one Discord user. “Yes, absolutely,” Baskinator responded. “That’s why we have done an emergency expansion to the GM’s team. He’s only one guy, and he was just not sleeping. I remember over the launch weekend, he was sending me messages at 4 AM because we were the only ones still awake.”

Helldiver’s 2 was a much bigger hit than either Arrowhead or Sony expected and suffered from overcrowded servers at launch. Given that, it’s unsurprising that the game’s DM was swamped in the days following release.

“Unfortunately, our scope was much narrower at launch,” the community manager explained. “We expected fewer players and easier means and methods of communication.”

As for the specifics of how Helldivers 2’s GM system works, Arrowhead hasn’t gone into too much detail. However, Baskinator said her job includes relaying player feedback to Joel and his team. The community manager also mentioned plans to give “deep dives” into the GM system. This includes letting Joel address the community directly.

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Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt has decried Helldivers 2 and Halo comparisons, arguing that they serve no purpose as there’s room for both games to be enjoyed separately. Helldivers 2 is Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s first multiplatform live service game that went on to become a hit, and that’s attracted quite a bit of vitriol by console fanboys. Much of Helldivers 2’s success comes from PC, where it has a far higher number of players.

Arrowhead CEO on Helldivers 2 vs Halo arguments: Let people love and enjoy both

In response to a comparison tweet from a fan account with thousands of followers, Pilestedt said, “Just let gamers love and enjoy both, either or neither.” He’s of the view that there should be “more compassion and union in the world, and less rivalry.”

In a separate tweet, Pilestedt added that healthy competition is good but even from a business standpoint, neither monopolies nor “cut=throat competitions” do any good.

Pilestedt — who’s earned a positive reputation for his social media conduct and fan interaction — was showered with praise for his response.

Recently, Xbox boss Phil Spencer commented on Helldivers 2’s popularity and console exclusivity, arguing that skipping Xbox platforms doesn’t benefit anyone.

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A Digital Foundry analysis has found that PS5 cloud streaming outperforms Microsoft xCloud in a number of aspects. In fact, the only department in which xCloud surpasses PS5 streaming is latency, and that’s because Microsoft’s service is streaming Series S versions of games rather than their superior Series X counterparts.

How PS5 cloud streaming outperforms Microsoft xCloud

Digital Foundry notes that performance wise, games streamed on the PS5 mostly closely represent locally installed games, but that’s not the case when it comes to xCloud. Those streaming games on the Xbox Series X are getting somewhat of a downgraded version that’s more reprentative of the Series S.

Games streamed on the PS5 also offer better resolution and higher bitrate albeit with inferior latency compared to the xCloud. “Between the use of PS5-grade hardware server-side, the higher bitrate and resolution, PlayStation Plus presents its catalogue at a quality level that’s much closer to justifying that Premium label – even if it’s behind Xbox in terms of latency,” Digital Foundry concludes.

Digital Foundry also notes that both PS5 streaming and Microsoft xCloud come with a similar price tag but Sony offers 851 games compared to Microsoft’s 402 games. 201 out of Sony’s 851 games are PS5 titles.

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Rumor has it that Sony Interactive Entertainment is gearing up to announce Ghost of Tsushima for PC. The Sucker Punch Productions-developed hit title released in 2020 but has yet to be officially confirmed for PC unlike Sony’s other first-party single-player hits. And if rumors are to be believed, we’ll hear something as soon as tomorrow, March 5.

When is Ghost of Tsushima expected to release on PC?

Rumor of an announcement of some sort comes from Nick “Shpeshal_Nick” Baker. As of late, Baker has been spot on with his leaks so we wouldn’t be surprised if this one’s accurate as well. Ghost of Tsushima was expected to release on PC at some point, so it’s merely a question of when Sony will announce it.

Back in February, Sony Group executive and interim Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Hiroki Totoki said that he wants PlayStation to “aggressively” pursue a multiplatform release strategy for first-party games, and stressed that he means PC ports.

“In the past, we wanted to popularize consoles and a first-party title’s main purpose was to make the console popular,” he said of Sony’s changing approach to first-party games. “This is true but there’s a synergy to it, so if you have strong first-party content – not only on our console but also other platforms, like computers – first-party can be grown.”

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Arrowhead Game Studios’ CEO Johan Pilestedt recently revealed that stats in Helldivers 2 are a lot more complicated than the interface would lead players to believe. Early versions of the game provided players with much more detailed information on each weapon’s performance. However, developers thought it was too complex for the average player.

Weapons in Helldivers 2 have 46 hidden stats

Weapons in Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 have four visible stats: Damage, Capacity, Recoil, and Fire Rate. However, Pilestedt described these as “guidelines” that don’t give a full picture of the weapon’s performance. He revealed on Twitter that there are actually 50 stats in all. Many of these reflect characteristics of the weapon’s ammunition rather than the gun itself.

In addition to the visible stats, each weapon in Helldivers 2 has a hidden Ergonomics score, which initially appeared alongside the other four. This number represents how unwieldy the gun is and governs things like how long it takes to aim down the sights.

The stats screen also originally had a second page providing additional information. These include Reload Time, Fire Modes, Magazines, and Muzzle Velocity in meters per second. Helldivers 2 also originally had a graphic showing how the weapon’s Recoil affects its bullet spread. Even this was a simplification, with Recoil being a combination of 14 hidden values.

In another tweet, the Helldivers 2 developer explained the mechanics behind Armor Penetration. “Armor pen is a value between 0 and 10,” he clarified. “If the AP is equal to the enemies [sic] armor value the damage is 50% if the AP beats the armor you do 100%. If AP is less than the AV the bullet ricochets.” However, even he doesn’t remember what everything does, saying, “I don’t know what the light AP condition is. I think it might be if AP is 2 or less. But honestly I don’t know either.”

He described how Arrowhead attempted to strike a balance between providing information and overwhelming Helldivers 2 players with too much of it. However, Pilestedt acknowledges they may have gone too far in the other direction. “Yeah,” he wrote, “in retrospect it might have been a bad call.”

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A pair of fake Helldivers 2 listings on Steam misled some players into thinking that the game received a significant price drop on the platform. Developers behind two indie games carbon copied the actual Helldivers 2 page on Steam, showing steep discounts of 50% and 75%. Unsuspecting players would end up paying for games called Figurality and Do Not Smile, instead.

Helldivers 2 is still full price, Arrowhead clarifies

Over on its Discord channel, developer Arrowhead Game Studios expressed frustration over the scam. Many have been left concerned by how the devs behind the aforementioned indie games could heavily edit not only their store descriptions but also developer and publisher information in order to mimic the Helldivers 2 page.

As shown in the screenshots below by Twitter user Wario64, the scammers listed Arrowhead as the developer and PlayStation as the publisher.

Steam has since nuked the listings but the ease of scamming people has caused alarm.

“People posting as us trying to scam people is obviously very sad and frustrating, and for that as well as for security reasons we urge you to stay clear of them,” Arrowhead wrote. “The only two Helldivers 2 products we market are Helldivers 2 and Helldivers 2 Super Citizen Edition.”

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Sony’s Firesprite Studio has been accused of fostering a toxic work environment and ignoring complaints of workplace misconduct and harassment. An in-depth investigation of the claims by Eurogamer found that Firesprite — which Sony acquired in 2021 — was being led by two senior members of Sony’s XDev team, both of whom were investigated for claims of sexual discrimination and ageism made against them.

Sony’s Firesprite was recently hit by PlayStation layoffs

Eurogamer’s investigation began prior to Sony announcing mass layoffs across PlayStation, which Firesprite was also impacted by. Not only was the studio’s headcount reduced, its Twisted Metal live service game was also canceled.

According to sources speaking on condition of anonymity, Sony dismissed the aforementioned claims against its XDev leadership, terming it a “misunderstanding.” However, some of the complainants began exploring legal options, following which they received a financial settlement from Sony.

“Sony has committed the worst possible mistake in buying a studio and meddling to the point where it may end up in a death spiral and unable to complete any of the projects it is working on,” one of Eurogamer’s sources said. However, some sources countered that by saying that Firesprite needed the internal changes that came with its acquisition by PlayStation.

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Gran Turismo 7’s Update 1.43 is out now, introducing a variety of new content. The latest update adds three new cars, three World Circuit events, a new Café Menu item, and a new Scapes backdrop.

Gran Turismo 7 gets two sports cars and a retro hatchback

Polyphony Digital announced Gran Turismo 7’s new update with a trailer and a post on the official PlayStation blog. The most prominent features are the three new cars. These are the Audi TTS Coupé ’09, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR GSR ’06, and Renault R4 GTL ’85. Players can purchase them from Brand Central or the used car dealership.

Gran Turismo 7′ Audi TTS Coupé is a high-performance version of the 2009 Audi TT sports coupé. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR GSR is an upgraded version of the Lan Evo, featuring improved aerodynamics and other refinements. The “MR” stands for “Mitsubishi Racing,” a label Mitsubishi gives to its highest-performance sportscars. Finally, the Renault R4 GTL is the most retro addition in this update. The 1985 French hatchback was the first of its kind and earned a reputation as a “car of the people.” It also goes well with the update’s Cité de Carcassone Scape, which adds a French mountaintop castle to photo mode.  

The update also lets Gran Turismo 7 players with a Collector level of 43 or higher unlock the Lamborghini in Café mode. Meanwhile, the game’s new events are the Sunday Cup Classic, European Clubman Cup 600, and Japanese Clubman Cup 550. The first two take place on the Tsukuba Circuit in Japan, with the third utilizing California’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

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Yesterday was Insomniac Games‘ 30th anniversary, which was unfortunately marred by the mass layoffs at PlayStation earlier this week. Instead of a celebratory note, the studio released an official statement expressing regret and sadness over loss of colleagues. Insomniac is among Sony’s first-party developers hit by layoffs.

Insomniac Games impacted by layoffs despite successful releases

When Sony revealed its list of studios impacted by the layoffs, many weren’t expecting to see Insomniac Games on the list. Acquired by Sony in 2019, the developer has released commercially and critically successful games relatively quickly, and is often jokingly referred to as the developer that “carries” PlayStation Studios by the gaming community. Nevertheless, Insomniac had to say goodbye to some of its staff members, the exact number of which is not known.

“Like several other teams across SIE and PlayStation Studios, Insomniac Games was impacted by yesterday’s layoffs,” Insomniac wrote. “There are no sufficient words to express our feelings about it. This is a solemn and unprecedented moment in our studio’s history.”

Insomniac added that it’s currently focusing on supporting affected employees and finding new homes for them. “For those who are hiring, there are great people seeking new roles who made important contributions to Insomniac’s history,” the studio added, suggesting that it lost some long-time employees.

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According to journalist Jason Schreier, Guerrilla Games‘ Horizon multiplayer game isn’t among the PlayStation projects that Sony has canceled. A day ago, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced mass layoffs and closure of its London Studio. As part of the division’s cost-cutting and restructuring measures, a number of PlayStation games were canceled.

Horizon multiplayer game is apparently safe despite Guerrilla reportedly losing 10% of its employees

A report claims that Guerrilla Games has lost at least 10% of its staff. The exact headcount isn’t known, but Sony has confirmed that at least 900 employees have been let go across its gaming business. The company also confirmed that it canceled numerous projects, and according to Schreier, one of them is a Twisted Metal live service game.

An update on the Horizon game was provided by Schreier in response to a follower on Twitter who wondered if the game was among Sony’s live service misadventures. Apparently, it wasn’t.

A Horizon MMORPG was also thought to be in development at Korean comapny NCSoft. The fate of that project is unknown.

“PlayStation 5 is in its fourth year, and we are at a stage where we need to step back and look at what our business needs,” PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst said of the cancellations and layoffs earlier this week.

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