Helldivers 2 Developers Open to Xbox Release but Sony Has the Final Say
Helldivers 2 players will soon be celebrating their first Liberty Day. In the meantime, one of the developers addressed comments about the „impossibility” of releasing the game on Xbox Series X/S.
Helldivers 2 may come to Xbox Series X/S, but not in the near future. Thomas "Twinbeard" Petersson addressed questions about the game's possible debut on Microsoft consoles that appeared on the game's Discord channel.
Arrowhead's Community Manager stated that the release of HD 2 on Xbox is by no means impossible. However, the decision regarding the release of the game on other platforms is up to Sony. So a debut on XSX/S would be dependent on Sony reaching an agreement with Microsoft (or, as Petersson put it, specifically with Phil Spencer).
There's little doubt that Xbox would welcome a hit like the second Helldivers with open arms. Spencer himself has repeatedly expressed interest in "multiplatform" and enabling players to have fun anywhere (i.e. on their preferred platform). Microsoft has also demonstrated this in practice by releasing Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush, among others, on PlayStation.
However, Sony may not share the same opinion. Indeed, the company has long abandoned strictly exclusive titles and subsequent games from the publisher have gone beyond PlayStation. However, this almost exclusively concerned PCs, which received, among others, the two latest installments of the God of War series and the aforementioned Helldivers 2. Would Sony actually be willing to release its hit on a competing console? (Let's skip the issue of the unimpressive sales results of XSX/S, which is unlikely to be an incentive for the publisher).
In addition, Arrowhead Game Studios also announced the first Liberty Day celebrations in Helldivers 2. Developer celebrates a fictional holiday in Helldivers universe, October 26, 2016.
Apart from various events (including an artistic competition for emojis, banners, and stickers this year), it was usually accompanied by a minor update. It will be no different in the case of HD 2, although we currently have no clues about the upcoming changes.
