The latest gaming sensation hails from indie studio Arrowhead Game Studios. Their third-person bug-squashing live service sensation, Helldivers 2, was released simultaneously on PC and PlayStation platforms on February 8th and has quickly gained popularity.
It has become Sony’s most successful PC release in record time with a peak concurrent player count of over 450,000.
However, the game is plagued by several issues, notably the lack of server capacity. Many players have reported login problems due to servers reaching full capacity, resulting in players being placed in a queue to access the game for hours on end.
The problems stemmed from the server’s processing capacity being overwhelmed by an unexpectedly large influx of players. Despite doubling the number of logins per minute from 10,000 to 20,000 and increasing the maximum number of simultaneous connections from 250,000 to 360,000 little over a week ago, the capacity was still exceeded within five and a half minutes.
Pilestedt acknowledged that additional server maintenance is required to fully address the issue and expressed his apologies to players who experienced difficulties.
To bypass the queue, players have resorted to running their game in the background, effectively engaging in AFK squatting to avoid rejoining the queue and start playing online immediately, rather than waiting for hours.
However, Arrowhead are taking steps to address this issue. CEO Johan Pilestedt announced on Twitter on Tuesday that the team is working on a patch to implement a solution for kicking AFK squatters. “Team is working on it,” he said. “Will probably be in the next patch.”
There is currently no information available on the release date of the next patch. However, Helldivers 2 did receive a patch on Tuesday, which tackled matchmaking issues, addressed some bugs, and prepared the game for updated servers.
HELLDIVERS 2 is a third-person shooter offering cooperative play for up to four players. Serving as a sequel to the 2015 release, players join the elite unit of the Super Earth Federation known as HELLDIVERS.
Players partake in galactic battles to safeguard freedom and democratic governance from a horde of grotesque bugs, drawing parallels to the popular series Starship Troopers. Additionally, the game features cross-play compatibility between the PC and PS5 versions which certainly bodes well for their overwhelmed servers.
Despite the immense fun, enjoyment, and success of Helldivers 2, it is unable to evade its limitations as a live service title.
According to Arrowhead release manager Max Calberg, mentioned in the patch notes published on Steam, the team is actively working on resolving several known issues such as “login rate limiting,” server disconnections, and delayed rewards.
On the 13th of February, the developers conducted maintenance and released a patch for the PC/PS5 versions. They have prioritized addressing the issue of players not receiving mission rewards properly, and it’s likely that this patch has resolved the issue.
However, they will continue to monitor to prevent recurrence. Additionally, as compensation for those affected, they are planning events to increase rewards. While the game gained popularity shortly after release, confusion arose due to an unexpectedly large influx of players.
The developer has been consistently performing daily updates and maintenance, with ongoing efforts to tackle access overload issues expected to persist in the future. This is particularly crucial as the game continues to gain popularity, with players actively vying for access.
