As soon as crossover content wasbrought up in the context ofHelldivers 2, players started getting concerned over what it might entail. Judging by what Arrowhead Games’ CCO Johan Pilestedt has just shared, however,Helldivers 2crossovers should be fairly innocuous in the grand scheme of things.
More specifically, even thoughPower Rangers were mentionedas one of the potentialHelldivers 2crossover opportunities, that doesn’t seem to be on the docket. Not yet, at least. This has unsurprisingly been one of the hot topics on theHelldivers 2subreddit, with one of the more popular recent threads asking where the “crossover line in the sand” ought to be drawn. The surprising bit came about when Pilestedt himself chimed in on the matter. According to him, the line is drawnrighthere:
Pilestedt’s Helldivers 2 collaboration diagram is rather telling
In other words, grunts from all manner of other intellectual properties are all possible inclusions. Or, rather, options that Arrowhead would be happy to include inHelldivers 2if the IPs’ respective owners would agree to it. Highlighted options include:
The buck stops atHalo‘s Master Chief, however, and we shouldn’t expect to see the Doom Slayer, Astartes, or Ninja Turtles inHelldivers 2anytime soon. Or Snoop Dogg, for that matter. Curiously, the Clone Troopers fromStar Warshave also been excluded from the mix, thoughthe Truth Enforcers Warbondkind ofpays homage to those armor designs.
Back on track, Pilestedt has also explained that there’s some nuance to how Arrowhead thinks of content crossover. From the look of things, crossovers are going to be a serious consideration forHelldivers 2in the future, and we should definitely expect lots more as time goes on. These will, presumably, build upon the precedent set by theKillzonecrossover. Mind that Arrowhead is still figuring outhow to best handle this type of content, however.
Arrowhead intends to avoid IP dilution by creating authentic and believable crossovers that still somehow fit into the grander lore ofHelldivers 2. This is particularly important, it seems, as crossover lore will “become canon” in some way, shape, or form. In the case ofKillzone 2‘s Helghast grunts, for example, this franchise’s Ståhl Arms has been canonized inHelldivers 2as one of the active weapon and armor manufacturers. It’s a neat enough system, I’ll give them that.
The potentially problematic bit comes about when you consider Arrowhead’s authenticity tenet: the team will “strive to modify as little as possible from the original inspiration.” This sounds admirable at face value, but video games’ design languages rarely fit with one another all that well. Thiscouldlead to clashing assets, though that’s a problem for some other day.
So, if you too were concerned aboutHelldivers 2turning intoFortnitein a few months, that’s entirely unfounded. It’ll still take some time for Arrowhead to figure out what’s what when it comes to crossovers, of course. Heck, we might go for a long while before the next crossover drops intoHelldivers 2. But, when it finally does happen, there’s no reason to expect Nicki Minaj on the side of Super Earth.
