Arrowhead Game Studios is not rushing to develop Helldivers 3. According to Creative Director Johan Pilestedt, a sequel to the cooperative shooter only makes sense if it is sufficiently different from Helldivers 2 so that both games can coexist simultaneously.
In a new interview, Pilestedt revealed that about 95% of Arrowhead employees are currently still working on Helldivers 2. At the same time, a small team is exploring new directions and experimenting with a prototype of another game.
According to the developer, an active community is one of the main reasons for Helldivers 2's success. Players bring friends into the game, create memes, and maintain interest in the project. Pilestedt believes that with such a community, releasing a sequel is not necessary.
When you have an active community that does all of this, you don't need the next game.
Pilestedt also noted that releasing another similar project could lead to Arrowhead starting to compete with itself. The main rival for Helldivers 3 in such a case would not be another live-service game, but Helldivers 2 itself.
The industry is panicking because the old ways of making live-service games no longer work. [...] Releasing a separate sequel only makes sense if it is so different from the original that both games can exist side by side.
Therefore, the studio now considers it more reasonable to continue improving Helldivers 2 and maintain the current pace of development, rather than switching resources to a new installment.