We have an interesting new rumor about Helldivers 2, that will certainly drive console gamers over the wall.
In the latest episode of the XboxEra podcast, “Shpeshal” Nick Baker has shared his latest rumor. He said:
“We know that PlayStation has a new CEO at the moment. I think the CEO might be more open to certain things. What I’ve heard, again this is just a rumor that I’ve heard, is that there may be some very very early preliminary discussions, about the possibility of Helldivers 2coming to Xbox.”
Co-host Sikamikanico then pointed out, when he was playing Helldivers 2, that he thought it was the most Xbox-like game that PlayStation had ever made.
Nick clarified again that he didn’t confirm that the game is coming, only that they are in very early discussions. But he also agrees that it feels more like an Xbox game, than a PlayStation game, and it would seem to be a good fit that could be very successful if it makes the jump over.
Of course, this would seem to be a tit-for-tat arrangement between the two console companies, as Microsoft has just recently released four of their games on the PlayStation, in what they have dubbed as an ‘experiment’.
Interestingly, or perhaps not interesting at all, the most success Microsoft has seen thus far on the PlayStation 5 is on the two online multiplayer games, Grounded and Sea of Thieves. While Sea of Thieves has yet to release on the platform, pre-orders are at an all-time high, and the hype around it has led to Sea of Thieves picking up 40 million players.
Helldivers 2 is the first game of 2024 to come out as the big hit of the year so far. We do need to remember that unlike Grounded and Sea of Thieves, Helldivers 2is a second party game for Sony, though all three are arguably AA in budget and scope.
As Nick pointed out, the big difference maker here seems to be PlayStation’s chair, Hiroki Totoki, who is also the CFO of PlayStation’s owner company, Sony Group. Totoki seemed like the person who would choose to make layoffs across PlayStation, but that may turn out to be necessary as Jim Ryan did those layoffs before he stepped in.
Totoki is definitely looking into what things Sony can improve to be more profitable, and in the past, he hasn’t been quite enthused about how the PlayStation division could independently make decisions, without their higher ups getting to share their own input.
Totoki is in the position now to make choices that past PlayStation heads would not approve of, even people who encouraged the console wars because they were living it, like Ken Kutaragi. PlayStation going further than PC, and starting to publish games to Xbox and maybe even Nintendo is something that can credibly happen in this era.
If there’s anything that would end such ‘experiments’ would be if the Xbox players weren’t playing PlayStation games on their platform. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the culture around video games and the console wars may already be changing before our very eyes.
