Amid all the terrible news forXbox, there was a sliver of good news for players:Helldivers 2is releasing on Xbox next month. However, the co-op shooter won’t be coming to the hugely popular Game Pass service, according to Arrowhead’s community manager on the game’s Discord server (nice spot,Videogamer).
In response to a player who asserted that Helldivers 2 was confirmed to be coming to Game Pass, Arrowhead’s community manager Baskinator replied promptly, saying, “Definitely not. No plans to bring it to Game Pass.”
Helldivers 2 Won’t Be On Game Pass
This shouldn’t come as a surprise — Arrowhead and Sony are porting the game to generate revenue, so offering the game for free on Xbox’s service was always unlikely. Xbox is also unlikely to pay Sony a lump sum to put the game on Game Pass, even with its newfound zeal for cooperating with PlayStation, once a fierce rival.
Similarly, Sea of Thieves isn’t offered on any tier of PlayStation Plus, Sony’s equivalent of Game Pass. By all accounts, Sea of Thieves has sold remarkably well on PlayStation 5. Arrowhead is likely hoping for similar returns with Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X/S, though the user base is much smaller.
The Xbox version of Helldivers 2 will have full crossplay with Steam and PlayStation 5, meaning we’ll have a new batch of helldivers to blood into the fight for managed democracy.
It’s a silver lining for Xbox players, who, in the past couple of days,have had to witness several high-profile game cancellationsandthe shuttering of one studio, The Initiative. Among the cancelled games are Perfect Dark, Everwild, and an unannounced Zenimax Online MMORPG, which Xbox head Phil Spencerreportedly loved.
To make matters worse for Xbox,morale is reportedly at an all-time low at Halo Studios, which is preparing to make a big announcement at this year’s Halo World Championship.
Helldivers 2 recently depicted a devastating invasion of Super Earth by the Illuminate in its Heart of Democracy update. After a hard-fought victory, the forces of Super Earth are now focused on rebuilding the damage done by the alien scourge. This money will be recouped by brave helldivers stealing from the Illuminate, naturally.
