Helldivers II remains the best-selling premium game of 2024 year-to-date... It currently ranks 7th in lifetime US dollar sales for Sony published titles
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Crazy how when you make a fun game it sells well. Who woulda thought!
It's not just that it's fun, but that Arrowhead are respecting their player base. No subscription fees, no timed battle passes, no pay-to-win mechanics, real-money currency can also be earned for free by just playing the game (I've already bought 2 warbonds with SCs that I found completely in-game, with enough currently banked to insta-buy the new one whenever it drops)... They know what players want, and they made the game to those specs. They're treating their players like people, instead of cash cows to be milked.
I was explaining the in-game progression system and war bonds stuff to a friend, who is a long time gamer. He interrupted me and said, "You don't have to explain it to me, I know how battle passes and in game stores work."
But that's the thing, he knew how most in-game stores and battle passes work - but Helldivers isn't like that. There's no time pressure battle passes where you have to play a certain amount in a month to get something. There's no pay to win mechanic where you are pressured to spend money. It really is different from modern games. It feels more like an old school game where you can get anything just by playing whenever you want, except with the benefit of them constantly adding new stuff
They are using typical battlepass mechanics including locking gameplay affecting content behind a battlepass.
It’s a fun and successful indie game, but it’s not some paragon of monetization models.
I wouldn't say there's anything "typical" about HD2's warbonds. They're not time-gated like normal battle passes, and they can also be purchased with currency you can find in-game.
Spending more than $40 on everything Helldivers 2 has to offer is completely optional. Even if you do spend money on warbonds, you still don't get immediate access to the new gear, as gameplay is still required to unlock the individual pieces of the warbond. The content is grindwalled, moreso than it is paywalled.
You do have a point about it not being timegated, although because they are constantly releasing new warbonds, you constantly have to choose which content sounds enticing or not. It’s not reasonable to expect to get everything in this game, especially without paying more money, and that’s a form of FOMO tactics.
As for earning the “premium” currency in-game, most freemium games do this. Examples:
Call of duty and fifa sells very well every year...
