An example of open communication and game management.
Helldivers 2 released their first collab, with the Killzone franchise. This had been datamined before as being the “Righteous Renegades” warbond (the helldivers equivalent of a battlepass), which would feature 3 weapons, a stratagem, 2 armor sets, a title and 2 backgrounds.
The cheer for the collab quickly died down when it was revealed, on release, that the playerbase was not getting another warbond, but that half the items instead had been put on the in-game currency store for almost double the prize of a warbond. The same announcement that the second half of the items would be put on the in-game currency store the week after, presumably for the same price.
This would’ve meant that items totally to about 2 pages of a warbond, would be put on sale for almost 4 times the price of a warbond (and a regular warbond has 3 pages!), meaning that instead of spending 10 dollars on a warbond, players would’ve been looking at spending up to 40 dollars for less content.
The predictable result of this was that the Helldivers 2 Discord server and subreddit were up in arms (but not the arms on the in-game currency store of course) about this new practice, calling it a slippery slope that’d started only a week before with a melee shock baton weapon being added to the in-game currency store.
Other criticisms were the fact the store is on a rotation, meaning these items would cause FOMO, and that a part of player power could be locked behind a by now month long rotation system (The same announcement did say that Arrowhead was looking into improving this aspect of the store, but had nothing to announce yet.)
Arrowhead’s current CEO and the Creative Director responded to criticism on social media and in discord.
They stated that they were taking the feedback to heart, though had nothing to say about future actions just yet then. They did honestly point out that calls that this was Sony’s fault were wrong – claiming this was their own mistake.
They’d turned the warbond into superstore items because, according to them, the warbond would’ve had a higher price, which they expected to cause outrage. One day later, at the day of writing, critism had not died down in the slightest. However, later in the day, Arrowhead announced that as a response to the feedback, they’d release the second half of the items, that was supposed to be on the in-game currency store the week after, for free to all players.
Furthermore, they’d look into adding the first wave items in a more permanent fashion to the game. The associated stratagem support weapon was always going to be unlockable through an in-game major order, but they reiterated this once again to clear up any confusion. Here’s to hoping that any future collabs with franchises start off on a better foot, with less ridiculous prices and no FOMO.