Russ Nickel, former lead writer of Helldivers 2, was recently interviewed by Inverse, where he explained that developers Arrowhead didn't decide it was going to be a service game until well after beginning work on it. Its popularity sure suggests it was the right call to make. "This feels like what live service was born to do", Nickel said. "For a while, Arrowhead didn't know if the sequel was going to be a live-service title. But as we talked about it more, it was clear that this would make for such a cool live service experience, one where the story can change constantly so it really does feel alive."
"When I joined," he went on to say, "there was already a game that was fun to play. And then the back half of development was adding in the narrative and figuring out exactly what that playable prototype would become."
