Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani told players that Helldivers 2 won’t be expanding beyond four-player lobbies for now, arguing that a higher player cap would come at a heavy performance cost. The exchange highlights why the developer is focused on fixing frame rate and stability rather than adding more players.
Speaking on Discord, Jorjani replied bluntly to a player asking how feasible larger lobbies would be, writing, “my man, we’re trying to fix performance. not kill it.” He added, “I can give you 16 player lobbies tomorrow. and 16 fps. want it?” and later insisted the comment was a joke, “plz don’t quote me.” So it’s clear that just as any other studio, they are aware that players want bigger co-op, but performance is a limiting factor.
Some players have already reported frame rate problems, with a Reddit thread noting drops to around 40 FPS. Creative director Johan Pilestedt has also said that the engine and network architecture can’t cope with much larger groups, tweeting that “The engine, network architecture, UI, performance, and difficulty can’t cope” with eight players and that significant investment would be required for larger co-op.
Helldivers 2 Major Performance Issues, Anyone Else ? TY in advance !
byu/SnooMaps6148 inHelldivers
Jorjani even poked fun at the idea that raising the cap would be simple, joking about a fictional config tweak: “there’s a file called config.ini in there, there’s a line that says “players = 4,” change it to “player = 16″ and it you can bring more friends.”
Small changes to player limits can have big performance consequences, so the studio is being cautious while it works on improvements.
This matters for anyone who was hoping to turn Helldivers 2 into larger co-op sessions. If the studio prioritizes frame rate and stability first, players who value smoother performance will benefit, while groups wanting bigger matches will have to wait.
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