Bringing Helldivers 2 to Xbox eventually isn’t such a bad idea

It bugs Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer that Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Helldivers 2 is not on Xbox. In a recent interview with Game File, Spencer stated that he’s “not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox,” even though he understands that “there’s a legacy in console gaming that we’re going to benefit by shipping games and not putting them on other places.”

That raises a good question: Should Helldivers 2 come to Xbox Series X/S? No plans for that are announced at this time. Although Spencer is likely saying Sony should do this because it would line up with Microsoft’s current strategy, I don’t think it would be such a bad idea once we’re a ways out from this console exclusive’s launch. At the very least, the wild success Helldivers 2 has seen on PC proves that PlayStation may benefit from eventually releasing more of its games on other platforms. The company already seems keenly aware of that, too.

Helldivers 2 launched on PS5 as a console exclusive on February 8. Over a week after its launch, it appears in second place, right between Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, on the PlayStation Store’s “Top 10 games in your country” section on PS5. That’s an impressive feat for a Sony-published multiplayer game with relatively low prelaunch hype. But it is doing just as well, if not better, on PC.

According to data from SteamDB, the concurrent player count of Helldivers 2 has reached 255,189 players on Steam, an all-time high for a PlayStation PC release. It’s maintaining around 200,000 concurrent players on that platform alone as I’m writing this. That’s a ton of players that Helldivers 2 just wouldn’t have had it been locked as a console exclusive, and this cooperative multiplayer game is all the better for it. Crossplay support and a multiplatform release have even helped with the game’s matchmaking struggles, as I’ve been able to group up with PC players more consistently than with PS5 players.