Helldivers 2 CEO talks DLSS and FSR: 'When you are in a prio meeting and it's more awesome content vs more tech the decision is easy…'

Helldivers 2 is probably been the biggest surprise hit of 2024 so far but not everyone has been happy with it. A response by Arrowhead's CEO Johan Pilestedt, to criticism over the lack of the option to use DLSS/FSR upscaling, was first interpreted as meaning that it wouldn't be implemented at all. Pilesedt quickly shot that notion right down, simply replying that «gameplay > cool tech».

All of these shenanigans took place over at X, of course, with it all starting with one run-of-the-mill spot of negative criticism. That particular person appears to believe that upscalers, such as like DLSS and FSR, are «basic features» in today's PC games, but Pilestedt responded by calling it «cool tech but not necessary» before going on to expand that he'd prefer to use the coding time required to improve the game's fundamental gameplay.

Naturally, that was completely misconstrued to imply that Helldivers 2 was never going to get DLSS. Cue yet another reply from Pilestedt to shoot that idea out of the sky.

Helldivers 2 isn't an especially graphically-demanding game, compared to the likes of Alan Wake 2. The PC hardware requirements are very modest and it will run perfectly fine on systems that are quite a few years old or even mid-range gaming laptops, as used to test it in our review. In short, the game doesn't specifically need upscaling.

Pilestedt, who is the CEO and Creative Director at Arrowhead, the developer of Helldivers 2, explained why. It partly comes down to the fact that the game is mostly CPU-limited, as the engine «simulate(s) everything.» But more importantly, it was about prioritising the tasks for the programmers to focus on, and in this particular case, the developers felt it was better to have more content, rather than more technology.

That's not what I said!