Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 lead says Helldivers 2 "legitimizes what we're making" by showing "people like multiplayer co-op games where you can just blow s**t up"

Saber Interactive chief creative officer Tim Willits has said the success of Helldivers 2 "legitimizes" Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Although the seismic momentum that propelled Helldivers 2 to ubiquity when it launched earlier this year has slowed somewhat, it's still a massively popular game that exceeded all reasonable expectation. With the game's creative director back on Discord after months of silence doing damage control after backlash toward controversial balancing changes, it might look like Helldivers 2's time in the spotlight is over, but the game's Steam data - although platform-specific and thus incomprehensive - paints a starkly different picture.

Talking to PCGamesN, Willits said the success of games like Helldivers 2 and DayZ are proof of a large public appetite for the kind of multiplayer game where you can keep up with friends — in between explosives and mortar rounds, of course.

"I think something like ten million people play Helldivers, but 25 million people play DayZ," he said. "When you have numbers like that, it shows you that people like multiplayer co-op games where you can just blow shit up with your friends ... I played the heck out of Helldivers [2], and it legitimizes what we are making, and it shows that these types of games can be very successful because people are social and want to play together."

Space Marine 2 is finally launching some 13 years after the first game, and it promises to build on the original's gloriously straightforward, hack-and-slash, third-person action gameplay. Don't be intimidated by the Warhammer name, which of course encompasses tabletop games, tactics and strategy games, an MMO, and more; Space Marine is all about taking control of Captain Titus and mowing down mantis-like Tyranid aliens by the truckload with his big weapons and armor. The sequel is billed as, basically, that but with improved graphics, more lavish set-pieces, and even gorier battles.

Within 10 minutes of killing Tyranids, Warhammer