Helldivers 2 Was Built on a Discontinued Engine — ‘Our Crazy Engineers Had to Do Everything’

PlayStation 5 and Steam hit Helldivers 2 was built on an engine that was discontinued after work on the game began.

80LV reported that Arrowhead built Helldivers 2 using the Autodesk Stingray engine, once called Bitsquid — the same engine used to create the original Helldivers game that first launched on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita in 2015.

While using the same engine to build the sequel wouldn’t necessarily raise eyebrows in of itself, Autodesk Stingray was discontinued in 2018, six years before Helldivers 2 came out. And in a tweet, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt confirmed work on Helldivers 2 began before Autodesk Stingray was discontinued.

“This is true,” Pilestedt said. “Our crazy engineers had to do everything, with no support to build the game to parity with other engines. And yes. The project started before it was discontinued.”

Arrowhead isn’t the only developer to use Autodesk Stingray to build its games. Fellow Swedish studio Fatshark used it to build Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and the recently released Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

Helldivers 2 is Sony’s biggest PC game launch of all time, with a peak concurrent player figure of 457,649 on Steam. Helldivers 2’s success has even sparked renewed interest in Starship Troopers, the film from which it draws quite a bit of inspiration.

IGN’s Helldivers 2 review returned a 9/10. “Helldivers 2’s combat feels fantastic, its missions stay fresh and interesting, and its smart progression system doesn’t nickel and dime you,” we said.

However, Helldivers 2 has suffered significant server issues, rendering it unplayable at times for many who have struggled to login. This week, Arrowhead released a significant update aimed at easing Helldivers 2’s problems, although the developer has said there is more work to be done.

If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 guide.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.