Helldivers 2 is breaking its PlayStation 5 console exclusivity and coming to Xbox Series X/S in August. Fans have long called for the hit extraction shooter to be available on every platform, and in a shocking twist, the Sony-published blockbuster is obliging. It’s another major crack in the vestiges of console exclusivity, and follows in the footsteps of MLB The Show.
“You asked for more dudes, we’re sending more dudes,” Arrowhead Game Studios’ chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt said during a surprise livestream announcement on Thursday. “For one-and-a-half years you’ve been fighting the enemies of democracy and one of the requests that you’ve always had is for us to send more dudes, and the best way for us to be able to do that is to bring another platform into the fight.”
The game arrives on Xbox Series X/S on August 26 at $40, and is the first return exclusive from Sony since Microsoft started porting major first-party games like Sea of Thieves to its PlayStation rival. That also happens to be the same day that Gears of War: Reloaded brings the long-running Xbox shooter franchise to PS5, suggesting the arms race between the two console makers is cooling as Microsoft pivots to primarily being a third-party publisher.
Arriving 18 months after launch, Helldivers 2 will have a wealth of content for Xbox players to catch up on, but they’ll have missed out on some of its biggest in-game sagas, including efforts last month to repel an invasion of the game’s fictional Super Earth. It’s a good bet that Arrowhead has something equally cool planned for the community once it expands with a fresh influx of new players, joining its ongoing D&D-like Galactic War campaign.
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