Johan Pilestedt, the game director of Helldivers 2 and former CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, recently spoke at the Nordic Game conference in Sweden, emphasizing the need for live service games to be fair to users. Pilestedt critiqued the trend of charging $70 upfront for games and then adding microtransactions for cosmetic items.
He argued that live service games should focus on providing continuous value to players rather than prioritizing profits. Pilestedt highlighted the importance of considering what benefits gamers when implementing live service models and monetization strategies.
This stance comes amid ongoing criticisms of live service practices in the industry, with recent examples including Blizzard’s microtransaction pricing in Diablo 4. Pilestedt’s comments aim to steer the industry towards more player-friendly practices.
