Get the latest tech news

Helldivers 2 director decides to kick off 2025 by wading into a conversation about DEI: 'Make good games, don't make a contemporary political statement

Johan Pilestedt tried to clarify his statement by saying he was only talking about things "outside the theme of the game," which doesn't really clarify much at all.

Pilestedt's initial statement came in response to a user on X who urged him to "never add DEI"—an acronym for diversity, equity, and inclusion that's become a high-profile bugbear for the anti-woke crowd—in future Arrowhead games. Superficially, Pilestedt's comments could be seen as relatively innocuous, but eyebrows were raised because Helldivers 2 is a very, and very overtly, political game: A satire of fascism so heavy-handed it makes Starship Troopers look subtle by comparison. Ironically, some of the people who would presumably be happy about Pilestedt's "don't do politics" statement remain deeply unhappy with him because the Helldivers 2 Discord moderators continue to keep a tight lid on the disruptive discourse that has turned X into such a sewer.

Get the Android app