Helldivers 2 Has Bad News for Xbox Game Pass Subscribers

Arrowhead Game Studios, the developer of hit cooperative shooter Helldivers 2, has confirmed that the game will not launch on Xbox Game Pass. The confirmation comes in the wake of a major announcement that Helldivers 2 will launch on the Xbox Series X/S platform in August 2025, more than a year after it launched on PlayStation 5 and PC.

Helldivers 2 can rightly be seen as one of the biggest breakout successes of 2024. After launching exclusively for the PS5 and PC, the game captured the imaginations of shooter fans hungry for cooperative fun, and became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios release to date. Even after controversial incidents like the review-bombing campaign Arrowhead commemorated with an in-game cosmetic, the game’s player numbers remain strong, with many logging in regularly to fight aliens and call in airstrikes. Those numbers are sure to grow, as well, now that Helldivers 2 is set for a release on Xbox Series X/S, opening up a new platform’s worth of players to join the Galactic War.

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PlayStation Game Helldivers 2 is Finally Coming to Xbox

Much to everyone’s surprise, Sony announces that its highly popular co-op shooter Helldivers 2 will launch on Xbox Series X/S this year.

Unfortunately for Xbox players, Arrowhead Community Manager Baskinator confirmed on the official Helldivers 2 Discord server that the studio had “no plans” to launch Helldivers 2 on Xbox Game Pass. Baskinator replied to a user who claimed Helldivers 2 was coming to the service with “Definitely not. No plans to bring it to gamepass.” This would mean that all players who wish to play Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X/S will have to purchase the game separately. While Baskinator’s reply is fairly definitive as far as the immediate future goes, there’s a chance that Arrowhead simply doesn’t intend for Helldivers 2 to be a Game Pass debut game. It could add the title to the service’s catalog at some point after its Xbox launch on August 26, 2025, should its plans or intentions change.

Helldivers 2 Dev Has No Plans to Launch on Xbox Game Pass

Some players expressed disappointment at the news, reasoning that having Helldivers 2 be accessible to the widest audience possible could help its prospects. A day-one Game Pass release can be beneficial for multiplayer titles like Helldivers 2, as the surge of people accessing the game for no extra cost can serve as a major boost for player populations and engagement. For example, the soccer multiplayer game Rematch reached over a million players on its first day, a count likely helped by its being a day-one offering for curious Game Pass subscribers.

While definitely disappointing to current Xbox Game Pass subscribers, the news that Helldivers 2 won’t be joining its offering does fall in line with a softening of the subscription game library trend in recent years. Analysts have questioned the future of services like PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass lately, saying that they may not become the driving force behind the game industry’s future the way they were thought to at the outset.