The United Nations asked Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead if it'd give a talk on psychological manipulation: ‘Could we brainwash an entire community to fight for a fascist state? … Would we be okay with that? Turns out, yeah’
If you’ve played Helldivers 2 for more than about 15 seconds, you’re probably well-acquainted with the game’s wry sense of humor. A la Starship Troopers, the game sees players dying in droves as disposable soldiers in the name of a theoretical democratic utopia—not that they’d ever see it, as they’re all too busy getting torn apart by giant bugs and landing supply drops on each other’s heads.
In a talk at 2025’s Game Developers Conference titled “Helldivers 2: Capturing Lightning in a Bottle,” Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt reiterated for anyone out of the loop that, yes, the game is meant to be ironic and the fight for Super Earth was always meant to paint players as dispensable henchmen: "What is Helldivers 2, fundamentally? It would probably be fun to play a co-op action shooter where you’re put in the shoes of the evil side grunts of pop culture … how many seconds would you be able to survive?"
Of course, you might start to wonder how fun it’ll actually be once you consider the implications of dressing players up in fascist uniforms and calling them to arms under the banner of an imperial state to die, die, and die again in the name of democracy. "We asked ourselves, could we brainwash an entire community to fight for a fascist state? Would they? Would we be okay with that? And turns out, yeah, actually," Pilestedt said in his talk.
But it wasn’t just players whose heads were turned by Helldivers sardonic spin on imperial warfare; they also garnered the attention of a little organization you might have heard of before called the United Nations.
"Actually, we got a message from the UN asking if we want to talk, in some form, about psychological defense against manipulation," added Pilestedt. This might all sound like the game is getting a little too real, but he said the key was in finding the right tone and using the imagery in an almost educational way: "We do it all in fun and good spirits, and we actually try to get people to recognize the science of what is a totalitarian state. If you start wearing the same uniform as everybody else and do salutes constantly, you might be in a totalitarian regime."
A screenshot of Helldivers 2, depicting a Helldiver with a hellbomb on their back
(Image credit: Sony)
It’s unclear if Arrowhead actually had any further discussions with the UN, but it speaks volumes to the game’s far reaching influence and evocative riffs on fascist propaganda. Games are not unfamiliar with these sorts of discussions, but rarely does one invite them so bluntly.
To drive the point home and prevent Helldivers 2 from getting too depressing, Arrowhead pulled on the shiny, patriotic aesthetics of the US, the EU, and the UN itself, as well as the “mantras of regimes” like Nazi Germany and North Korea. “It creates pleasing aesthetics,” Pilestedt noted. "Because there’s something totalitarian regimes are really good at: pleasing aesthetics."
