The craze and hype around Helldivers 2 is unreal. The excitement of the fans was seen when the game first launched on February 8, 2024. The massive turnaround of players who flocked to play the game led to the servers crashing due to the pressure. As a result, several players faced a number of issues in playing the game including logging-in issues.
But that did not stop the players from playing the game and obsessing over it. The PlayStation 5 exclusive has crushed several charts and records since launch. Its rating of 9/10 on Steam and 83% on Metacritic further testifies its success.
However apart from the community reviews, is Helldivers 2 that good that the US military decided to promote it?
US Military promoting Helldivers 2?
An account on X (formerly Twitter), which goes by the name ‘Military.com’ recently posted a tweet that grabbed a lot of eyeballs for obvious reasons. The name of the account indicated that it was linked to the US military. The tweet, dated March 19, 2024, read, “Is ‘Helldivers 2’ Really ‘Space Vietnam’? Not Really”
Is ‘Helldivers 2’ Really ‘Space Vietnam’? Not Really https://t.co/yZc5kvNenR
— Military.com (@Militarydotcom) March 19, 2024
Because of its name, a lot of fans assumed that it was the official X handle of the military and that they were promoting Helldivers 2. Consequently, social media began buzzing with the information that the US military was promoting Arrowhead Studios’ latest game.
However, the account belongs to an independent news website that serves as a source of military news. It has no direct connections to the US military. The website reads,
“Military.com is a news and resource website for military members, veterans and their families. We provide daily defense news, benefits information, veteran employment resources, spouse and family resources and tools to support our audience throughout the life cycle of their military service and post-service life.”
Besides, the post itself was just a news piece posted by the website about Helldivers 2 being related to the Vietnam War.
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt reacts
The fast-spreading rumor even caught the attention of Arrowhead Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt. The CEO commented on one such X post by ‘Helldivers Alerts’, which read, “Why is the military attempting to use Helldivers to advertise…” along with a screenshot of the controversial military post.
Pilestedt simply commented using the thinking face emoji, “🤔” Seemed like the CEO too was baffled by the rumor, wondering how much truth the information held. Likewise, the users had similar reactions.
Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead Studios Johan Pilestedt Continues to Dangle 1 Weapon We All Want and Need
Some users believed the information, while others criticized it for being misleading. A user ‘FMR 10th MTN Boi’ rightly pointed out, “Not to be that guy…..but the .com at the end of the name is a big giveaway.”
Meanwhile, there were also some users who were aware of the information being false but went on to joke about it as if it actually happened.
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inHelldivers
A user named ‘iconiccal’ wrote, “Helldivers 2 intro a better military recruitment ad than any real-world ads in the last decade.” Similarly, another user Jonathan joked, “🧐 you trying to get us ready for a new Citizenship program we don’t know about yet?”
Another player ‘ThaDastardly0ne’ joked, “Next thing, the bugs are going to send a diplomat to super earth.” ‘ShiningPhoenixG’ sarcastically commented, “Democracy at its finest lol,” while ‘luceilofabyss’ took a political dig at the situation saying, “the propaganda is working lmao.”
The information is far from being true given a little research or rather just a visit to the website proves that it is not the official website of the military.
