Arrowhead CCO Calls-Out “Clickbait” PC Gamer Headline Causing ‘Helldivers 2’ Misled Outcry, Developers DO NOT Think Fans Are Easily Manipulated Fascists
Some fans of Helldivers 2 have reacted poorly to an article by PC Gamer. While it discussed how the developers made players “enjoy” being part of a fictional fascist government, some took the headline as though Arrowhead Game Studios thought their fans were easily manipulated into fascist ideals. A headline that CCO Johan Pilestedt called “clickbait.”
Justin Wagner’s article for PC Gamer featured the headline “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’.”
The reaction on X was a mixed bag. Some defied the claim about the community, considering they had pushed back against bad design choices and linking to PSN on PC– certainly not a case of being “manipulated” into taking something lying down. This also flies in the face of Pilestedt’s earlier comments about avoiding contemporary political statements and focusing on making good games (though opposing bad governments is hardly a recent trend).
Others felt it was silly, being a work of fiction without real-world influence, while others felt the UN were driving for using these supposed techniques for sinister ends.
Others took it as an outright statement of fact that Arrowhead Game Studios felt their own fanbase was easily manipulated and genuinely supported fascist ideals. This was especially true of individuals who defend gamers, especially from the “culture war” across media that led to journalists and creators denouncing them as regressive bigots.
Steam has also seen a slight increase in negative reviews, specifically mentioning the PC Gamer article and Arrowhead’s supposed quote. Nonetheless, this pales in comparison to the PSN outcry and also includes negative reviews about crashes from a recent patch.
Mark Kern and ArchCast wracked up over 575,500 views on X, rallying against the developers insulting their own fan base. The latter garnered a further 32,000 views on his YouTube video as he scoffed through the article.
Except, the content of the PC Gamer article does not reflect the headline. Therein, it shows the highlights of Pilestedt’s talk at the Game Developers Conference 2025, albeit with Wagner chiming in with his own commentary on players gleefully enjoying the game for roleplaying as a gear in a despotic regime. He even calls Pilestedt the CEO, a role he hasn’t had since May 2024 (now purely being the Creative Chief Officer). When looking at the CCO’s comments alone, however, a different story is painted.
During the “Helldivers 2: Capturing Lightning in a Bottle” talk, Pilestedt discussed what the game was to him and his team. “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?”
Pilestedt then explains how Arrowhead ensured players were still having fun while acting as fascists that die over and over.”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.”
While the article doesn’t elaborate on the point further, Piletstedt reveals, “Actually, we got a message from the UN asking if we want to talk, in some form, about psychological defense against manipulation.” He later insists the game’s themes are “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.”
Wagner reports that Arrowhead called upon the “mantras of regimes” such as Nazi Germany and North Korea, along with the patriotism of the US, EU… And the UN. “It creates pleasing aesthetics because there’s something totalitarian regimes are really good at: pleasing aesthetics.”
Neither Kern nor ArchCast noticed the inconsistency between the headline and the article when showing it to others. ArchCast even attempts to refute Wagner’s “are we the baddies” quote in his video, noting how Super Earth is being invaded by three different factions.
This is despite in-game lore heavily suggesting the wars are orchestrated with controlled or oblivious opposition to justify endless resource wars and to keep the populous in line. Even so, ArchCast correctly highlights how Wagner calls the Helldivers “grunts” when they are the elites and his seeming dismissal of the desire for self-preservation (even in unjustified conflict) as fascist or evil.
He also refutes Pilestedt’s definitions of fascism as too broad, matching uniforms, saluting or gesturing, and a desire for pleasing aesthetics being elements of any group in humanity- like armed organizations, political parties, or sports clubs.
This isn’t even mentioning the fact that players earn currency to buy armors and emotes to set themselves apart from the crowd, and the enemy Automaton faction (inspired by real-world communist regimes) uses their symbol frequently in their design. Being robots (and saving real world budget), the same enemy type will resemble all the others.
Nonetheless, ArchCast passionately claims, “Make no mistake whatsoever; this is the CEO [sic] of Arrowhead, of the company itself, declaring its allegiance. It is on the left. It is doing this to mock you. The mainstream media is embracing that now and claiming the hell-game, Helldivers 2, as ‘their thing’. This is now an entity meant to take the piss out of you. You are the dumb, evil side-grunt that has been brainwashed into fighting for a fascist state.”
ArchCast continues to insist that the article reveals Arrowhead’s intent to mock players who enjoyed playing a fascist organization but failed to demonstrate this in-game (despite how blatant the in-game propaganda is) until the UN approached them or received “puff pieces” from the mainstream press. Despite this, ArchCast states he is not calling for a boycott, despite the fact the developers “hate you and think you are idiots, and think they are manipulating you.”
Some users did highlight in tweets by Kern, ArchCast, and PCGamer that the headline didn’t fit the article’s content including Pilestedt. “Hey yeah. I was a bit uncareful with how I expressed this, and didn’t realize it could be picked up as something negative. Should’ve been more clear.”
“They [the UN] reached out to us after the game blew up to talk about ‘what role satire in games play in psychological defense against totalitarianism’. The quote on us wanting to ‘brainwash’ the community was made as a note on getting everyone to roleplay the message of totalitarian state of Super Earth,” Pilestedt clarified.
Pilestedt then followed up with a hammer blow. “Actually, reading the article fully I think it covers it pretty well, but the title is a bit clickbaity @pcgamer,” complete with smiley face.
Replying to another user dismayed at how others hadn’t paid attention to the article, Pilestedt added, “Yah… doesn’t generally get to me. But for some reason this time it did. I think its just me trying to share with developers and help make the industry better. And it being misrepresented when you want to help kinda sucks.”
Ironically, the debacle has demonstrated the ease of psychological manipulation. It turns out you don’t need the resources of a planet-spanning empire, nor express ideals or mock while your target is having fun. You just need an eye-catching headline that plays into the fears people already have.
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