Executive Summary: This article argues that Helldivers 2 suffered from a costly but common challenge: ambiguous marketing that fails to highlight the product’s unique strengths. Helldivers 2’s positioning focuses on generic “antes” — cooperative shooter gameplay — not the game’s unique “driver,” its RPG wargame. Helldivers 2 could unlock significant untapped revenue if its publisher and developer resources focused more on its driver and less on its antes.
How Does Helldivers 2’s Positioning Strategy Hurt the Video Game?
Helldivers 2 is a positioning strategy example worth considering, because the video game is an extraordinary success by critical and commercial measures, but it’s made mistakes that professionals in many industries can learn lessons from. The game’s publisher, Sony, is leaving revenue on the table due to its ambiguous and vague marketing of Helldivers 2.
Technically, Helldivers 2 is published by Playstation Publishing LLC –a part of Playstation Studios, which itself is a division of Sony. So, to keep things simple, I’m usually going to refer to Helldivers 2’s publisher as Sony from here on out.
Sony’s “Hands Off” Marketing Approach
Most of Helldivers 2’s “marketing” came from word of mouth recommendations along with glowing reviews from journalists and a torrent of fan videos and memes celebrating it.While the authenticity of this approach initially worked well for Helldivers 2, it was never under Sony’s control. Ceding control of the marketing narrative eventually backfired. As time passed, and the developers (Arrowhead) updated the game with content, the consequences of Sony’s “hands off” marketing became too great.
Arrowhead’s core business model for Helldivers 2 requires the studio to make ongoing changes to the game it can then sell to existing players. This requires ongoing marketing. You must convince new and existing consumers to buy more stuff. And, in the crowded marketplace of live service shooters like Helldivers 2, that’s no easy task. Hand’s off marketing is imprudent.
The Financial Cost of Helldivers 2’s Positioning Strategy
Unfortunately, the game’s marketing has struggled to explain why the ongoing changes to Helldivers 2 improve the quality of the product, and are thus worth buying. The core issue, as I’ve diagnosed at length elsewhere, is that their positioning is too ambiguous. This positioning failure has, unsurprisingly, frustrated consumers, making them less inclined to make purchases.
As a result, I’d estimate cash is being left on the table, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. (So far as I can tell based on public sources, the games likely made at least a billion in revenue in 2025. I explain the logic for these estimates elsewhere, if you’re curious.)
I will share a strategy for how Sony could better position Helldivers 2. The mistakes they made are not unique to the video game industry; they are quite common marketing challenges. It can be hard for any brand to identify and explain why its product matters to consumers. Therefore, I think most of us can learn something from Helldivers 2.
What’s The Driver & Ante in This Positioning Strategy Example?
I know that market research can seem mysterious to the layperson, and that’s why I like talking about antes and drivers when it comes to the basics of positioning strategy. “Antes” and “Drivers” are concepts that go by many names, but the underlying idea is tangible and simple.
What Are “Antes”?
An “ante” is something consumers may commonly demand in a product type, but will not, by itself, make them purchase a thing. “Antes” are things you are expected to include in order to have your product compete in the marketplace, like an “ante” in poker. You need to “ante” in poker if you want to play; it’s the price of admission, but no guarantee of winning.
For Helldivers 2, one example of an “ante” are a variety of in-game weapons to shoot things with. This is an “ante” because consumers expect guns in third-person shooters like Helldivers 2. Many would complain if it lacked them, but are unlikely to buy the game just because it has them. Most shooters have multiple guns in them. This is expected. It’s not unique.
In short, antes are expectations customers hold for a type of product. Most people purchasing a new car expect it to run dependably. That’s just the ante in that market. This is why it’s hard to market using antes alone: rival products usually have your antes by definition.
What Are “Drivers”?
A “driver” is something that all by itself can “drive” a consumer to buy one product instead of its peers. Drivers are tricky to determine. After all, we don’t always know why we make the decisions we do, and often rationalize post hoc. And, depending on my emotional needs at the point of purchase, my drivers are likely to differ. Consider these examples.
Imagine that I was out walking and I saw some local scouts selling cookies. I believe in supporting scouts (as I once was one), but I also feel over budget on snacks this month. In this scenario, I’ll buy the cheapest offerings, no more. If I am on that same walk, but ravenously hungry instead, I might buy the nearest cookies, with no concern for price. Snack budget be damned.
So, my emotional desires at the time of purchase and longstanding values will tend to shape my drivers. Market research can be hard and I daresay rewarding because drivers can be unconscious, hard to articulate, and mutable, depending on the customer’s circumstances.
Why Antes and Drivers Matter for This Positioning Strategy Example
Antes and drivers matter because every positioning strategy is defined by them. Obviously, different consumers will care about different antes and drivers. But, generally, most consumers are quick to demand more and more antes, and sometimes imagine that antes are why they buy products. Sufficiently compelling drivers will make the right consumer forgive the absence of many antes. But if you don’t have sufficient drivers, no amount of antes will make consumers buy your product. Consumers don’t care if a game or cookie has every feature if it doesn’t uniquely satisfy them. They care about drivers, not antes. Needless to say, as products innovate, yesterday’s driver can eventually become today’s ante. Innovation is the norm.
What Are The Flaws With Helldivers 2’s Current Positioning Strategy?
Now that we understand antes and drivers, let’s examine this positioning strategy example more closely. Here’s how Sony describes Helldivers 2 on its Steam page. What antes and drivers do you see articulated here?
Helldivers 2’s Steam Storefront Game Description
“HELLDIVERS™ 2 is a 3rd person squad-based shooter that sees the elite forces of the Helldivers battling to win an intergalactic struggle to rid the galaxy of the rising alien threats. From a 3rd person perspective, players use a variety of weapons (pistols, machine guns, flamethrowers) and stratagems (turrets, airstrikes, etc.) to shoot and kill the alien threats. Players can also aim down the sights for a more accurate 1st person camera view. Combat is accompanied by frequent sprays of blood and dismemberment as players exterminate the alien forces or players and squad mates are hit by environmental explosions or friendly fire. Enemy encampments and battlefield environments depict bloodstains and dismembered corpses.”
So, What Antes & Drivers Are Marketed in This Positioning Strategy Example?
The first sentence starts by noting it’s a cooperative game, and it’s a third-person shooter. These are the basic antes that the marketing promises. The game will incentivize players to work together with other players against a shared problem with some third-person shooting mechanics.
None of this is unique to Helldivers 2. There are many cooperative third-person shooting games: you could as easily describe Sea of Thieves in this way as you could a game like Helldivers 2. Despite the fact one game has you play as a sci-fi footsoldier, and the other a pirate on the seas. What we’ve looked at so far, therefore says precious little about Helldivers 2.
This positioning strategy example is similar to describing a luxury car by noting it has four wheels: technically true, but unhelpful in distinguishing it from its competitors. Where are the drivers?
There Are No Drivers, Just Antes in This Positioning
You could argue Sony is trying to specify a driver here, by pointing out their choice to mention you will play as a “Helldiver,” a member of an “elite force” in an “intergalactic struggle” against “aliens.” But, there are a lot of games where you play as a specialized soldier in an intergalactic war against aliens; this does not sound unique in the current games market. It is unique to be a “Helldiver” to be fair, but what that means is left to your imagination. Something about this description is supposed to be the driver, but it’s just antes.
All in all, this description focuses on the antes of the co-op and third-person shooting. If all you knew about Helldivers 2 was this, you wouldn’t expect it to be a breakout success. The game seemingly lacks any drivers, because the publishers are only marketing forgettable antes.
This Positioning Mistake Is an Easy One to Make
To be fair to Sony, this is a common mistake. Drivers can be very hard to articulate, and if only for that reason, are often left out of positioning. Antes are obvious and therefore easy to articulate publicly. And, to the publisher’s credit, they state the antes clearly. Even this is not always done very well. Just look at how Bandai Namco’s positioning strategy limited the critical and commercial success of Elden Ring: Nightreign. Helldivers 2’s positioning roughly tells us how Helldivers 2 will play, even if it’s not zeroed in on why it’s arguably special.
Presumably, this omission reflects a disconnect between the developers and publisher. Either the developer struggled to communicate with the publisher, or vice versa, or both. Frankly, for our purposes, it’s irrelevant. Whoever’s responsible, the result is a flawed positioning strategy. Ultimately, Sony has struggled to position Helldivers 2’s unique strengths.
What Drivers Should Be in Helldivers 2’s Positioning Strategy?
If you start researching Helldivers 2, you’ll find its developer, Arrowhead, is proud of the fact that they reject trendchasing as a matter of policy. Their motto is “a game for everyone is a game for no-one.” They essentially reject the idea of designing around antes. And in multiple interviews, their devs have said the game was fundamentally inspired by RPG wargames like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). In the words of Helldivers 2’s Game Director, Mikael Eriksson:
“From the get-go — with the Galactic War and the game master and how we build the game in general with a systemic approach — we wanted to emulate a tabletop role-playing kind of experience [like D&D]. There’s a bunch of ways the story that you’re playing can turn out, and there’s randomness factored in alongside the choices of the people you’re playing with. That sort of emergent storytelling is something we think is super fun, and it’s what we want to do with the war and the game master.”
This tells us how to improve this positioning strategy example’s marketing. Helldivers 2 key driver is its RPG wargame. Marketing only hints at this driver, despite it fundamentally defining your experience whenever you enter the game.
Helldivers 2 Was Designed to Be an RPG Wargame
When players load into the game, they can only choose where they want to play by interacting with an in-game map, which sits at the front of a spaceship they personally command.
The war map shows where all other players are fighting against enemies and vice-versa. You must first navigate the war game before you can dive into any co-op third-person shooting.
On a weekly basis, players are given “Major Orders” in the “Galactic War” by the fictional “Super Earth” military command. In the real world, these tasks are crafted by a “Gamemaster” named “Joel,” who acts in a role that takes direct inspiration from “Dungeonmasters” in D&D. Joel both dictates where the in-game enemies attack, and theoretically where players should too. Joel crafts “Major Orders” so that the playerbase feels motivated to keep playing the game.
Most Helldivers 2 Players Act Like the RPG Wargame Is the Driver
Players are free to ignore Joel, but most don’t. The developers have revealed that more than half the playerbase engages the Major Orders. For context, the playerbase is made up of tens of thousands of people, and swells to hundreds of thousands during the biggest content updates.
A memorable example of how much Helldivers 2’s players care about the Major Orders was when the playerbase was given a collective choice between securing one of two locations. One location rewarded players with a new, in-game tool, antitank mines. The other offered only a story: saving the fictional lives of “very sick young children.” It was a choice: kids or mines.
layers could either get a tangible shooter reward to empower them or pursue a narrative goal with no gameplay incentive aside from roleplaying for its own sake. Or again, you could ignore all this stuff entirely and simply fight your favorite faction wherever. The playerbase made an unexpected decision: save the kids.
Arrowhead did not anticipate that players would prioritize the narrative-driven objective of saving fictional children over tangible shooter rewards. This misunderstanding highlights a key gap between the studious assumptions about players’ motivations and actual drivers of engagement. More than half the playerbase is revealing, by its actions, what they feel makes this game special. They wanted to fight a Galactic War that rewarded their choices with meaningful consequences. Consequences defined by the RPG wargame, not the ante of cooperative third-person shooting.
Arrowhead Didn’t Expect This Outcome
It’s revealing for our analysis that Arrowhead did not expect this result. They embrace the motto “a game for everyone is a game for no-one.” They designed Helldivers 2 as an RPG wargame and even employed a dedicated gamester, “Joel” to craft the Galactic War’s evolving narrative. And yet, Arrowhead didn’t expect players to deprioritize unlocking stuff for the third-person shooter gameplay. They didn’t think the RPG really mattered to players. They thought, wrongly, that unlocking new shooter gameplay content was most players’ driver.
Helldivers 2’s RPG Wargame Is its Driver
If the RPG style wargame is Helldivers 2’s driver, it would explain why more than half the playerbase prioritizes RPG wargame stuff. It’s the primary way that the game stays fresh on an ongoing basis, which makes it essential to Arrowhead’s ability to entice players to continually purchase more stuff in game. So, why hasn’t Sony leaned into marketing the RPG driver?
The First Reason Why Helldivers 2’s Positioning Doesn’t Highlight the RPG Wargame
The first reason for Sony’s approach to date is straightforward. I imagine they were worried that labeling the game an RPG wargame could misinform consumers.
For most consumers, the first RPG that comes to mind these days is likely Baldur’s Gate 3, the popular D&D video game adaptation. That game’s all about the player character you control. You can chat up NPCs, do quests, level up, loot, explore, all that classic RPG stuff.
Helldivers 2 Isn’t a Conventional AAA RPG
But Helldivers 2 isn’t an RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3, so can you call it an RPG? You wouldn’t want to mislead consumers about your product, after all. I grant all of that, that’s fair.
The thing is, there are lots of kinds of RPGs, and consumers are well aware of this! Some RPGs focus on combat, or wargaming, others tell horror stories, and stories in other genres. It’s not that it isn’t accurate to call Helldivers 2 an RPG, it’s just that it’s a particular kind of RPG. One where there’s a strong emphasis on a wargame, not so much an individual player character. Players control individual units in skirmishes, but the focus is the ongoing story of a war. There’s no turn-based or top-down combat either. Helldivers 2 is a real-time, third-person shooter. As long as the marketing reflects these points, it’s accurate to call Helldivers 2 an RPG wargame.
The Second Reason Why Helldivers 2’s Positioning Doesn’t Highlight the RPG Wargame
The second reason why Helldivers 2’s positioning downplays the RPG wargame is likely because the developers don’t think it matters as much as the co-op shooting.
Consider the various updates that have been rolled out for the game since its release. Overwhelmingly, since the game has been released, patches and content updates have focused on shooter gameplay: the combat systems, weapon balance, and enemy design. Consider the content updates directly sold to players, the “Warbonds.” Warbonds are premium content giving players more guns, stratagems, and armor. They do not offer ways to directly influence the Galactic War.
So even if there have been updates changing how the Galactic War works, on balance, Helldivers 2 creates revenue by innovating shooter stuff, not the RPG war game. Rightly or wrongly, the developers and the publishers act like the driver is the shooter gameplay. This is a positioning strategy example of misunderstanding why your customers love your product.
Helldivers 2 Prioritizes Casual Shooter Enthusiasts Over RPG Wargamers
The underlying design of Helldivers 2 reveals its focus on the shooter fans, not RPG wargamers. Indeed, the game is designed to split the playerbase and reward casual shooter enthusiasts at the expense of RPG wargamers. This dynamic is not apparent at first glance, but careful consideration of the game’s underlying mechanics reveal this is how Helldivers 2 works.
Suffice it to say that Helldiver 2’s RPG wargame lets players “liberate” (that is, conquer) planets if a sufficient percentage of the playerbase fights on that planet for long enough. If the playerbase splits itself between multiple targets, they become less or totally ineffective. The more divided players are, the more difficult it is to effectively achieve results in the RPG wargame. As a result, the casual shooter enthusiasts fighting whomever, wherever, ignoring “Major Orders” limit the effectiveness of the RPG wargamers prioritizing the “Major Orders.”
This design choice effectively places RPG wargames at a disadvantage, while prioritizing casual shooter fans. It doesn’t need to be this way. The game could be designed to flip these priorities. Or to just not put the priorities of its consumers at direct odds with each other. This would seem better. Satisfying both kinds of players is arguably far more prudent.
To be fair, I can see how the developers or some players might feel differently. You could argue that the improvements to the third-person shooting enhance the RPG wargame. But, ultimately, the RPG wargame has far less depth to it than the shooter gameplay. While there are dozens of effective ways to engage with the shooter gameplay, there is only one effective strategy in the RPG wargame. Fight where everyone else is, or else you will undermine the war.
Helldivers 2 Puts RPG Wargamers at Odds with Themselves
Helldivers 2 doesn’t just create tension between casual shooter fans and RPG wargamers. Helldivers 2 creates tension among the RPG wargamers too. If different RPG wargamers prioritize different objectives during a Major Order, they will be just as ineffective. Players often complain about this. Anything less than perfect coordination in the RPG wargame is penalized. All in all, the simplistic and frustrating design of this RPG wargame makes it harder to market.
To be fair, Arrowhead might see this as a feature, not a bug. The scramble to align players inspires last minute pivots and community wide debates: “the kids vs. antitank mines” Major Order proves these story beats can go viral and create free publicity. That’s valuable.
The end result is that Helldivers 2 prioritizes infrequent, unpredictable, temporary story drama over ongoing, predictable, strategic gameplay depth. This is a risky business dynamic. A few days of drama in Helldivers 2 are punctuated by months-long stretches of forgettable Major Orders where coordination is less rewarding, more difficult and much more frustrating. This is a spikey payoff curve: reliable revenue seems less likely with this design.
It’s imprudent because Helldivers 2’s live service business model depends on ongoing purchases.
Perhaps Arrowhead has run the numbers in private and knows their current design is the best compromise between the shooter gameplay, RPG wargame, and ongoing revenue generation. But, as an outsider, it looks like Arrowhead may be making a big strategic mistake.
Ultimately, Helldivers 2 privileges the fun of shooter fans over RPG wargamers. It also makes it so that RPG wargamers will inevitably frustrate each other. All this is probably why Sony’s official positioning doesn’t say anything about the RPG wargame. You can’t reliably position a feature that depends on tens of thousands of people acting in perfect unison. The game’s most unique feature is the RPG wargame, but improving it isn’t the developers’ focus.
Why Helldivers 2 Should Change its Positioning Strategy
Helldivers 2 has focused the lionshare of its developer and publisher resources on selling the shooter gameplay, not the RPG wargame that gives players experiences meaning. Continuing like this blunts the game’s advantages in the competitive live service game market. This is bad. It’s a long term recipe for money left on the table, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Sony should invest resources in rectifying its current positioning for Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2: A Better Positioning Strategy Example
Helldivers 2 is undeniably a wargame-style RPG, and Arrowhead and Sony’s positioning strategy should reflect that. Existing consumers act like this is the game’s driver. But new consumers, who would also enjoy this driver, wouldn’t know this game would satisfy them based on the current marketing. So, Sony should own what makes Helldivers 2 unique. The game was designed to offer the experience of an RPG wargame. That’s how it should be positioned.
The Positioning Language Helldivers 2 Should Use
Here’s how I’d position Helldivers 2 to sell its driver, not just antes:
Helldivers 2 is an RPG wargame and third person cooperative shooter where you and up to three friends liberate planets for humanity in a Galactic War. Use the Helldivers exclusive arsenal of guns, armors and stratagems to win Super Earth’s endless democratic crusade. You’re our Last Line of Offence against the Terminid, Bot and Illuminate factions. Enlist today!
I recommend language more like the above because it succinctly communicates:
- the game’s genre
- the drivers and antes
- key mechanical details
- the setting and satirical tone
This positioning strategy example shows how players shape the Galactic War through third-person cooperative shooter combat against three nonhuman factions:
- Terminids
- Bots
- Illuminates
It also reveals the game supports up to four player co-op, but can be played with less. Furthermore, we learn this war cannot ever be won, and the game’s serious and satirical storytelling tone (you will be the “last line of offence” in an “endless democratic crusade”).
My recommended positioning gives a distinct sense of what it will mean to play as a Helldiver, and what the appeal is. It’s arguably a big step up from the current positioning.
Sony and Arrowhead should sell Helldivers 2 with the game’s unique competitive advantages — celebrating and refining the RPG wargame driver, not shooter antes.
What Everyone Should Learn From This Positioning Strategy Example
I think Helldivers 2 is a great positioning strategy example of how hard it is to identify the antes and drivers. Without knowing these factors, it’s hard to develop a good positioning strategy. Many brands struggle with these challenges– it’s not an issue unique to video games. Ultimately, products don’t sell themselves; they require high quality, precise positioning.
Helldivers 2 proves that even games with huge and passionate audiences can fall short of their full potential if their publisher’s positioning misses what truly drives player engagement. Sony’s approach to positioning Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 is something many can learn from.
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