You wouldn’t get this from any other game…
The team behind Helldivers 2, presumably fully aware that Steam Deck and PC players would go digging into the game’s files, have left a funny little detail in there.
Over on Reddit, several Helldivers 2 players were sharing details of how to achieve the best settings on Steam Deck, when one discovered a YouTube file within the game’s code.
Listed as the ‘Survey URL’ is a YouTube link. When pasted into a browser, it loads up one of the internet’s most beloved music videos.
It is, of course, Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.
The song has been a main staple of internet memes since 2007, when fans decided to divert attention from whatever topic was being discussed in favour of Astley’s 1987 hit, with the act being dubbed a “Rickroll”.
Now it appears that Arrowhead Game Studios has got in on the action, too. They’ve hidden Astley in the Helldivers 2 files, leading to countless curious fans being Rickrolled. It’s like 2007 all over again.
“This is the first time i’ve been rick rolled by a game’s config file,” one Reddit user posted in a different thread.
Another user wrote: “Downloaded it from my work computer and sent the file to myself by email. When I got home and checked the email I wondered how in hell did I got RickRolled, good one.”
Another added: “This is hilarious, gotta love the devs of this game.”
One of the most popular comments summed up the nod quite well: “Goddamm, arrowhead really a gamer’s game studio.”
This is the first time i’ve been rick rolled by a game’s config file. Who put this here lmao
byu/Chyddo inHelldivers
Helldivers 2 was launched on 8th February and has surged in popularity, selling 1 million units in its first three days of release before going on to shift another 2 million copies in its first few weeks.
As a result, Arrowhead has experienced server issues, with the total number of concurrent players vastly exceeding its expectations.
At one point it even overtook God of War to become the highest concurrent player peak for a PlayStation-published game on Steam.
This has all led to the studio abandoning its initial roadmap in favour of a new one that builds off the game’s success. Whether that means we might see a direct Rick Astley crossover is yet to be seen, but stranger things have happened.
The developers have already been praised for their candid relationship with fans.
Game director Johan Pilestedt has been particularly vocal on X (formerly Twitter), even encouraging prospective players to hold off buying the game until the servers could handle it.
The Rickrolling fits the bill nicely — this is a studio that wants to have a direct relationship with its players, and harmless trolling is part of that!
Helldivers 2 is available across PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows.
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