Shadow of the Erdtree and Helldivers 2 Servers Racing to Let Me Use Them

Addendum: Since this article was published, I was able to access Bandai-Namco’s store to purchase the Collector’s Edition. Crisis averted. There still has been no movement on Helldivers 2.

We don’t do much personal reporting here at EIP, but this is urgent. You see, just before the trailer for Elder Ring’s long-awaited DLC Shadow of the Erdtree dropped (and what a good trailer it was), I decided to queue up for Helldivers 2.

In case you aren’t aware, Helldivers 2 has had a steadily increasing player count since it launched on February 8th, peaking at around 450,000 concurrent players on Steam alone yesterday (on a freakin’ Tuesday), without counting all the players on the crossplay-enabled PlayStation. This despite the fact that the developers over at Arrowhead Games anticipated – on the high end – around 100,000. As such, many players on Helldivers 2 have struggled to get in the game, being stuck on the launch screen for minutes (and sometimes hours) waiting for room to open up in the game’s servers. 

Well, being the loyal citizen of Super Earth I am, I know to wait in line for my turn to take on the bugs. And so, I launched the game just before the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer dropped. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to include an inredible-looking Collector’s Edition, alongside a link: EldenRing.com.

Now, this link normally leads to the Elden Ring section of Bandai-Namco’s website, where presumably the Collector’s Edition of Shadow of the Erdtree is meant to be up for pre-order. However, it seems that Bandai-Namco, much like Arrowhead Games, underestimated the excitement for their product, and failed to prepare enough server space, because so far would-be pre-orderers of the DLC or its Collector’s Edition have been met only with a 502 error, indicating a “Bad Gateway”, almost certainly because the amount of buyers is too high for Bandai-Namco’s site to handle.

And so now, here I am, 2 screens open, both waiting for server space. What will happen first? Will Elden Ring’s shop page open up so I can feed my rampant FromSoft addiction and purchase a very pretty statue of a boss that will kill me dozens of time first? Or will I be greeted to the beautiful sight of the SES Electected Representative of Democracy, my ship, preparing to launch down on an ongoing bug invasion?

Huh. It’s beginning to feel like gaming is just a lot of waiting…

It’s worth it, though, for Managed Democracy and the Golden Order! Right?