Helldivers 2 players get all wound up as galactic map briefly reveals the presence of the Illuminate, but Arrowhead CEO dismisses it all as 'fake news'

Helldivers 2 players have been waiting a long time, and through multiple teases, for the arrival of the Illuminate, the technologically advanced civilization that, along with the Terminids and Automatons, provided the three enemy factions in the original Helldivers. The Illuminate still haven't made their big appearance, but a fresh new tease suggests they could be getting closer.

As reported by Forbes, the most recent sign of someone new to shoot at came by way of the Helldivers 2 map, which for a brief moment displayed several sectors of space occupied by an unidentified force. Multiple divers captured images of the map and shared them to Reddit:

Of particular note is the presence of the little logo next to the Rictus Sector. That is indeed the symbol of the Illuminate: There's no missing it in a comparison with this detail from a Helldivers: Dive Harder Edition screenshot:

The purple-colored map sectors were cleared within a few minutes, and shortly afterward Arrowhead Studios—that is, Super Earth Armed Forces High Command—issued an in-game message stating the appearance of the mysterious new faction was merely a glitch caused by a mix of human error and human remains.

"Some Helldivers may have noticed a recent service outage in the Major Order Communication Display," the message states. "The issue has since been resolved.

"Cause: Organic tissue degradation on electronic equipment. Discussion: Comms. Technician #R-2342 became stranded in server farm. Cause of death: exposure. Resolution: Electronics replaced. Family of deceased fined for damages."

Arrowhead's history of employing meta-narratives within Helldivers 2 leaves the door open to two possibilities. This could be a legitimate tease for the long-awaited arrival of the Illuminate, but it could just as easily be a genuine technical hiccup in the game, maybe or maybe not leaking plans for the new faction, that Arrowhead is covering up with a quick bit of Super Earth disinformation.

Arrowhead Studios CEO Shams Jorjani did not help illuminate what's really going on here, dismissing the whole thing on Twitter as "fake news."

Of course that merely serves to remind us of how former CEO and current CCO Johan Pilestedt vehemently denied the existence of flying bugs, until Super Earth confirmed that flying bugs are real and they knew about it all along. But at the same time, Arrowhead has previously used the Helldivers 2 narrative to explain away actual in-game errors, including a previous map glitch that I'm pretty sure was an actual glitch.

So, where does that leave us? Nobody knows, which is what makes it fun. Some people think the Illuminate are imminent, others expect a longer wait, perhaps until the end of the 60-day update plan Arrowhead announced in August. The one thing players seem to agree on is that the Illuminate are coming, but whether this strange map error is a sign of an impending invasion, or just Joel dumping a coffee on his keyboard, we will have to wait and see.