Helldivers 2 players are enraged when the galactic map briefly reveals Illuminate presence, but Arrowhead CEO dismisses the whole thing as 'fake' news

Helldivers 2 has been teased for a long time. The Illuminate is the technologically advanced civilization who, along with Terminids, and Automatons were the three antagonist factions in the first Helldivers. A new teaser suggests that the Illuminate could be closer than we think.

Forbes reported that the latest sign of a new target to shoot came via the Helldivers 2 Map, which briefly displayed several sectors in space occupied by a force unknown. Divers captured images of the map, and shared them on Reddit.

The little logo that appears next to the Rictus Sector is worth noting. It is the Illuminate symbol: You can't miss it when comparing this detail from Helldivers: Dive Harder Edition:

The purple-colored sectors of the map were cleared in a matter of minutes. Arrowhead Studios, i.e., Super Earth Armed Forces High Command, then issued an in-game statement stating that the appearance of this mysterious new faction had been caused by a combination of human error and remains.

The message reads: "Some Helldivers might have noticed a recent outage of service in the Major Order Communication Display." The issue has been resolved.

"Cause": Degradation of organic tissue on electronic equipment. Discussion: Comms. Tech #R-2342 was stranded on a server farm. Exposure was the cause of death. Resolution: Electronics replaced. "Family of deceased fined for damage."

Arrowhead's use of meta-narratives in Helldivers 2 has left the door open for two possibilities. This could be a tease of the long-awaited Illuminate or it could be a technical glitch in the game.

Shams Jorjani, CEO of Arrowhead Studios, did not help to illuminate what was really going on in this case. He dismissed the entire thing on Twitter as "fake-news."

Super Earth has confirmed that flying insects are real, and that Arrowhead knew this all along. Arrowhead has used the Helldivers 2 storyline to explain away real in-game errors. I'm fairly certain that a previous map bug was an actual glitch.

Where does that leave us then? It's fun because nobody knows. Some people believe the Illuminate will arrive soon, while others think it will take longer, perhaps until Arrowhead's 60-day update plan announced in August is complete. One thing that players seem to agree upon is the Illuminate will be arriving. But whether this strange map mistake is a sign an imminent invasion or just Joel spilling coffee on his keyboard is something we will have wait and see.