Behaviour Interactive, the studio behind Dead by Daylight, has unveiled Exterminauts, a new shooter widely seen as the first serious rival to Helldivers 2. Revealed at Gamescom 2026, the game borrows Helldivers 2's blend of chaotic co-operative combat and satirical corporate setting, but reframes players as expendable contractors working for profit-driven "mega corps" rather than soldiers defending a nation state. Its emergence reflects the enduring popularity of Helldivers 2, which remains hugely successful more than two years after launch, and suggests other studios are now looking to replicate its winning formula.

In Exterminauts, players take on contracts to harvest a resource called polymorphic plasma on a planet named Tian, where extraction has provoked the local wildlife into aggression; rather than halt operations, corporations send in disposable "exterminauts" to manage the fallout. A hands-on preview at Gamescom described frantic, "controlled chaos" combat featuring inventive weapons, including a black-hole-style grenade and an overchargeable energy weapon that can backfire if held too long. The game is confirmed for PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X, though no release date has yet been announced.