Main question in title. It sounded like the majority platform for the game is PC. What’s stopping the devs from just re-releasing the game on PC without Sony as the publisher? Can the devs just abandon ship and start fresh, but without Sony?
That is likely covered by the contracts they signed.
I mean, I know they likely have some ironclad contracts, but it probably wouldn’t cover AH’s “next” game, right? I’m realizing this is probably a silly question, but what recourse does AH have at this point? Did they just sign a contract giving away all rights to their game to the publisher?
That is how its generally done yes, especially when there is such a large power imbalance between the two parties (one being a multinational corporate giant and the other a mid sized studio with only average releases so far). Maybe they even signed a deal for hd3 with them in advance as well
Playstation most likely owns the IP. You should create an open source helldivers type game.
Helldivers is Sony IP, not Arrowhead IP, so no, Arrowhead can’t just release another game in the series without Sony’s involvement.