Helldivers 2 is an incredible game, but a rocky launch has made it slightly difficult to jump into the bug-bursting action. While many of the game’s server issues have already been ironed out, there are still a few problems that can make spreading democracy awkward. One of those issues is the “different game version” error message that stops you from inviting friends to your Helldivers 2 lobby – if you’re encountering this when trying to invite or join someone, here’s how to fix it.
One thing worth noting is that we encountered this bug while playing on PS5 and trying to invite a friend who plays on PC. While this may affect the solution, we believe that our fix should work both ways.
“Different game version” fix for Helldivers 2
If you’re on your ship and can’t invite a friend because they’re on a different game version, this appears to be a bug caused by crossplay. To solve the issue, we started a mission on PS5 instead of forming our party on the ship. Once the action was underway, our friend on PC was able to join without a hitch – and once they were in our lobby, the different game version message stopped appearing.
Before finding this fix, we also attempted to force restart the game on PS5 and check for updates (both done by pressing start on Helldivers 2 at the PS5 home screen). We also had the PC player verify their game cache on Steam, which is done by right-clicking Helldivers 2 in your library, going to properties, then installed files, and clicking “verify integrity of game files”).
Additionally, make sure you have crossplay enabled in the game settings before trying any of this – otherwise it still won’t work!
While we eventually found a fix for the different game version bug, it’s worth noting that it’s separate from the “failed to join lobby” error that we’ve listed fixes for here.