Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has released the biggest hit of 2024 (alongside Palworld), surpassing everyone's expectations with 12 million units sold in 12 weeks, which makes the game the fastest-selling Sony exclusive ever.
Now, the independent developer has made some changes to its leadership. CEO Johan Pilestedt has nominated Shams Jorjani in his former role so he can focus on game-making as Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of the company.
In an interview with GamesIndustry, Johan Pilestedt shared the ambitious goals of the Helldivers 2 team:
We feel there we have so much more to give, and so many more games we want to make. The ambition level and appetite of the organisation has grown significantly. We now have a taste of blood, and we want more. We pride ourselves on being an independent studio. We have to see what the future holds, but there’s nothing in the plans where we want to be acquired by somebody. I want to see how high we can fly. And bringing Shams on board, we have a good potential to realise that future of turning into the next From Software or Blizzard.
Lofty targets indeed, but Helldivers 2 certainly is a great platform to build upon. Of course, there are many ongoing issues with the live game, although Pilestedt is confident they will be ironed out.
This is something the organisation has seen before. We had the horrible launch of Magicka, which was really buggy, and me and Shams recognised that we had to interact with the community, talk to them in an honest way, and tell them what’s going on as much as we could. And then take action immediately to resolve the issues. So we’ve seen and been through it before, albeit at a much smaller scale. It is higher stakes this time.
When we look at the challenge ahead of us, we feel like Frodo and Sam going towards Mordor. The oblivious approach of ‘we’ll take one step at a time, and then we will solve the issues as they come’. The strength of Arrowhead is the camaraderie that we share amongst the team, and the desire to help each other. We know that whatever we’re going through, we’re there for each other and we will be able to take on any challenge, almost, and come out stronger on the other side.
For now, Helldivers 2 is so popular a recent rumor even suggested Sony might consider launching an Xbox port. We'll see if that pans out or not.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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