Changes are on the horizon for the studio behind one of this year’s biggest surprises, Helldivers 2. Arrowhead’s game managed to dethrone the notable God of War with a peak of 155,926 concurrent players at launch, setting a new record for PlayStation.
Looking towards the future, Arrowhead announced today in an interview with gamesindustry.biz some changes as well as their ambitions. The interview revealed that the new CEO of the studio will be Shams Jorjani, while Johan Pilestedt, the current CEO, will take on the role of Creative Director for Helldivers 2.
Pilestedt mentioned that the tremendous success of Helldivers 2 led him to reflect on the direction of his career, choosing between managing the company or continuing with creative work. He ultimately chose the latter, appointing a new CEO and opting to focus on developing the studio’s future games.
The ambition to become the next FromSoftware or Blizzard
Pilestedt also used this media appearance to share his ambitions for the company. He indicated that an acquisition by an external company is not being considered, expressing a desire to see his studio achieve international fame akin to that of major studios like FromSoftware or Blizzard.
For his part, Jorjani, the new CEO, stated: “The studio’s goal is to make very good cooperative games. We truly want to make Arrowhead a leading studio, where people who want to create such games think: ‘I want to work at Arrowhead.’ When we were young, we really wanted to work at Blizzard; it was one of the best places to work, and I think Arrowhead has the potential to be that.” Ambitious statements from the new leader of the studio.
Lastly, the studio mentioned that updates for Helldivers will continue to roll out to satisfy all players who are still putting the servers to the test while supporting the current development teams with fresh talent.