“We want to be the next Blizzard or From Software”: things are changing for the studio behind Helldivers 2

Game news “We want to be the next Blizzard or From Software”: things are changing for the studio behind Helldivers 2

See Helldivers II on Amazon

Helldivers 2 developers want to take Blizzard’s place

At the start of 2024, developers from Arrowhead Game Studios surprised everyone by coming out Helldiverse II. Although it had been presented several times during a few State of Play, no one really expected the arrival of this cooperative game… until the moment of its release. From then on, Helldivers II continued to break all records to sell no less than 12 million copies in just three monthsmaking him the best start to a game published by Sony ahead of juggernauts like God of War, Spider-Man or Uncharted.

Several months after the eventful release of the game and a few weeks after the studio’s first controversies, the former CEO Johan Pilestedt and the new CEO Shams Jorjani decided to take stock of their ambitions by granting an interview to the site Gamesindustry.biz. In the latter, we can learn that the developers at Arrowhead still have dreams to accomplish, and not the least:

We feel like we have a lot more to give, and we want to make a lot more games. Our level of ambition and appetite has skyrocketed. We have fangs, and we want more. – Johan Pilestedt, creative director of Arrowhead

If you were wondering if Arrowhead Game Studios ever planned to move on to other games, you now have the answer. Of course, this future should still be a little distant, even if the thinking heads of the studio already have their eyes turned towards the future. But if there’s one thing that comes through in this interview, it’s that Pilestedt and Jorjani aim to take the place that Blizzard occupied some time ago (and that From Software occupies at its level today):

The studio’s goal is to make great cooperative games. We really want to make Arrowhead a flagship studio where people who want to make these kinds of games would say, “I want to work at Arrowhead.” Growing up we really wanted to work at Blizzard, it was one of our dream companies. I think Arrowhead has the potential to be one too. – Shams Jorjani, CEO of Arrowhead

Be careful, the most pessimistic can be reassured: Arrowhead does not want to become as major a player as Blizzard can be today. Their ambitions are high, but are also clear: they are aiming for the Blizzard of yesteryear, the one that was widely adored by players and the industry in general:

We are proud to be an independent studio. We will see what tomorrow brings, but we do not intend to be bought by anyone. I want to see how far we can fly. And by adding Shams to the team, we have real potential to realize this future where we will be the next From Software or Blizzard. – Johan Pilestedt

With your head on your shoulders and your gaze towards the stars

You would have understood it, Arrowhead Game Studios intends to move up a gear to become a flagship studio in the industry. Their models are both excellent and difficult to achieve, but everyone seems to believe that they know exactly how to achieve it. According to them, the key to becoming as popular as Blizzard has been in the past is to take the time to chat with the players and never underestimate them. A strategy that they have already implemented several times since the release of Helldivers II, despite the problems they had to overcome:

We already have experience on this subject. Magicka’s launch was disastrous, the game was full of bugs, and Shams and I immediately realized that we needed to engage with the community, talk to them honestly, and tell them what’s going on as soon as possible. And then we must act immediately to resolve the problems. We have experienced these kinds of problems before, although it was on a much smaller scale. The stakes are higher this time. – Johan Pilestedt

In addition to wanting to keep this constant interaction with the players, the thinking heads at Arrowhead seem to have understood that a good game could only be made in a healthy environment. A detail which precisely marked the decline of large companies once adored by the public such as Ubisoft, Blizzard or Riot Games to name a few.

Arrowhead’s strength is the camaraderie that we share within the team, and the desire to help each other. – Johan Pilestedt

Speaking of their ambitions to become the next Blizzard or From Software, Shams Jorjani wanted to make a real difference:

This doesn’t mean we have to become a company with 500 employees. Moreover, this type of business is often difficult to manage for many reasons. We will see some growth, but growth as a means to an end, not an end in itself. We don’t want to go public or anything like that. We want measured growth that allows us to make great games while remaining a great place to work. – Shams Jorjani

Finally, regarding the continuation of the studio and the future projects to come, the two men at the head of Arrowhead also seem to know precisely where to turn:

We are not in this industry for pure profit. Our only reason for existing lies in our humility and our desire to make good games. – Johan Pilestedt

Arrowhead’s philosophy has always been “a game for everyone is a game for no one”. This is the slogan of our studio. This is how our games are made. You can feel it in every decision we make. I think this is one of the major reasons for the success of Helldivers II. He looks original because he does a lot of unpopular things. – Shams Jorjani

If Helldivers II already had everything to prove that Arrowhead was a studio that had its players in its heart, this interview seems to confirm it. With such a relevant analysis of the industry and the things that need to be done to reach the public, the future seems clear for this studio. They may not make as many games as Ubisoft or games as big as Blizzard’s, but everything seems to indicate that the quality will still be there at Arrowhead Game Studios.