The success of Helldivers 2 is definitely something to marvel at, with the cooperative third-person shooter capturing the imaginations of PC and PlayStation 5 players alike, uniting every capable soldier in the neverending war against the Automatons and Terminids. Just like the ups and downs of war, developers Arrowhead Game Studios have also been in the trenches, celebrating their wins but also having to contend with the less-than-ideal nature of gaming.
In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, former CEO turned chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt shared that the team has been on the end of “horrifying” threats from some players, which is never nice to see. With so many people playing the game, the spotlight shines even brighter on the folks who work hard behind the scenes.
“The big difference now, which is horrifying, is the amount of threats and rude behaviour that people in the studio are getting from some really shitty individuals within the community,” Pilestedt said. “That’s something new we have to deal with.”
However, on the other hand, the success has also driven the team forward, with hopes that they could one day become “the next FromSoftware or Blizzard.”
That would mean making the big calls, and Arrowhead has had plenty of those situations in the past few months after release. Game balancing is always a delicate matter, but the controversy over the requirement of having PSN accounts on PC amounted to plenty of blowback and negative sentiment. The studio has taken things on the chin for the most part and is continuing to learn along the way.
New CEO Shams Jorjani points to Arrowhead’s motto, “A game for everyone is a game for no one,” as the double-edged sword that has brought the studio success and scrutiny. “I think it’s one of the big reasons that Helldivers 2 has been so successful,” Jorjani explained. “It feels fresh because it does a lot of unpopular stuff.
“When you hit this big, much bigger than anyone thought—Sony, us, everyone—what happens is the game finds an audience outside of that niche fan group. So you get this amplification of different voices.”
Talking to the community is always important, but the interactions go both ways, and as much as the studio would like to keep things positive, there is no controlling the outside voices when it comes to Helldivers 2 and beyond. That said, Pilestedt maintains that “the ambition level and appetite of the organisation has grown significantly.”
“I want to see how high we can fly,” Pilestedt said. “And bringing Shams on board, we have a good potential to realise that future of turning into the next FromSoftware or Blizzard.
“We really want to turn Arrowhead into a flagship studio, where people who want to make these kinds of games say to themselves, ‘I want to work at Arrowhead’,” Jorjani added. “When we were growing up, we really wanted to work at Blizzard, it was one of the bucket list places to work at. I think Arrowhead has the potential to be that.”
