Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has a new CEO.
Today it was announced that Shams Jorjani – who was previously part of the team that published Arrowhead’s game Magicka – will take the leadership role at the company, replacing founder Johan Pilestedt.
Pilestedt will continue in a leadership role following this transition and will now serve as Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of Arrowhead.
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“We were both at a point where we were wondering what was next in our careers,” Jorjani told Eurogamer’s sister site GamesIndustry.biz today. “And we realized that we probably wouldn’t be able to achieve these goals if each other didn’t help us.”
Pilestedt added: “When it comes to the overall direction of the organization, I am still the chairman. So Shams and I will continue to have strategic conversations about how we will lead Arrowhead into the future.”
The pair compared themselves to Frodo and Sam from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy as they set off for Mordor. “The unbiased approach of ‘We’ll take it one step at a time and then solve the problems as they arise,'” Pilestedt said, adding that “Arrowhead’s strength is the camaraderie we share as a team and the desire to to help each other.”
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Elsewhere in the conversation, the duo also touched on possible acquisitions following the huge success of Helldivers 2. For now, the plan is for Arrowhead to remain an independent studio. “I want to see how high we can fly. And if we bring Shams on board, we have good potential to realize the future and develop into the next From Software or Blizzard,” said Pilestedt.
While the team’s focus remains on Helldivers 2 for now, Arrowhead is also looking to the future and what might come next.
“We feel like we have so much more to offer and want to make so many more games,” shared Pilestedt. “The organization’s ambition and appetite have grown significantly. We have now tasted blood and want more.”
Jorjani added that Arrowhead’s goal is to “make really great co-op games” and ultimately turn the company into a “flagship studio where people who want to make games like that say, ‘I want to be at.’ Arrowhead work’.” “.
The newly appointed CEO explained that this does not mean that the studio will suddenly employ more than 500 people. “We will see growth, but growth as a means to an end, not an end in itself,” he said. “We have no plans to go public. None of these gimmicks. Moderate growth that allows us to make fantastic games and be a good place to work.”
“We are not in this business for money reasons. “Humility and the desire to simply make great games is the only reason we exist,” concluded Pilestedt.
Elsewhere in Arrowhead news, the Helldivers 2 team is considering a “slightly lower” update frequency after a busy first few months.
“We would like to take a little more time for this and possibly future patches,” Helldivers 2 Community Manager Twinbeard explained on Discord. “We feel the cadence was probably a little too high to maintain the standard of quality that we want and that you deserve.”
This follows Pilestedt’s previous admission that Helldivers 2’s balancing sometimes “went too far.”