Highlights

  • Johan Pilestedt has stepped down as CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios to focus on Helldivers 2, appointing Shams Jorjani as the new CEO.
  • Helldivers 2 exceeded expectations by selling 12 million copies in 12 weeks, leading to significant company growth.

Arrowhead Game Studios CEO and Helldivers 2 Director Johan Pilestedt has announced he is stepping down from his position to become the studio's Chief Creative Officer. Pilestedt hopes the move will allow him to focus more on Helldivers 2 and its community.

Since its launch in February, Helldivers 2 has performed exceedingly well. Sony recently confirmed that Arrowhead's third-person shooter reached 12 million copies sold in its first 12 weeks, making it Sony's fastest-selling PlayStation release ever. Naturally, this has led to significant growth at Arrowhead, straining Pilestedt's ability to dedicate time to his studio's biggest hit. It seems the former CEO chose to take this issue into his own hands.

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Pilestedt said on Twitter that Shams Jorjani has replaced him as Arrowhead's CEO. Jorjani spent 12 years at Paradox Interactive in various leadership roles, and also has experience working as chairman for an indie publisher and as an advisor for multiple game companies. Pilestedt explained that over the last year, he has been pulled more and more towards the business side of Arrowhead, reducing the time he has to help with the studio's creative efforts. Pilestedt believes that Jorjani's arrival will be good for Pilestedt himself, the company, and Helldivers 2's continued development, as his new CCO role allows him to dedicate all of his focus towards Arrowhead's newest game and its flourishing community.

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There are other new changes surrounding Arrowhead and its approach to Helldivers 2, as a community manager recently announced that Helldivers 2's developers plan to take more time than usual with the next update, a trend that could continue with future patches according to the manager. The update in question is expected to mostly focus on weapon balancing, an area that can prove to be quite finicky, especially in a shooter like Helldivers 2.

But it seems that Arrowhead has much more planned for Helldivers 2 than just balancing updates. A recent leak showcased one of the enemies from Helldivers 2's unreleased faction, the Illuminate. The faction appears to be a middle point between the more range-focused Automatons and the melee-focused Terminids, as the Illuminate apparently possess both ranged and melee capabilities.

It's still not known when Helldivers 2's Illuminate faction will be added, but it's possible that Pilestedt's move to CCO could help boost development efforts, not just for the Illuminate but for all future Arrowhead content. Arrowhead has made it clear that it views Helldivers 2 as a live-service title that will continue to receive updates for the foreseeable future.