Arrowhead Like Blizzard or Fromsoftware? Helldivers 2 Devs Want to Be a Flagship Studio
The developers of Helldivers 2 aren't thinking about the stock market or artificially expanding the studio. Nevertheless, the Arrowhead team dreams of becoming a flagship studio on par with Blizzard or FromSoftware.
The changes at the Arrowhead studio are intended to help the former CEO be closer to the team developing the studio's biggest hit. However, the new and old heads and the entire company also have other ambitions: devs of Helldivers 2 want to become "the new FromSoftware or Blizzard."
Arrowhead wants to be the new Blizzard
Johan Pilestedt said in an interview for GamesIndustry.biz that he has high hopes for Sham Jorjani, who will replace him as president of Arrowhead Game Studios. After the unexpected success of HD2, the studio's "appetite" has grown significantly and Pilestedt wants to see "how high" his team can fly.
He admitted that his and the first AGS employees' ambition was to work for Blizzard as the leading developer. Apart from the current situation of WoW developers, Pilestedt believes that Arrowhead can also become such a studio: developing not for "money", but out of the desire to deliver great games.
For the same reason, the new CEO doesn't envisage artificial expansion of the studio. Any expansion of the team is meant to serve the devs, not the other way around. Such statements are probably not surprising in light of the massive layoffs in the industry over the past year.
No to stock exchange and takeover
The new CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios aims to steer clear of the "toxic" practices that have plagued the gaming industry in recent years, somewhat contradicting these ambitions (and the studio's current situation). This involves, among other things, the issue of "growth", which - as claimed by other developers - is one of the main reasons for the mass "restructuring" this year, resulting in thousands of developers losing their jobs.
However, Jorjani also stressed that Arrowhead intends to stay as an "independent" studio. It might seem a bit surprising, as AGS currently releases its games under Sony's umbrella, even though the team isn't formally part of PlayStation Studios.
Pilestedt also mentioned that the Arrowhead Game Studios team has no plans to go public. According to the Swede, this is a bad idea that has never benefited any developer. We've been aware for a while that Pilestedt is unwilling to sell his studio to another company.
