It’s been a long journey for developerArrowhead Game Studios, the creators of the highly successfulHelldivers 2. Just under a year ago, they hit their first massive roadblock, asforcing PCplayersto sign in with a PlayStation network login led to a mass strike on their user score.
And then, just a few months later, at the cusp of theEscalation Of Freedom Update,Helldivers 2 players once again reunited to review bomb the game, but this time to criticizenerfs and changesmade during the latest update.
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But, since then, Arrowhead has been able to regather strength, slowly but meaningfully adding changes and updates toimprove the game, bringingHelldivers 2into the consistent state it currently rests in.
Arrowhead’s current CEO, Shams Jorjani, who replaced Johan Pilestedt in May of 2024,explained to thegamebusinessthe company’s journey from a 19 percent user score to a high 94 in a recent interview.
Despite the fact that “games that get 19 percent user score do not generally recover,” Arrowhead has had the shocking ability to take control of its own fate.
One important part of theHelldivers 2saga to remember is that the community ofHelldivers 2 has grownunlike any other. Jorjani explains, “When you’ve made a game that trains the community to gather around community goals, they were very good at showing their pleasure and displeasure.”
Helldivers 2’s ability to come together as a community, for right or wrong, is exactly what allowed the studio to go from one extreme user score to the other.But amidst all of this chaos, Arrowhead has always been able to remain focused onthe primary goalof improving their game.
As Jorjani describes, when the game reached the lowest 19 percent user score, the company was actually on summer vacation. An odd decision for a live-service company, but according to Jorjani, in Sweden, “we take our summer vacations very seriously.”
I was very inspired by No Man’s Sky and the team over there that had a similar kind of journey: very hyped, then bombed, and then they put their head to the grindstone and just updated the game.
Despite this, the company persisted. Jorjani’s striking comparison toNo Man’s Sky, a game that similarly lost the hearts of fans beforevaliantly gaining them back, shows exactly the type of journey they’ve had to endure within the last year.
Helldivers 2 Amidst A Shaken Industry
One interesting facet of Arrowhead Studios is that, despite thewidespread successof their recent title, reaching heights never seen before, the company hasn’t decided to undergo any massive growth, largely remaining at its smaller size.
Shams Jorjani, who is significantly involved in the company’s management and structure, states,“frommy history, I know what happens when there is uncontrolled, very rapid growth. It can lead to disastrous effects.”
Ultimately, he mirrors how this is exactly what’s going on elsewhere in the industry: wide success leading to massive growth, which then, due to mismanagement, leads to many ofthe massive layoffswe’ve seen within the last few years.
Most importantly,Jorjani explains, “it’s not the people at the top who are losing their jobs.”In reality, “because of bad growth decisions by business leaders,” many other people unintentionally get hit the worst.
Additionally, Jorjani clarifies how there were specific “business realities of having so many voices screaming at us.”Helldivers 2, as a live service title, attracted gamers of wide varieties, fromCall Of Duty, toEscape From Tarkov.
Despite the game’s core fantasy of blowing up monsters with massive guns,they possibly “ended up balancing the game in a way where the core fantasy died” to fit this wide range of gamers.
But, since then, they’ve been on an upward journey, learning from their mistakes andrecapturing this lost fantasyofHelldivers 2, andthe last few months ofHelldivers 2have likely been some of the strongest yet.
If you’re interested in more stories from the current Arrowhead CEO, such as whenHelldiversplayers came together to save an entire planet of sick children, we highly recommend checking out thefull interview.
Helldivers 2
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