Newly appointed CEO of Arrowhead Studios, the development company behind Helldivers 2, Shams Jorjani recently explained why the game is so successful.
A screenshot from Helldivers 2 (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
In an interview with Games Industry, Jorjani detailed, “Arrowhead’s philosophy has always been ‘a game for everyone is a game for no-one.’ That is the company slogan. It’s how our games are designed. You can feel it in every feature.”
He added, “I think it’s one of the big reasons that Helldivers 2 has been so successful. It feels fresh because it does a lot of unpopular stuff.”
A screenshot from Helldivers 2 (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
READ: Sony Backs Down On PlayStation Network Account Linking Being Required To Play ‘Helldivers 2’
Former CEO Johan Pilestedt, who continues to serve as the company’s Chairman, also shared his thoughts on why the game is so successful.
He said, “Depending on who you are, you’ll always point to different things [as to why it was successful]. If you’re a business exec at a major publisher, you’d say it is the live service element that keeps players coming back, and the cheaper price point. If you’re a game designer, you’ll point to the systematic nature of the game. If you’re an artist, you’ll talk about the day and night cycle, the destructible environments and the beautiful worlds. It’s the balance between all these elements.”
A screenshot from Helldivers 2 (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
Next, he revealed his thoughts, “But speaking personally, I would say it’s the fact that we’re doing something with Helldivers that is outside of the inflection point that the games industry is heading towards. What you’re seeing through these cycles in the industry is people taking inspiration from each other, and building upon that. But that means people are building towards a single point, because you lose something through each iteration.”
Pilestedt elaborated, “With Helldivers, we made the strong decision that we’re not going to go with the status quo. We’re going to place ourselves outside of that by making a lot of mechanics that are generally not seen in games. We have friendly fire on, always. I think people are surprised that we make games this way. They’re surprised that the responsibility to not blow up your friends is on you.”
A screenshot from Helldivers 2 (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
As far as the future of the company, it is currently focused on Helldivers 2 and continuing to provide updates for the game. However, Pilestedt has big ambitions, “We feel there we have so much more to give, and so many more games we want to make. The ambition level and appetite of the organisation has grown significantly. We now have a taste of blood, and we want more.”
And there are no plans for the company to sell or go public. “We pride ourselves on being an independent studio,” Pilestedt stated. “We have to see what the future holds, but there’s nothing in the plans where we want to be acquired by somebody. I want to see how high we can fly. And bringing Shams on board, we have a good potential to realise that future of turning into the next From Software or Blizzard.
A screenshot from Helldivers II (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
To that point, Jorjani wants the company to be the go-to studio for co-op games, “The goal of the studio is to make really great co-op games. We really want to turn Arrowhead into a flagship studio, where people who want to make these kind-of games say to themselves: ‘I want to work at Arrowhead’.”
He continued, “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.”
But while he wants the studio to be one of the go-to places to work, he does not want the company’s growth to get out of hand, “But that doesn’t mean we have to be a 500-person company. In fact, a 500-person company is quite painful in a lot of ways. We will see growth, but growth as a means to an ends, not as an end itself.”
He then reiterated Pilestedt’s comments about not going public, “We don’t have plans to go public. None of those shenanigans. Measured growth that allows us to make amazing game and be a good place to work.”
A screenshot from Helldivers 2 (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
Helldivers 2 has reportedly sold 12 million copies. The game had an all-time peak concurrent players of 458,709 back in February. The latest 24-hour peak concurrent players was 70,835. Since the peak in February, the game has steadily seen its peak concurrent player base decline albeit there was a brief peak back in April to 345,188 concurrent players.
Helldivers 2 concurrent players data via Steam DB
What do you make of these explanation for why Helldivers 2 is so successful?
