Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt has announced he has gone on sabbatical leave and, when he returns, will start work on developer Arrowhead’s next game.
In a tweet, Pilestedt said he’s spent 11 years working “around the clock” on the Helldivers intellectual property, starting with the first Helldivers game in 2013 and Helldivers 2 since early 2016.
“Eleven years of working around the clock on the same IP has made me set aside family, friends, and my lovely wife… and myself,” Pilestedt said. “I am going to take some time now to redeem what was lost from all of those that supported me for over a decade.
“I am sure my friends at Arrowhead will do their utmost in the meantime to deliver amazing stuff to Helldivers 2. When I’m back I will start working on the next Arrowhead game.”
Pilestedt was thrust into the headlines following Helldivers 2’s explosive launch in February 2024. Despite a raft of issues the cooperative shooter became PlayStation Studios’ fastest-selling game of all time, shifting 12 million copies in just 12 weeks. Helldivers 2 is so successful that Sony is turning it into a movie.
Pilestedt himself became the face of Helldivers 2, often wading into discussion about the game’s qualities and failings across social media, Reddit threads, and Discord. In May last year, Pilestedt revealed that Helldivers 2’s enormous success had caused a problem for the studio: more community toxicity than it had ever had to deal with before.
Prior to the release of Helldivers 2, Arrowhead had enjoyed big hits with the first Helldivers game and Magicka, but the success of Helldivers 2 raised the game and the studio’s profile. “The big difference now, which is horrifying, is the amount of threats and rude behavior that people in the studio are getting from some really shitty individuals within the community,” Pilestedt told G.biz. “That’s something new we have to deal with.”
When Helldivers 2 launched it faced significant server issues that made the game unplayable for many, sparking an initial backlash. Since then, Arrowhead has faced complaints about everything from weapon balance to low impact Premium Warbonds. But by far the biggest backlash was sparked by Sony’s controversial decision to force PC gamers to link to a PlayStation Network account to play. Sony eventually reversed its decision, but not before a review-bombing campaign savaged Helldivers 2 on Steam. Arrowhead community managers have said the PSN backlash caused staff to lose a week simply having to deal with the fallout.
Amid Helldivers 2’s success, Pilestedt changed his position from Arrowhead CEO to chief creative officer so he could focus more on the studio’s games as well as its community. Replacing Pilestedt as Arrowhead CEO was Shams Jorjani, former executive at fellow Swedish games company Paradox and publisher of Magicka.
There’s no word on Helldivers 2’s next game, but it seems likely we won’t see it for some time. Meanwhile, Arrowhead continues to update Helldivers 2, with the recent addition of third enemy faction the Illuminate breathing new life into the game.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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