Arrowhead's new CEO says that while he agrees some Helldivers 2 weapons aren't "as fun as they could be," he's joined the studio's old CEO in calling out threats made to developers.
One week ago, it was announced that Johan Pilestedt, Arrowhead's CEO, would be stepping down and transitioning to a COO role, to focus primarily on actually making Helldivers 2. At the same time, the departing Pilestedt agreed with players that guns were too weak, armor was too boring, and planets were too repetitive, in a pretty frank admission from a lead developer.
Now it's the turn of Shams Jorjani, Arrowhead's new CEO, to speak on Helldivers 2. In a very lengthy Reddit post, Jorjani penned a broad message to the community, writing that the "the ship will stay on the same course, despite the change in captain" - the ship being Arrowhead Game Studios itself, in this case.
- After an eventful year, Helldivers 2 devs hope "it will be less of a bumpy road when it comes to release accuracy" - but Arrowhead is still "prepared to take risks"
- Despite shifting gear to Arrowhead's next game after a sabbatical, studio CEO clarifies that Helldivers 2 creative lead Johan Pilestedt will "absolutely still be involved"
"I've charged Pilen with being the Obi-wan to many 'Lukes' in our studio. If everyone can hear Pilen's sage voice in the back of their heads when they're balancing weapons, designing missions or enemies the better," Jorjani adds, referencing Pilestedt with a nickname. Jorjani adds that this doesn't mean Pilestedt is always right, but it's good to keep everyone on their toes.
Jorjani also hopes players won't send death threats to Arrowhead over Helldivers 2, since this would only result in less communication (something that Jorjani and Pilestedt enjoy) between Arrowhead staff and players themselves. "That leads to a negative spiral with less interaction and more frustration," the new CEO writes, adding that players are obviously still free to criticize elements of Helldivers 2 that they don't like.
One comment under the post attempts to call Jorjani out for not addressing the ongoing weapon balance in Helldivers 2. This has been an incredibly hot topic of debate lately, and likely where a lot of the death threats that Jorjani references in his original message come from. Players haven't been happy about weapon balancing in Helldivers 2, and the developers know it.
"We are aware," Jorjani writes about the balance complaints. "We don't think weapons are as fun as they could be. That said I don't think it's reasonable to threaten people over weapon inbalance," the CEO adds. The commenter agrees with this sentiment, and thanks Jorjani for responding to them.
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