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[ArtHands]

Arrowhead Games: "We want to be the next From Software or Blizzard"

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead on the success of its game, what comes next and dealing with toxic players

www.gamesindustry.biz

"We pride ourselves on being an independent studio," Pilestedt says. "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."


Jorjani adds: "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’. 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.

 

[Arsic]

…

 

[LakeOf9]

Those are two wildly different companies to aspire to

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

 

[Tomi]

We hope too

You made a hella good game, and we cant w8 to see updates.
Helldivers 3 will be great gsme for sure!

 

[struggler_guts]

 

[LakeOf9]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

Sony owned Demons Souls, didn’t really stop FromSoft

 

[GrayChild]

Good luck. You're gonna need it. Like, a LOT!

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Sony owned Demons Souls, didn’t really stop FromSoft

Took them like 15 years to get where they are with many publishers along the way, it’s a long road and not guaranteed

 

[Gaiff]

So they want to be Isaac Newton or Bozo the Clown? Big difference between the two.

 

[STARSBarry]

So lots of changes today for arrowhead.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead names Shams Jorjani as its new CEO

Arrowhead Games Studios has named Shams Jorjani as its new CEO, replacing company founder Johan Pilestedt in the role.P…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Guess that explains why the old CEO stepped down to a more hands on position within the studio.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

maybe that’s why he mentioned FromSoft. Sony owns the Demon Souls IP so they made Dark Souls.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

That sounds good.

Hopefully they are able to dissect their success and recreate on consistent basis.

Palworld devs should’ve acted like this, instead they went back to their hole. Typical Japanese dev behaviour.

 

[SlimySnake]

But blizzard merged into Activision then sold to Microsoft.

That said, they shouldve made enough money to last at least 30 years. Game sold 12 million at $40 so $480 million. 30% steam and PSN cut gets them around $340 million. a small studio like them should be able to make 10 $30 million games like helldivers 2.

 

[Mownoc]

 

[BennyBlanco]

But blizzard merged into Activision then sold to Microsoft.

That said, they shouldve made enough money to last at least 30 years. Game sold 12 million at $40 so $480 million. 30% steam and PSN cut gets them around $340 million. a small studio like them should be able to make 10 $30 million games like helldivers 2.

Gonna be interesting to see how Arrowhead and the Palworld devs use all that cash.

 

[FUBARx89]

Can't speak for Blizzard, but no chance of being like Fromsoft, well unless you count them nerfing everything into the ground to make it "difficult"

 

[Holammer]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

They'll make enough money to fund their own games after HD2. Plus they got some extra clout dealing with investors for future projects with a massive hit under their belt.
Hell, just like From Software they developed the tech that'll run "Dark Divers".

Coming 2028 for PC, Playstation, Xbox & Mega Nintendo.

 

[Pimpollo818]

Those are two wildly different companies to aspire to

FACTS

 

[midnightAI]

....
Good to have aspirations though so you gotta applaud them for that

 

[Mr Moose]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

If they can be the next Insomniac I would be happy.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

They'll make enough money to fund their own games after HD2.

Not even FromSoft has made enough to fund their own games

 

[rhodesianshepard]

Keep Arrowhead hungry to be the best they can be. Acquisitions can be good in certain instances, but you never know what will happen when the execs at a studio get a massive money bag once acquired. A lot of the time it is not the same company, especially when many of the studios founders end up leaving. This is good for the industry, and Arrowhead has every reason to improve upon Helldivers for years to come

 

[DonF]

made a good shooty shooty and wants to be fromsoft...ok

 

[Spyxos]

You have just released 1 good game. Which is still extremely buggy. And you already want to compare yourself to Blizzard and From... that's silly.

 

[Mokus]

They can try, why not... But Blizzard Entertainment is not anymore what once was and From Software after 20 years of mediocre existence needed pure luck with Miyazaki to try his best on a somewhat considered failed project, Demon's Souls.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

It’s one of Sonys most successful game releases ever. I think they will be fine

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Sony owned Demons Souls, didn’t really stop FromSoft

Flamedivers incoming?

 

[Draugoth]

Are they stuck in 2010? Lol at wanting to be like Blizzard

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Trust me, you don't want to be the next Blizzard, they are fucking trash these days.

From Software?

From Software are in a league of their own in my opinion.

 

[Klayzer]

Man, just keep your head down and put out the hits. Arrowhead dev seems to talk to much.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

Multiplayer developers aren't nearly as reliant on IP. Helldivers 2 didn't take off because people cared about the name.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Multiplayer developers aren't nearly as reliant on IP. Helldivers 2 didn't take off because people cared about the name.

tell that to all the CoD clones that failed

Once it gets big people don’t care about who develops it

CoD is made by tons of studios so clearly infinity ward and its founders weren’t necessary to maintain success

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Why not just be Arrowhead?

 

[Hudo]

Then they need to deliver good, memorable singleplayer content. Otherwise they are nothing more than some live-service dev.

 

[Lunarorbit]

More power to them. Great energy from this group

 

[Shubh_C63]

Blizzard like the old times, From Software like the new times

Blizzard makes crap games now, From used to underwhelming games before

 

[Holammer]

You have just released 1 good game. Which is still extremely buggy. And you already want to compare yourself to Blizzard and From... that's silly.

Let's be 100% fair here, we're not talking about a new kid on the block as Arrowhead has been around since 2008. Magicka was a pretty decent hit for its time and their take on Gauntlet was alright.

They could make a new Magicka with the current engine and it would sell. Lyrics on this old DLC trailer cracks me up every time.

 

[SJRB]

It's nice to want things.

 

[Spyxos]

Let's be 100% fair here, we're not talking about a new kid on the block as Arrowhead has been around since 2008. Magicka was a pretty decent hit for its time and their take on Gauntlet was alright.

They could make a new Magicka with the current engine and it would sell. Lyrics on this old DLC trailer cracks me up every time.

Hmm, I didn't know that Magica was from them. However, I've never played Magica for more than 30 minutes.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

They have the „shitty co op experience“ down already.

 

[squidilix]

I hope they don't bite the hand that feeds them

 

[March Climber]

Based on the responses, I’m wondering if I should save this thread for the off-chance that they make 2 more back to back best selling games.

There’s a lot of potential for crow to be served.

 

[The Stig]

I mean, there is such thing as too much ambition.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Good luck when Sony owns your IP

Given how much of a runaway success Helldivers 2 is, there's no reality where Arrowhead isn't in the dominant negotiating position to determine the IP ownership terms of their next game with Sony.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Given how much of a runaway success Helldivers 2 is, there's no reality where Arrowhead isn't in the dominant negotiating position to determine the IP ownership terms of their next game with Sony.

Their next game is Helldivers 3

If it’s not, Sony will get someone else to make it

 

[Griffon]

Who doesn't?

 

[schaft0620]

I like this because it says two things,

1. We were not acquired by Sony, there is no pending announcement. We are not going to be acquired by Sony.
2. They are working on another game that is not Helldivers 3 but, they plan to make a Helldivers 3.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

tell that to all the CoD clones that failed

Once it gets big people don’t care about who develops it

CoD is made by tons of studios so clearly infinity ward and its founders weren’t necessary to maintain success

Multiplayer generally doesn't work this way. A Purgatory Droppers that improves on Helldivers 2 would do just as well if released 5 years from now. Multiplayer is a gameplay oriented medium.