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CEO of Arrowhead on Helldivers 2: "We are around a million right now"

nial

nial

Member

In response to a Twitter user comparing Helldivers 2's sales performance to Palworld's 12M milestone, @Pilestedt, CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios AB, said the following:
Well... We are around a million right now, but yes. The gap is still very large.
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So, semi-confirmed milestone for the game! Great success story for Arrowhead so far.
Edit:
50:50 between PS5 and Steam.
 
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Rac3r

Rac3r

Member
vaibhavpisal said:
Weird way to announce a sales milestone. Should have been a tweet from PR.
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Probably means nothing, but I noticed the official PlayStation instagram page hasn't even posted about the game in the last week. The PR for this title has strange (even leading up to release), but luckily the game is speaking for itself.

Edit: Actually just saw a PlayStation sponsored ad for it on IG, but I guess it doesn't appear on their official page.
 
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Perrott

Perrott

Member
DannyDanger said:
Doesn't stop PR from putting something out too. NBD
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They're probably waiting for launch weekend to be over so they can come up with a sales milestone relative to that period of time: "We're pleased to announce that Helldivers II has sold over a million copies through its launch week."

Also, the director gave confirmation of exactly how long the game has been in development (almost 8 years, beginning on February 15th or 16th of 2016):

 
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Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Perrott said:
They're probably waiting for launch weekend to be over so they can come up with a sales milestone relative to that period of time: "We're pleased to announce that Helldivers II has sold over a million copies through its launch week."

Also, the director gave confirmation of exactly how long the game has been in development (almost 8 years, beginning on February 15th or 16th of 2016):

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Is he saying they spent 8 years working on Helldivers 2? That sounds like a lot…
 
Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
TheDarkPhantom said:
I'll say it again: buy them SONY! They've proven themselves twice now, if you want to expand your multiplayer offerings these are the kind of devs you want, you *grossly* overpaid for Bungie who haven't done jack shit since, (hopefully Marathon delivers).
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I think they will.

There is a slight chance that the recent Xbox news may change Sony's plans, but I still think they will buy Arrowhead.
 
TheDarkPhantom

TheDarkPhantom

Member
Gaiff said:
Why do we want Sony or Microsoft gobbling up every studio?
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Oh we DEFINITELY don't want MS buying any studios, God forbid they make any more acquisitions. As for SONY they've proven time and again they deliver the goods, they give their teams a long leash to explore creatively, the first Helldivers was a PlayStation exclusive, this is too, the shoe fits and it's in line with PlayStation's plans to grow the MP side of the business, not hard to figure out really.
 
Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
TheDarkPhantom said:
Oh we DEFINITELY don't want MS buying any studios, God forbid they make any more acquisitions. As for SONY they've proven time and again they deliver the goods, they give their teams a long leash to explore creatively, the first Helldivers was a PlayStation exclusive, this is too, the shoe fits and it's in line with PlayStation's plans to grow the MP side of the business, not hard to figure out really.
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Better they stay the way they are. Only fanboys root for those big companies to buy developers.
 
Varteras

Varteras

Member
Heisenberg007 said:
I think they will.

There is a slight chance that the recent Xbox news may change Sony's plans, but I still think they will buy Arrowhead.
Click to expand...

I was discussing this with a friend the other day. I don't think Sony's plans will change much, if at all, when it comes to expansion. Regardless of what happens with Xbox, Sony likely has their eye on a few things.

For one, they want more IP to fuel their transmedia ambitions. After the success they've had so far, they're probably even more emboldened to pursue that.

Another is future proofing their gaming business. They may be incredibly strong in the console space right now, but that may not be enough in the future to maintain much strength in the industry overall.

Sony likely wants to have a very strong first party so that they're not only NOT at the mercy of third parties and whatever may happen with them, but a possible future where console hardware just doesn't matter and they need to compete on other platforms they don't control.

Better to work on that now than after the fact. What that looks like, I have no idea. But certainly this little surprising success story of a multiplayer game, coupled with the previous entry being solid, if overlooked, has them looking at Arrowhead as a possible acquisition before someone else takes a shot.
 
Ronin_7

Ronin_7

Member
Varteras said:
I was discussing this with a friend the other day. I don't think Sony's plans will change much, if at all, when it comes to expansion. Regardless of what happens with Xbox, Sony likely has their eye on a few things.

For one, they want more IP to fuel their transmedia ambitions. After the success they've had so far, they're probably even more emboldened to pursue that.

Another is future proofing their gaming business. They may be incredibly strong in the console space right now, but that may not be enough in the future to maintain much strength in the industry overall.

Sony likely wants to have a very strong first party so that they're not only NOT at the mercy of third parties and whatever may happen with them, but a possible future where console hardware just doesn't matter and they need to compete on other platforms they don't control.

Better to work on that now than after the fact. What that looks like, I have no idea. But certainly this little surprising success story of a multiplayer game, coupled with the previous entry being solid, if overlooked, has them looking at Arrowhead as a possible acquisition before someone else takes a shot.
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It's highly unlikely gaming moves into Streaming services, even if it does there's very few 3rd parties capable of building one.

PlayStation already has PlayStation Cloud.

With that said, that future ain't happening, people won't leave Steam or PlayStation or even Nintendo after building such huge libraries. Even Xbox will retain their many tens of millions of users.
 
Varteras

Varteras

Member
Ronin_7 said:
It's highly unlikely gaming moves into Streaming services, even if it does there's very few 3rd parties capable of building one.

PlayStation already has PlayStation Cloud.

With that said, that future ain't happening, people won't leave Steam or PlayStation or even Nintendo after building such huge libraries. Even Xbox will retain their many tens of millions of users.
Click to expand...

Who knows what the future holds. But if I'm a betting man, Sony isn't backing down on their ambitions even if Xbox goes third party.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
vaibhavpisal said:
Weird way to announce a sales milestone. Should have been a tweet from PR.
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To make a on offiial sales announcement via Twitter needs several approvals, some art, etc. It takes time. The game director may have breached an NDA for sharing sales data or CCU btw.

Heisenberg007 said:
There is a slight chance that the recent Xbox news may change Sony's plans, but I still think they will buy Arrowhead.
Click to expand...
Sony's current strategy is super successful, more than any previous one for them or any other console maker. They are performing better than ever and are growing in basically all areas, meaning they'll continue growing. There are no reasons to change their strategy.

MS publishing their games on PS or not shouldn't meaningfully change Sony's plans. Activision Blizzard (and now MS) are their top 3rd party publisher, but still represent a very small part of the PS softare sales and revenue.
 
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Kenneth Haight

Kenneth Haight

Gold Member
I would say Arrowhead were a target for purchase before this and now this only solidifies that the 2nd party partnership is strong and they will maybe willing to go first party if the money is right.

It would be a great get for Sony, Helldivers 2 is so much fun and that’s from someone who hasn’t played a multiplayer game in many years. Just straight up chaotic fun, very happy to support it and the launch day issues are seemingly ironed out. Found a quick match game in no time last night.
 
ahtlas7

ahtlas7

Member
I love that gamers are getting games they want! It’s a win for the developers and gamers.
I Feel You Chris GIF by NETFLIX
 
Bojanglez

Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
March Climber said:
The marketing budget must be low. The best sony did was throw them a bone and feature them on two State of Play showcases.

They still managed to survive and thrive regardless.
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I think Sony's strategy with this is part of their ongoing experiments they seem to be doing with PC releases. It's almost as if they are getting out of the way of the game because they want it to stand on its own merits, almost like they're unsure if their name/brand would be detrimental in the PC space for a game like this. I have the PS5 version and even on that I don't think there is are any PS logos on start up. Also even though that this could have been a chance to see if they could get PC users using PSN accounts, they wisely sidestepped that temptation.

In the background they clearly flexed their muscles though with ensuring the game was spread to trusted channels for considered previews, and obviously made sure the PS audience were aware of it via State of Play exposure.

I think now it's successful they will start to own it, and hopefully they allow Arrowhead to support it for a long term, they've done a great job at launch responding to issues swiftly.
 
Perrott

Perrott

Member
March Climber said:
The marketing budget must be low. The best sony did was throw them a bone and feature them on two State of Play showcases.

They still managed to survive and thrive regardless.
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Uhhh... what?

Helldivers II was:
  • Announced at the (at the time) long-awaited PlayStation Showcase 2023 as the second title shown during the event.
  • Featured in not only one but two State of Play events (September 2023 where a gameplay was shown and February 2024 with a launch trailer).
  • Advertised during The Game Awards 2023 ceremony.
And not to mention all the gameplay deep-dives and trailers that were released onto the PlayStation YouTube channel over the past few months.

This game was not sent to die by its publisher.
 
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Mr Moose

Mr Moose

Member
skit_data said:
You only see it on the first bootup or when a big patch launches.
Most, if not all, PS Studios games work this way.
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I'm surprised people didn't know about this, we've had it since launch.
www.neogaf.com

PS5 can automatically skip studio logos at boot after viewing them once

PS5 has a hidden secret feature that allows skipping logos after viewing them once when playing a game. It retains these settings even on a new save file. Lance Mcdonald, who is well-known in the Souls community with his mods for the various games in the Souls series, has finally received his...
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