Helldivers 2 Studio Compares Future Challenges To Frodo And Sam’s Journey To Mordor

Highlights

Helldivers 2 redefines multiplayer shooters, pushing comical war propaganda to new heights.
Arrowhead Studio faces controversy head-on, appoints new leadership to tackle challenges.
Pilestedt compares studio challenges to Frodo and Sam’s journey in Lord of the Rings, emphasizes team spirit.

Helldivers and its pioneering sequel broke the mold for multiplayer shooters and dialed the comical war propaganda up to breaking point – superseding even Fallout’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Dying alongside your fellow Helldivers facing Terminid and Automaton hordes in the fight for democracy has never been more thrilling, and players have the team spirit at Arrowhead Games to thank.

There’s no ignoring the recent controversy that the Helldivers 2 studio has fallen under, inevitably staining the sequel’s success streak. However, Arrowhead has welcomed a new CEO in Shams Jorjani, while studio founder Johan Pilestedt undertakes a chief creative officer and chairman role to focus on game development. In tandem with this restructuring, the company is carrying forward its core values and facing challenges with the same courage as the two Hobbits carried in The Lord of the Rings.

Helldivers 2’s Star Wars Success Resurfaces Demand For A Terminator Mod

Helldivers 2 players are already waving hasta la vista, baby to the Star Wars mod to make room for Terminator chat.

Arrowhead’s Pilestedt References Frodo And Sam’s Plight In Facing Future Helldivers 2 Challenges

GamesIndustry.biz interviewed Pilestedt to discuss Helldivers 2’s unexpected success and his hopes for the future. Ambitiously, Pilestedt believed Arrowhead had the potential to be the “next FromSoftware or Blizzard” and evolve into a flagship studio that makes “really great co-op games”.

When asked about Helldivers 2’s live service and balancing issues, Pilestedt recalled Magicka’s “horrible launch” and shared the studio’s turning point in the storm by interacting with the community and being transparent, saying “…me and Shams recognized that we had to interact with the community, talk to them in an honest way, and tell them what’s going on as much as we could. And then take action immediately to resolve the issues. So we’ve seen and been through it before, albeit at a much smaller scale. It is higher stakes this time.”

Helldivers 2 - character holding weapon, giving thumbs up

On the topic of challenges and how to prepare for battle, Pilestedt referenced a popular fantasy franchise as a comparison. “When we look at the challenge ahead of us, we feel like Frodo and Sam going towards Mordor. The oblivious approach of ‘we’ll take one step at a time, and then we will solve the issues as they come’.”

The Arrowhead chief also highlighted the studio’s team spirit as a core value, explaining “the strength of Arrowhead is the camaraderie that we share amongst the team, and the desire to help each other. We know that whatever we’re going through, we’re there for each other and we will be able to take on any challenge, almost, and come out stronger on the other side.”

It seems Arrowhead shares the same unity as the Fellowship of the Ring.

With Jorjani and Pilestedt at the helm, Arrowhead’s team can bulldoze through present and future obstacles and carve out another success like Helldivers 2 while maintaining the shooter’s banter.