Arrowhead CEO reassures Helldivers 2 players in the wake of Johan Pilestedt's sabbatical that if they can keep the game 'going for 10 years, we will'

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Helldiver's 2's former CEO, now CCO, made headlines earlier this week—including ours—by announcing he'd be on a sabbatical following years of hard work.

As for why that's a big deal, well, Pilestedt has been particularly vocal as far as creative leads and directors go, speaking directly to the people on game balance, review controversies, and early-day spats between developers and players. He's also been a bit of a scamp, leaning into the setting's appetite for propaganda by denying the existence of flying bugs and the like even as players get turned into democratic mincemeat by them.

"Johan is just on an extended vacation. He's never been on a proper vacation since the company was founded," Jorjani explains. "We get 6 weeks of vacation per year—most swedes take 4 weeks off in the summer. He's never done that. He's got like 65 days saved up or something. He's just beat."

In other words—he's just taking a bit of a holiday, and everybody can relax: "When he's back he'll keep being the grandfather and sounding board for Helldivers, and get going with a new project in due time."

As a matter of fact, Jorjani seems pretty insistent that—given the time, funding, and legacy—a third game might not even be necessary. When asked whether supporting Helldivers 2 would mean canning a Helldivers 3, Jorjani writes: "Compare Helldivers today to when it launched. It's so, so much more. Now imagine Helldivers in three years. Tell me how that's different from a hypothetical 'Helldivers 3'."

The man has a point, sort of—the leap from Helldivers to its sequel was mainly notable because of the perspective change, flipping from an isometric shooter to a third-person bombfest. There's really no other ways to shake things up that'd justify a sequel, in my opinion, other than some revolutionary leap in 4D technology so I can feel what it's like to get killed by my mate's laser drone in real life.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.