Helldivers 2 PS5 PC

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Studios has revealed the hiring of a new CEO in Shams Jorjani so the former lead Johan Pilestedt — who you've probably seen on Twitter recently — can focus his efforts on game creation again. After the overwhelming success of the PS5, PC title, which currently sits on more than 12 million copies sold, Pilestedt says in a GamesIndustry.biz article that he's found himself "pulled more towards the business side of things".

As a result, he couldn't "focus as much on the creative side. That made me realise I needed to make some decisions, both for the success of the business but also myself." Following a lunch with new CEO Shams Jorjani, he explained he needed to follow his heart and take on the role of chief creative officer instead, allowing him to return to game development within Arrowhead Studios. "It’s not only right for me, but it’s also right for the organisation. Having a reluctant CEO is not something that will turn out that well, I think."

Shams Jorjani previous worked for Paradox Interactive, where he held a few different senior roles and helped bring titles like Crusader Kings III and Cities: Skyline to market. He said: "What I’ll be bringing to the table is organisation and leadership. What I did at Paradox, where I joined as the 23rd person and then helped grow the company into the behemoth it was… it was about organisation, leadership and business focus. It’s a lot of the, frankly, boring business administration stuff that is a necessary part of running a company, which is hard to do when you’re also juggling the chairman’s hat and the creative director’s hat and also being the one who is in the trenches doing a lot of the designing that Johan has been doing over the years."

Pilestedt also broke the news on Twitter, where he said he'll "spend MORE time with the team and 100% of my focus on the games and community". From new CEO Shams Jorjani, the thinking behind the change in leadership is this: "How do we enable Johan to make more Helldivers, and what I bring is a structure around that."

[source gamesindustry.biz]