How Arrowhead Revitalized the Success of Helldivers 2

Arrowhead’s CEO, Shams Jorjani, recently shed light on how the studio adapted to a surge of new fans following the smashing success of Helldivers 2.

In a conversation with The Games Business, Jorjani emphasized that the company never aimed to create a game that would appeal to everyone, knowing that trying to please everyone often results in appealing to no one. Helldivers 2 was designed with a specific audience in mind. However, when the game attracted millions of players after its launch, it prompted Arrowhead to rethink its development strategies.

“We didn’t start off intending to design Helldivers for a broad audience,” Jorjani remarked.

“But when you create an uncompromising experience for a specific group, it can end up having a wider appeal. We’ve witnessed this in the gaming world before. Take FromSoftware, which stuck to making brutally challenging games while others focused on easier gameplay, and now there’s a whole genre inspired by that style.”

Jorjani illustrated this point by noting, “We didn’t make Helldivers for six million Call of Duty fans. That wasn’t the target. Yet, six million Call of Duty players ended up buying our game. Their interests are quite different from those of gamers who come from titles like Escape From Tarkov or Arma, which heavily influenced us.”

He added, “The period we called ‘the summer of pain’ was challenging. It was tough balancing the core principles of our studio with the business reality of managing feedback from such a diverse audience.”