Johan Pilestedt is taking a sabbatical from Helldivers 2 after working ‘around the clock’ for 11 years, will move on to ‘the next Arrowhead game’ when he returns

morgan.park@futurenet.com (Morgan Park)
2025-01-27 21:58:00
www.pcgamer.com

Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt is taking a break. The chief creative officer, who has been the face of Helldivers 2 through the ups and downs of its first year, will be on a sabbatical from the studio for “a while,” and when he returns, he’ll be working on a different game.

“I know a lot of you are going to think ‘por qué?’ Pilestedt posted on X earlier today. “Well, while you have enjoyed Helldivers 2 for almost a year, I have been living it since early 2016, and with Helldivers [overall]—its since 2013.”

Helldivers 2’s lengthy development might surprise some fans—the Sony-backed co-op shooter was not on the radar of most PC gamers before its release in February 2025, but the story of Helldivers dates back to the 2015 original, a top-down shooter made at a much smaller scale. Arrowhead spent years adapting the first game’s core loop—stratagems, bugs, bots, the interactive galactic war—to a grandiose third-person shooter.

“11 years of working ‘around the clock’ on the same IP has made me set aside family, friends and my lovely wife… and myself,” Pilestedt continued. “I am going to take some time now to redeem what was lost from all of those that supported me for over a decade.

“I am sure my friends at Arrowhead will do their utmost in the meantime to deliver amazing stuff to Helldivers 2.”

Back in May 2024, during a stretch of unpopular balance updates and the PSN sign-in fiasco, Pilestedt stepped aside from his CEO role at Arrowhead to focus completely on “games and the community.” In the weeks after Helldivers 2’s surprise Omens of Tyranny update in December, the chief creative officer has been talking about what comes next. Now, it’s official.

“When I’m back, I will start working on the next Arrowhead game.”

His first order of business as a man on sabbatical? Participating in a game jam with Arrowhead devs and founders. Does Johan know what “not working” means?

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