Helldivers 2 flooded the internet with memes, turned millions of us into democracy-spreading fascists, and gave developer Arrowhead Game Studios the financial stability to “keep making the games that we want.”
That’s what game director Michael Eriksson says about the co-op phenomenon’s huge success, which the team didn’t think was even possible pre-launch, in an interview with GamesRadar+ ahead of the hefty Omens of Tyranny update. “It’s given us financial stability to keep going for many years, which is a really big privilege, and we’re all very happy about that,” Eriksson explains, “but it doesn’t feel that different in the studio.”
Despite presumably having way more money to work with – and keep people employed with – Eriksson says the developer’s attitude hasn’t really changed all that much because everyone’s focused on the same thing they’ve always been focused on. “Except for the financial stability, which we’re super happy about, it doesn’t feel that different,” he continues. “We’re just going to keep making the games that we want, that we think are the most fun.”
Production director Alex Bolle agrees that “it’s definitely putting us on a more stable horizon, especially in these times” – probably referring to this brutally volatile year in the industry, where a record number of developers have suffered from layoffs and just one flop, like fellow PlayStation shooter Concord, can kill an entire studio. “It feels good,” he goes on. “It feels good to see that we can look ahead a long time and keep the devs happy as well. That part is so valuable – to think ‘yeah, we’re gonna be able to keep doing what we want, making games’. That’s precious. I think, as a studio, it’s weird, it didn’t change much. We kept the same culture. If I would go back a year, I would still feel the same with the people I’m working with. We really kept the Arrowhead way.”
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