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ARROWHEAD CEO SAYS OVER-HIRING WOULD BE 'HORRIBLE' RESPONSE TO HELLDIVERS 2
SUCCESS

'The act of over-hiring to then do layoffs is a horrible practice and a bad
experience for employees.'

Chris Kerr

February 21, 2024

2 Min Read
Image via Arrowhead


Helldivers 2 creative director and CEO of developer Arrowhead Game Studios,
Johan Pilestedt, says the studio won't be making any knee-jerk decisions in
response to the title's meteoric launch success.

The title has sold around 1 million copies on PC and PlayStation 5 since landing
earlier this month and recently passed 450,000 concurrent players on Steam
(thanks, SteamDB).

That burgeoning player base has resulted in persistent matchmaking and login
issues, and seems to have drastically exceeded the studio's expectations. It
means some players have been stuck queuing around the proverbial block in a bid
to spread democracy, despite Arrowhead doing its best to distribute fixes.



Discussing how the studio has coped with that booming demand, Pilestedt said
Arrowhead's team of backend engineers has gone above and beyond to prevent the
entire experience from buckling completely.

"I want to do a massive shout-out to Arrowhead's backend engineers," he wrote on
X. "I mean, four people 5x-ing the max of what they designed for in one week,
and are now looking to go beyond. I don't think you understand what a massive
feat this is. It's like tuning a vespa to compete in F1."



He added that Sony is currently supporting the studio, but noted that
integrating additional developers into Arrowhead's workflow isn't an instant
fix. "The trick is that [bringing in new people] takes time away from our
engineers to onboard new ones—so it's a bit of a balancing act," he said.

Notably, Pilestedt said Arrowhead won't embark upon a hiring spree to address
launch issues that might ultimately turn out to be a short term problem. There's
no telling whether Helldivers 2 will sustain its current player count, and
Pilestedt believes that going on a huge recruitment drive right now would be
dangerous.




SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS FOR SHORT-TERM PROBLEMS

"The act of over-hiring to then do layoffs is a horrible practice and a bad
experience for employees," he explained. Use short term solutions for short term
problems, such as outsourcing, contractors or limited time agreements."

Pilestedt has been incredibly candid when interacting with fans on social media,
and earlier this week encouraged players experiencing FOMO (that is, the 'Fear
Of Missing Out') to wait until Arrowhead has addressed server issues before
buying Helldivers 2.



"I mean, as a CEO I of course want the game to be as profitable as possible, but
if you spent your last dollars and got stuck in server queues I'd be
heartbroken," he said on X.

Read more about:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Chris Kerr

News Editor, GameDeveloper.com

Game Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and
reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has
appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff,
Wireframe, International Business Times, and PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his
career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia,
Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging
panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio
5 Live to discuss breaking news.

See more from Chris Kerr
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