Arrowhead Game Studios

Arrowhead Game Studios is a developer.

Arrowhead Game Studios Webpage, Facebook

An independent Swedish development studio based in Stockholm. Arrowhead Game Studios develops games for PC and consoles, earning worldwide recognition with the first Magicka game and the Helldivers franchise.

History

Small-scale era

The studio was founded in 2009. Less than two years later, the Stockholm-based team released its debut project, the humorous hack-and-slash game Magicka, inspired by Norse mythology, which was released on PC. The game was warmly received by both players and critics, and remained a hit for the developers for nearly two years, with regular content updates.

Arrowhead Game Studios’ second project, the multiplayer action platformer The Showdown Effect, launched on PC in March 2013. The game received a lukewarm response - Metacritic reported an average score of 67/100 from industry critics - and largely flew under the radar.

Arrowhead Game Studios’ third project was Gauntlet, a remake of the classic 1985 dungeon crawler. The game first launched on PC in September 2014, and in August 2015 it arrived on PlayStation 4 as Gauntlet: Slayer Edition. The game earned “very positive” reviews on Steam, with industry critics giving it a reception comparable to the studio’s earlier work.

The age of Helldivers

Arrowhead Game Studios’ fourth project, the cooperative sci-fi shooter Helldivers, featuring a top-down perspective, launched in 2015 on PlayStation consoles and PC. The game became the team’s biggest success to date, earning very positive reviews on Steam, averaging 81–83/100 from industry critics on Metacritic, and achieving strong sales. The studio focused on supporting its new hit and hadn't created anything new for the next nine years.

Fans had to wait until February 2024 for the Swedish developer's next release. That was Helldivers 2, expanding on the premise of the first game but shifting the action to a third-person perspective (TPP). The game debuted on PC and PlayStation 5. It received “mostly positive” reviews on Steam despite some technical issues, and industry critics gave the PS5 version an average score of 83/100 on Metacritic. The game was also a major commercial success: players eagerly pre-ordered it, and just one day after release, it became the most popular Sony title on Steam, drawing hundreds of thousands of simultaneous players. However, the developers didn’t rest on their laurels, regularly patching the game and adding new content. As a result, the game’s popularity and sales continued to climb even weeks after launch.

Sony's mistake and the power of the community

The first cracks in this new diamond appeared in early May 2024, when Sony announced that a PlayStation Network account would soon be required to play Helldivers 2 on Steam. Saying fans weren't happy would be an understatement. Players flooded the game with negative reviews, and instead of calming things down, the publisher poured gasoline on the fire by pulling Helldivers 2 from sale in countries without official PSN access. Splitz, Arrowhead Game Studios’ community manager, added fuel to the controversy by openly encouraging players to leave negative reviews and request refunds.

Eventually, the Japanese publisher caved to player pressure and abandoned the requirement, prompting the community to rally and restore Helldivers 2’s Steam rating - a task they accomplished quickly. However, Splitz was dismissed shortly afterward, sparking a fan petition demanding his reinstatement.

This wasn't the only change at Arrowhead Game Studios. On May 22, 2024, the company’s founder, Johan Pilestedt, stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Shams Jorjani, former director of business development at Paradox Interactive. Pilestedt planned to stay at the studio as creative director, saying the move would let him “spend more time with the team and focus 100 percent on the games and the community.”