Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead names former Paradox exec as new CEO

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Games has a new CEO. Former Paradox Interactive chief business development officer Shams Jorjani has joined the Swedish studio to oversee business operations.

Outgoing CEO Johan Pilestedt will remain with the studio as chief creative officer and explained the switch will enable him to spend more time with the dev team.

"Big update, I've decided to hire Shams Jorjani as the new CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios. We go way back and I wouldn't trust the business in any other hands than his. (and he comes with an impressive resume and love for games)," said Pilestedt on X.

"But what about me and my involvement in Helldivers 2? Well, I'm glad you asked! I am taking the role of chief creative officer, which means I will spend more time with the team and 100 percent of my focus on the games and community."

Arrowhead reconfigures c-suite with Helldivers 2 in full swing

Arrowhead has enjoyed a bumper 2024 so far thanks to the meteoric success of Helldivers 2. The Sony-published multiplayer shooter sold 12 million copies in three months across PlayStation and PC. It also became Sony's most successful PC launch to date and topped 80,000 concurrent players on Steam within hours of hitting digital shelves.

That success was followed by controversy, however, when Sony attempted to mandate the usage of a PlayStation Network account for Helldivers 2 players on Steam. That push for account linking ultimately turned into a PR nightmare, with Steam users weaponizing negative reviews in protest.

Eventually, Sony backtracked and allowed Helldivers 2 players on Steam to continue spreading bloody democracy without PSN oversight.

At the time, Pilestedt thanked Sony for "quickly and effectively making the decision to leave PSN linking optional. We together want to set a new standard for what a live game is, and how developers and community can support each other to create the best game experiences."