Arrowhead wants to remain independent and achieve From Software or Blizzard status

Arrowhead’s chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt has said he wants the studio to ascend to Blizzard or From Software status while remaining independent.

The company’s former CEO, who has now stepped aside to focus on making games, told Gamesindustry.biz: “We pride ourself on being an independent studio.

“We have to see what the future holds, but there’s nothing in the plans where we want to be acquired by somebody,” he said. “I want to see how high we can fly. And bringing [new CEO] Shams [Jorjani] on board, we have a good potential to realise that future of turning into the next From Software or Blizzard.”

It had been speculated that Sony may seek to acquire Arrowhead following Helldivers 2‘s blockbuster release.

Last week, Sony said Helldivers 2 was PlayStation’s fastest-selling game launch ever, “far exceeding expectations” with 12 million copies sold across PC and PS5 in its first 12 weeks.

“The goal of the studio is to make really great co-op games,” Jorjani said. “We really want to turn Arrowhead into a flagship studio, where people who want to make these kind-of games say to themselves: ‘I want to work at Arrowhead’. When we were growing up, we really wanted to work at Blizzard, it was one of the bucket list places to work at. I think Arrowhead has the potential to be that.

“But that doesn’t mean we have to be a 500-person company. In fact, a 500-person company is quite painful in a lot of ways. We will see growth, but growth as a means to an ends, not as an end itself. We don’t have plans to go public. None of those shenanigans. Measured growth that allows us to make amazing game and be a good place to work.”