Helldivers 2 had a lot of dramatic ups and downs in 2024 and has only since stabilized now, with Sony easing up on the PSN requirement ban early in 2025. Still, it’s understandable if some of its creators are tired and need a break. Johan Pilestedt, Helldivers 2 Creative Director, is among them, and he recently announced a lengthy leave or sabbatical to focus on his family and the future.
Pilestedt took to Twitter/X earlier today to announce the news that he’s going to take a break. The Helldivers 2 Creative Director has reasoned out that he devoted a sizable chunk of his life around the game– roughly 11 years of working around the clock. And while the hard work has paid off, Pilestedt has sacrificed time away from his family.
Thankfully, Pilestedt has assured everyone that Helldivers 2 is now in good hands, especially with the recent release of the Illimunate faction, which has since renewed player interest. Moreover, Pilestedt may have teased that Arrowhead Games has something in store after Helldivers 2.
The Next Game?
It’s not clear how long Pilestedt’s sabbatical will last– some take a couple of months to even a year, but he mentioned that he’ll start working on Arrowhead Studios’ next game once he’s back. There are no specifics about this next game, but it’s certainly not going to be Helldivers 3 since Helldivers 2 is a live-service title.
Even before the announcement of his sabbatical, Pilestedt had already talked about the future of Arrowhead and what’s next for them after Helldivers 2‘s success. Hence, you can consider the sabbatical as some sort of official announcement that Arrowhead will now be working on a new game sometime in 2025.
Earlier in 2024, Johann Pilestedt also mentioned in an interview that he and the studio want to see how high they can fly and believe that they have the potential to turn into the next “From Software” or “Blizzard.” Turns out Arrowhead might be willing to pursue that potential a bit earlier than expected.
