Pilestedt will remain chief creative officer and chairman.
Before people get carried away with the weird narrative that Pilestedt was forced out in some sort of corporate coup, read the article. He stepped down by his own decision into his new role as Chief Creative Officer. He handpicked the new CEO. Also some relevant quotes from him:
“I’ve been thinking about the journey ahead for Arrowhead, the future games we’re going to be making, and running the organisation beyond the 120 or so developers we have currently,” he tells us. “I realised that running an organisation of over 100 people to however large it is going to get… it means I will [have to choose] between deepening my love for game creation, or the business track."
“Over the last year going to launch of Helldivers 2, I’ve been pulled more towards the business side of things, and not able to focus as much on the creative side. That made me realise I needed to make some decisions, both for the success of the business but also myself."
So he’s focusing on the game rather than the business aspect.
Honestly I am OK with this. He’s repeatedly demonstrated that he seems to be the only dude at AH who isn’t a hostile asshole to players and more importantly he recently admitted that balance for the game has not been good. AH has spent the last few months squeezing out a lot of the players’ goodwill from the game, but this gives me hope that maybe they can course correct from here on out.
He’s also been saying that he wants to take a more active role in the game’s development. It would be logical that he then evaluates what he needs to do to have the time for that, and decides to move away from the business side of things.
Either Pilestedt felt overwhelmed or Sony strong armed them into this.
My guess is it’s more a case of choosing to work on the game or the business and picking the creative pursuit over the more mundane.
Typically not following contract rules has consequences. This move was a calculated risk they made when they chose to not communicate the mandatory account linking properly.
I really hope this works out for them. I’ve been at companies who have gotten new CEOs and it is a very disruptive event. Hoping this new guy is smart enough to keep what’s working without trying to pivot to squeezing out more profits.
