Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 follow-up will be self-funded

It’s unclear what exactly Helldivers 2 maker Arrowhead is working on next, but whatever it is will be self-funded and self-owned without the involvement of Sony, CEO Shams Jorjani said during an exchange on the Helldivers 2 Discord server.

Jorjani wrote that “Arrowhead's future is quite bright and we have the freedom to explore some really cool concepts that we couldn't have otherwise. Game 6 (our next project) will happen the way it will happen thanks to you.”

The studio will have complete creative control over the project, which is obviously exciting for the developers. Fans shouldn’t take this as a knock against Sony, though, as the CEO quickly clarified. “There would be no Helldivers if it wasn't for them,” he wrote. Jorjani added that they are open to work with Sony again in the future.

Former CEO Johan Pilestedt has previously teased that the concept phase for the studio’s next game was already underway. He’s expected to take the creative lead on that after returning from his sabbatical.

Helldivers 2 was a monumental success for both Arrowhead and Sony, though the partnership wasn’t always a harmonious one: When Sony wanted to make it mandatory for PC players to create PSN accounts to continue playing the game, Arrowhead had to push back against the decision internally and might not have been able to convince Sony otherwise, had not a giant review-bombing campaign taken place on Steam at the same time. It took the developers a long while to recover the game's ratings from this completely avoidable drama.

Arrowhead recently launched update 1.003.000 for Helldivers 2 alongside the Masters of Ceremony Warbond. Both add to the excitement of the masterfully staged Galactic Emergency that threatens Super Earth itself.

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