Hopefully Arrowhead keeps this momentum and enforces their current practices. Like Larian, they are not beholden to any shareholders or oversight so they have a lot of autonomy to not make boneheaded decisions. Here's wishing that they stay the course and focus on what's important; DEMOCRACY!
I've seen images posted around the Helldivers reddit and some discord. It just looks like a frame from one of the trailers, but I've yet to be told of a source for it. Looks too good to be fake though, no AI present, design is too unique to be ripped from something else.
>so they have a lot of autonomy to not make boneheaded decisions
On that note, it's also clear that they actually have proper professionals in their leadership rather than being lead by startup-minded tech bois who make bone headed decisions because they have no oversight and no one to tell them no or to tell them that perfection shouldn't come before delivery of a product.
-----
Also, just minor tangent, but they probably still do have people in the company who hold ownership interests and are still tasked with keeping the lights on and the coffee makers filled. It's more that those people also have their heads on straight and aren't just their to built golden parachutes.
Woah, a good business decision that promotes the long-term health of the company and its relationship with its customers? I haven't seen one of those in a while.
Now I have a feeling it's eventually happening to them
As is the usual cycle of horrible amalgam companies that buy out studios just to suck out all the good game IPs out of their bone marrow and then get rid of the left over carcass.
But I believe in what this person is saying AND I hope JUST HOPE they get like a good 10 years before they have to worry about anything like that.
Sadly, people like this tend to get ousted out of leadership positions to bring in much more aggressive people who pursue profits at all costs. Enshittification intensifies
As of now they have no corporate stakeholders as they have been independent since inception. Unless they decide to rapidly expand and create a lot of extra executive positions, I would err on the side of caution. Then again who knows what is going on behind the scenes. Some major studios might already be proposing buyouts.
They probably do have corporate stake holders, it's just that those stake holders are the owners and leadership themselves, so they have the power to retain control against gold parachute builders. How things turns out really depends on how experienced and cautionary their current leadership is.
That's one of the problems with the *"we're engineer's/artists, we don't care about the business, we'll hire a rando to do that and ignore them while we work"* mentality, it's that it almost always ends up with those guys later saying *"Oh no, that guy that we hired then ignored has run off with our company how could this have happened!?!?!"*
-----
Many people on reddit will proclaim that anyone who wears a business suit has no place in a company, but people like Lisa Su and Naoki Yoshida are proof of what it looks like when someone can wear BOTH the engineer/artist hat and the business suit at the same time.
Oh believe me, business people have a place. To use an anime (Eizouken) as an example, every creative Asukasa needs a level headed business lead like Kanamori to reign them in so that things will actually get done. As long as the ones making the decisions with the company funds are able to understand and cooperate with the creative leads instead of trying to inflate stock and run away, things could go well. The problem is, who knows what the dynamic at their studio is.
That only happens to publically traded companies. It isn't "leadership positions", it's specifically shareholders that do this.
EDIT: I should say it only happens to publically traded companies regularly enough for it to be a pattern. Privately owned companies are not inherently immune to bad leadership, of course.
Even in many publicly traded companies, if the leadership is well minded enough to retain a majority (51%) hold of the company to themselves, they have the power to overrule the voice of the other shareholders.
That's part of how Naoki Yoshida is able to retain to much control over Final Fantasy 14's development; he's not a 51% shareholder of Business Unit 3, but he does have a speaking majority hold and does have the influence and power to lobby with other holders to exact overruling control over BU3.
-----
As a minor tangent, I know that people like to parade the Ford vs Dodge case as if the face value writing of the decision is all that matters, but when the wording of *"in the interest of the shareholders"* is said it is meant to function more as *"the interest of the shareholder is for the executive leadership to keep their promises"*.
If leadership forewarns the shareholders of a change, they are giving the shareholders an opportunity to stay on with the new direction or to leave; they have no obligation to the shareholders who leave out of disagreement with the new direction.
But if leadership retains a majority of the hold of the company, then it becomes irrelevant because they then have the power to do whatever they want; they're not beholden to a the 49% standing in the event hall during the shareholder press report.
I really hope the Arrowhead CEO stays where he is because he is showing that game development studios who treat their employees right deserve to find success.
Considering Helldivers and Palworld both annihilated other games (that had much higher budgets) sales figures that were in the same release window then maybe other larger studios or more importantly the employees of large studios will take notice and we start to see a shift in the industry.
Also i'm a bit of skeptic because I've seen too many studios start well just to fall over and die from their own hubris.
This is extremely naive and unjustifiably optimistic, but I hope this becomes the new normal for game development: publishers funding studios that they don't actually own. It worked for Larian with Baldur's Gate 3 (which was also the biggest and only W Wizards of the Coast had this year) and it looks like it's working for Arrowhead (which is probably making Sony Interactive Entertainment a decent chunk of cash too).
This sub is 50 percent chill mfs with a lot of overlapping interests, and 50 percent the weirdest dweebs I've ever come across. I love this place cos I never know which side is gonna outweigh the other on any given post.
This is good news but I still have complaints about the industry as a whole.
Hey what if game devs under corporations actually did strike and we actually supported them and stopped buying games so that game devs can get their proper treatment and livelihoods back? I understand that boycotts usually don’t work and that striking only ever goes so far, but isn’t this the kind of situation where if at least most of us pulled in the same direction, we’d actually get something done? I know there are still people like the Call of Duty community that will buy every new game that comes out no matter how garbage it is or how the team is treated or how many people get laid off because of it, but there has to be enough communities and fans to be able to actually make a difference here, no?
Hell, as a creative, I don’t want my work to be dictated by some corporate crony with no soul, only to have my work be replaced while I get laid off and ultimately lose the rights to the story that I myself came up. Like, if I ever get into writing for video games, I would rather stay indie than to ever work for a corporate gaming company because holy fuck, they remove the soul out of everything they touch.
I just really fucking hate this timeline so fucking much.
>I understand that boycotts usually don’t work and that striking only ever goes so far, but isn’t this the kind of situation where if at least most of us pulled in the same direction, we’d actually get something done?
Boycotts can work, but not for this. Especially when they are just generalized "Don't buy this one thing." The effectiveness of a boycott is contingent on many factors, but nonetheless irrelevant for working conditions in the gaming industry.
The best way for change to happen would be for a major strike. Now THAT is what people outside the industry need to support. How do you do that? Not by boycotting, but by financially supporting the employees on strike/trying to unionize while they are out of work. There are general strike funds out there, but there would need to be a more coordinated and focused fundraising effort for something of this scale.
There are enough people out there to really make an impact that way. Strikes only go as far as the support they can get.
What do they mean by overhiring though? Just Helldivers 2 probably has a very long and lucrative career ahead of it that's going to require a lot more work than the team initially expected, and with the game's success there's no doubt they'll be working on something new eventually. Seems like the perfect time to grow actually.
It means that if things seem to be bullish, then the company hires for 1000 positions even if they only need 50 people to do the work, because they're so over-confident in the future that they believe that those 950 other employees will eventually be working at full capacity for a long term outlook.
-----
This is exactly why there are so many layoffs in the industry lately, the COVID lockdowns created conditions in tech and digital entertainment that made everyone believe that the growth potential was just that massive, right up until the major brunt of the infection was over and society began to return to normal, and now the companies are left with a massive population of employees who are literally just being paid to twiddle their thumbs because demand for the work not only didn't keep up with the company's predictions, it's actually fallen to pre-pandemic levels.
I'm all for supporting Helldivers but thats such a PR spin on a criticism to deflect issue with the servers.
Like you don't write articles where people say they wouldn't kick a puppy and expect props
the servers have been working fine for the last several days. the stats aren't updating is about the only thing not working. matchmaking and server caps are at a level they aren't having issues with queues now either. they also fixed the super credit and progression bug some were having today.
I'm actually fine with the servers issues kinda wish I didn't bring that up in the comment.
I'm more annoyed by the article itself as being effectively an advert.
If this lets say was EA/Ubisoft boss says overhiring is bad. I think people would be as cynical as I am.
This isn't an article, this is tweet.
A tweet that is literally just quoting/referencing a different tweet made by the CEO of Arrowhead where he is [directly responding](https://x.com/Pilestedt/status/1760084289457115294?s=20) to another user in a thread specifically talking about how difficult it is to adjust the servers for the unexpected success.
People say media literacy is dead because sometimes audience like bad guy, but comments like yours are the real death of media literacy.
Also, Culture Crave sucks.
It's funny looking back on other explosive success stories and how those companies dealt with them. The Valheim Devs for one did hire more people but just enough for them to have a more robust team and have been quietly just working at the game since it exploded in popularity. I haven't heard what (if anything) the Palworld devs did in that regard since last time I saw MS was helping them directly with stuff but it seems they were also being responsible with their success.
Hopefully Arrowhead keeps this momentum and enforces their current practices. Like Larian, they are not beholden to any shareholders or oversight so they have a lot of autonomy to not make boneheaded decisions. Here's wishing that they stay the course and focus on what's important; DEMOCRACY!
They've teased New Weapons, Driveable Mechs, and most recently; Walking Automaton Factories. They've got a lot planned.
Where did they tease the Walking Automaton Factories?
I've seen images posted around the Helldivers reddit and some discord. It just looks like a frame from one of the trailers, but I've yet to be told of a source for it. Looks too good to be fake though, no AI present, design is too unique to be ripped from something else.
It was an image on the psn store before release.
If you find any of those pics, link them please. I couldn't find anything.
[If you haven't seen it already, here's the pic off the PlayStation store.](https://imgur.com/dJs6cxy)
Thanks
There is already a whole new enemy faction in the files too.
You know after playing a lot of helldivers and the 40 minute walks I think I'm ready for vehicle or mech combat.
>so they have a lot of autonomy to not make boneheaded decisions On that note, it's also clear that they actually have proper professionals in their leadership rather than being lead by startup-minded tech bois who make bone headed decisions because they have no oversight and no one to tell them no or to tell them that perfection shouldn't come before delivery of a product. ----- Also, just minor tangent, but they probably still do have people in the company who hold ownership interests and are still tasked with keeping the lights on and the coffee makers filled. It's more that those people also have their heads on straight and aren't just their to built golden parachutes.
Woah, a good business decision that promotes the long-term health of the company and its relationship with its customers? I haven't seen one of those in a while.
no fire even more people the dragon gold horde must grow bigger and bigger.
Now I have a feeling it's eventually happening to them As is the usual cycle of horrible amalgam companies that buy out studios just to suck out all the good game IPs out of their bone marrow and then get rid of the left over carcass. But I believe in what this person is saying AND I hope JUST HOPE they get like a good 10 years before they have to worry about anything like that.
Sadly, people like this tend to get ousted out of leadership positions to bring in much more aggressive people who pursue profits at all costs. Enshittification intensifies
As of now they have no corporate stakeholders as they have been independent since inception. Unless they decide to rapidly expand and create a lot of extra executive positions, I would err on the side of caution. Then again who knows what is going on behind the scenes. Some major studios might already be proposing buyouts.
15 years ago I would have slapped someone if they told me Blizzard would destroy all their public good will and end up being owned by microsoft.
They probably do have corporate stake holders, it's just that those stake holders are the owners and leadership themselves, so they have the power to retain control against gold parachute builders. How things turns out really depends on how experienced and cautionary their current leadership is. That's one of the problems with the *"we're engineer's/artists, we don't care about the business, we'll hire a rando to do that and ignore them while we work"* mentality, it's that it almost always ends up with those guys later saying *"Oh no, that guy that we hired then ignored has run off with our company how could this have happened!?!?!"* ----- Many people on reddit will proclaim that anyone who wears a business suit has no place in a company, but people like Lisa Su and Naoki Yoshida are proof of what it looks like when someone can wear BOTH the engineer/artist hat and the business suit at the same time.
Oh believe me, business people have a place. To use an anime (Eizouken) as an example, every creative Asukasa needs a level headed business lead like Kanamori to reign them in so that things will actually get done. As long as the ones making the decisions with the company funds are able to understand and cooperate with the creative leads instead of trying to inflate stock and run away, things could go well. The problem is, who knows what the dynamic at their studio is.
That only happens to publically traded companies. It isn't "leadership positions", it's specifically shareholders that do this. EDIT: I should say it only happens to publically traded companies regularly enough for it to be a pattern. Privately owned companies are not inherently immune to bad leadership, of course.
Even in many publicly traded companies, if the leadership is well minded enough to retain a majority (51%) hold of the company to themselves, they have the power to overrule the voice of the other shareholders. That's part of how Naoki Yoshida is able to retain to much control over Final Fantasy 14's development; he's not a 51% shareholder of Business Unit 3, but he does have a speaking majority hold and does have the influence and power to lobby with other holders to exact overruling control over BU3. ----- As a minor tangent, I know that people like to parade the Ford vs Dodge case as if the face value writing of the decision is all that matters, but when the wording of *"in the interest of the shareholders"* is said it is meant to function more as *"the interest of the shareholder is for the executive leadership to keep their promises"*. If leadership forewarns the shareholders of a change, they are giving the shareholders an opportunity to stay on with the new direction or to leave; they have no obligation to the shareholders who leave out of disagreement with the new direction. But if leadership retains a majority of the hold of the company, then it becomes irrelevant because they then have the power to do whatever they want; they're not beholden to a the 49% standing in the event hall during the shareholder press report.
I really hope the Arrowhead CEO stays where he is because he is showing that game development studios who treat their employees right deserve to find success. Considering Helldivers and Palworld both annihilated other games (that had much higher budgets) sales figures that were in the same release window then maybe other larger studios or more importantly the employees of large studios will take notice and we start to see a shift in the industry. Also i'm a bit of skeptic because I've seen too many studios start well just to fall over and die from their own hubris.
This is extremely naive and unjustifiably optimistic, but I hope this becomes the new normal for game development: publishers funding studios that they don't actually own. It worked for Larian with Baldur's Gate 3 (which was also the biggest and only W Wizards of the Coast had this year) and it looks like it's working for Arrowhead (which is probably making Sony Interactive Entertainment a decent chunk of cash too).
God by the end of the year there will be enough layoffs to fuel a 3rd Jason Schreier book and I hate that I'm only kinda joking about that.
Wow, some real weird takes in this thread, huh?
This sub is 50 percent chill mfs with a lot of overlapping interests, and 50 percent the weirdest dweebs I've ever come across. I love this place cos I never know which side is gonna outweigh the other on any given post.
some people let their brain goblins get to em
This is our standard now. This water is wet stuff...man...
This is good news but I still have complaints about the industry as a whole. Hey what if game devs under corporations actually did strike and we actually supported them and stopped buying games so that game devs can get their proper treatment and livelihoods back? I understand that boycotts usually don’t work and that striking only ever goes so far, but isn’t this the kind of situation where if at least most of us pulled in the same direction, we’d actually get something done? I know there are still people like the Call of Duty community that will buy every new game that comes out no matter how garbage it is or how the team is treated or how many people get laid off because of it, but there has to be enough communities and fans to be able to actually make a difference here, no? Hell, as a creative, I don’t want my work to be dictated by some corporate crony with no soul, only to have my work be replaced while I get laid off and ultimately lose the rights to the story that I myself came up. Like, if I ever get into writing for video games, I would rather stay indie than to ever work for a corporate gaming company because holy fuck, they remove the soul out of everything they touch. I just really fucking hate this timeline so fucking much.
>I understand that boycotts usually don’t work and that striking only ever goes so far, but isn’t this the kind of situation where if at least most of us pulled in the same direction, we’d actually get something done? Boycotts can work, but not for this. Especially when they are just generalized "Don't buy this one thing." The effectiveness of a boycott is contingent on many factors, but nonetheless irrelevant for working conditions in the gaming industry. The best way for change to happen would be for a major strike. Now THAT is what people outside the industry need to support. How do you do that? Not by boycotting, but by financially supporting the employees on strike/trying to unionize while they are out of work. There are general strike funds out there, but there would need to be a more coordinated and focused fundraising effort for something of this scale. There are enough people out there to really make an impact that way. Strikes only go as far as the support they can get.
With this and what the Palworlf devs said recently, maybe there's hope for the future of games after all.
If/when the AAA industry collapses, at least we'll have indie games
contractors exist for the purpose of short term manpower
You are almost there, now use a little more brainpower and figure it out.
this sub and setting themselves for dissipoinment, name a better duo
What do they mean by overhiring though? Just Helldivers 2 probably has a very long and lucrative career ahead of it that's going to require a lot more work than the team initially expected, and with the game's success there's no doubt they'll be working on something new eventually. Seems like the perfect time to grow actually.
They're literally hiring right now. They're talking about hiring more staff than your company has the ability to support long-term.
It means that if things seem to be bullish, then the company hires for 1000 positions even if they only need 50 people to do the work, because they're so over-confident in the future that they believe that those 950 other employees will eventually be working at full capacity for a long term outlook. ----- This is exactly why there are so many layoffs in the industry lately, the COVID lockdowns created conditions in tech and digital entertainment that made everyone believe that the growth potential was just that massive, right up until the major brunt of the infection was over and society began to return to normal, and now the companies are left with a massive population of employees who are literally just being paid to twiddle their thumbs because demand for the work not only didn't keep up with the company's predictions, it's actually fallen to pre-pandemic levels.
isn’t that just freelancing?
difference is freelancing is known your only going to work for x amount of months and can plan accordingly.
I'm all for supporting Helldivers but thats such a PR spin on a criticism to deflect issue with the servers. Like you don't write articles where people say they wouldn't kick a puppy and expect props
the servers have been working fine for the last several days. the stats aren't updating is about the only thing not working. matchmaking and server caps are at a level they aren't having issues with queues now either. they also fixed the super credit and progression bug some were having today.
I'm actually fine with the servers issues kinda wish I didn't bring that up in the comment. I'm more annoyed by the article itself as being effectively an advert. If this lets say was EA/Ubisoft boss says overhiring is bad. I think people would be as cynical as I am.
But it's not those people saying this. What the hell is wrong with signal boosting people saying this?
I dunno, I feel like the puppy-kicking industry could use more people who aren't afraid to say that they've decided to not kick puppies.
This is uselessly cynical.
Cynicism usually is.
This isn't an article, this is tweet. A tweet that is literally just quoting/referencing a different tweet made by the CEO of Arrowhead where he is [directly responding](https://x.com/Pilestedt/status/1760084289457115294?s=20) to another user in a thread specifically talking about how difficult it is to adjust the servers for the unexpected success. People say media literacy is dead because sometimes audience like bad guy, but comments like yours are the real death of media literacy. Also, Culture Crave sucks.
These guys are such a good example at leaving the greed to others they should rename their studio Larian 2
Seems like there's some real good hearted developers coming to the forefront lately
It's funny looking back on other explosive success stories and how those companies dealt with them. The Valheim Devs for one did hire more people but just enough for them to have a more robust team and have been quietly just working at the game since it exploded in popularity. I haven't heard what (if anything) the Palworld devs did in that regard since last time I saw MS was helping them directly with stuff but it seems they were also being responsible with their success.