Johan Pilestedt presentation at Nordic Game Conference 2024: Sony supported game development for >4 years longer than originally planned

[anonpuffs]

-originally thought the game would take 3-4 years to develop, approached by sony in 2015, estimated to release in 2019
-lots of growing pains expanding from 20 devs
-"always playing catch-up" due to mentality being that of a small dev studio that could pivot instantly even when expanding to 100 devs

Man Arrowhead lucked out partnering with Sony. A lot of pubs would have looked at the lack of hitting milestones and axed the project 6 years ago

 

[Gediminas]

that's what i said before. they are very lucky and should be really grateful. but all the drama which happened, kinda showed their face, the ceo, community managers.

 

[Bryank75]

But the PC community keep saying Sony are the badguys...

 

[anonpuffs]

that's what i said before. they are very lucky and should be really grateful. but all the drama which happened, kinda showed their face, the ceo, community managers.

To be honest it kinda shows that Sony and its PR department is asleep at the wheel. I knew what would happen when they tried doing this. The fact that they didn't speaks volumes on how prepared they are to move in the PC space. And to be honest, the CEO and CMs did what they should in that position (other than that one guy that was fired) - it was that or the game would burn to the ground. What they should have done is manufactured consent like all other big corporations do: highly publicize some cheating or negative community behaviors, then tied the account linking to a big "cheating crackdown" update.

 

[JAHGamer]

And they still threw sony under the bus at every opportunity. Stupid ingrates

But the PC community keep saying Sony are the badguys...

Sony is evil for requiring something that every other publisher requires, and the idiots at Arrowhead validated the PC terrorists

 

[Johnic]

And they still threw sony under the bus at every opportunity. Stupid ingrates

Imagine being that much of a POS. Guy should have kept his mouth shut. The first one to get booted if Sony buys them out.

 

[Neversummer]

But the PC community keep saying Sony are the badguys...

They say “Sony greed” not realizing gaming is a business. Without Sony greed there would be no Helldivers 2 or Arrowhead

 

[Yobo]

that's what i said before. they are very lucky and should be really grateful. but all the drama which happened, kinda showed their face, the ceo, community managers.

That idiot community manager got sacked thankfully

 

[Remember_Spinal]

FUCK SONY

 

[Evilnemesis8]

Sure sounds like PlayStation had some strong faith in the overall concept to extend for that long.
Gave the ok to also do Helldivers 2 during the same year as the release of the OG Helldivers, so initial sales must've looked good(we now know it sold 4M+).

 

[Entropi]

that's what i said before. they are very lucky and should be really grateful. but all the drama which happened, kinda showed their face, the ceo, community managers.

They bit the hand that feeds them. They are a bunch of ungrateful two face swindlers. The games is crazy fun and wouldn’t be possible or successful without Sony.

 

[BLAZE]

This game would be complete shit without Sony's support, I'm happy that they somehow believed in the game's potential, but for some people at X, Arrowhead should distance themselves from Sony because of the login account hahaha

 

[ToTTenTranz]

- Dev shares a massive success story in the videogame world, with all its perilous paths.
- Also mentions that Sony actually paid their salaries for 4 years longer than anticipated. Game was a massive success, so this was a good bet by Sony in the end.

Icon-Era: That dev is a piece of shit! Sony is a piece of shit! Their moms and their puppies are pieces of shit!


Jesus fuck guys, go touch some grass. Or maybe just breathe.

 

[Johnic]

Icon-Era: That dev is a piece of shit!

Not only did the community manager, an employee of Arrowhead, tell people to go pirate the game, the CEO himself threw Sony under the bus before admitting it was him who actually removed the requirement which Sony had there from the start and then proceeded to ignore that requirement for a few months.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Not only did the community manager, an employee of Arrowhead, tell people to go pirate the game, the CEO himself threw Sony under the bus before admitting it was him who actually removed the requirement which Sony had there from the start and then proceeded to ignore that requirement for a few months.

I have no recollection of a community manager (not a dev, let's be real) telling people to pirate the game. The guy who was fired told people to put negative reviews on Steam.
You don't know if the CEO removed and then postponed the requirement while 100% aligned with Sony.


BTW he's not CEO anymore. He stepped down from the position to join the dev teams, help them undo the weapon nerfing and bring new stuff to the game.

 

[2spooky5me]

Hot take:
Arrowhead could become a liability. PlayStation may have to keep them on a shorter leash… Especially if they keep that guy as the CEO/President, and keep hiring weirdos as their community managers/PR staff.

 

[Yurinka]

Lol, originally planned to be a around 3 years development, which ended being 8. He can be very thankful of Hermen Hulst's patience.

It's very difficult to find bosses/publishers who can accept a 5 years delay, longer than the original dev time. I assume Hermen saw potential and thought the game deserved it, and on top of that having been a dev he knows delays happen and games need them.

 

[Danja]

Lol, originally planned to be a around 3 years development, which ended being 8. He can be very thankful of Hermen Hulst's patience.

It's very difficult to find bosses/publishers who can accept a 5 years delay, longer than the original dev time. I assume Hermen saw potential and thought the game deserved it, and on top of that having been a dev he knows delays happen and games need them.

Wasn't it Connie overseeing this project tho

 

[anonpuffs]

Wasn't it Connie overseeing this project tho

was she? What is this info from

 

[Gods&Monsters]

I feel like Johan has a great relationship with Sony behind-the-scenes but publically he never praise them that much, even when people were asking him if he regrets working with "Snoy", the worst publisher ever. Sony was quiet during the whole thing so that didn't help.

Same for Neil Druckmann attack, Stellar Blade controversy, Square FF16/FF7R madness, GOT Delisting. Sony is completely silent and nobody takes their defense.