Arrowhead CEO Slams Gaming Execs for ‘Stupid Risks’ and Lack of Accountability

In an interview with the Game Business Show, Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani criticized top gaming executives for taking “stupid risks” and showing little accountability while the industry faced thousands of job cuts.

“I wish that our industry hadn’t shed almost… 30, 40, 50,000 jobs over the past two years,” says Jorjani. “A lot of people at the top were making very unsound business decisions, and there’s very little accountability on their part. Who among these executives is stepping down? Or slashing their salaries?”

Earlier in the interview, Jorjani mentioned that he wants Arrowhead Game Studios to be a role model for how to do sustainable growth “because the industry today is not in a good place.”

Jorjani is referring to the massive numbers of people being laid off in different studios due to bad business decisions. Just recently, Eidos Montreal, the studio co-developing the upcoming reboot of Fable, has laid off 75 people due to one of their “mandates coming to an end.”

In 2024, Tech4Gamers reported that Embracer Group had laid off more than 7700 employees in 12 months. Embracer Group continues to fire employees left and right, with the most recent one being the aforementioned Eidos Montreal studio. In February 2025, Embracer Group published a financial report that claims their overruling principle is to “always maximize shareholder value in any given situation.”

Going back to the interview, Jorjani has more to say about the situation. “I’m not saying don’t grow, but do it in a way where you don’t have to then let go of one third of the company because you made stupid decisions,” he continued. He ended by saying that his priority is to make sure his employees have jobs for many years.

The interview also touched upon the influx of players coming from other shooter games to the studio’s very own Helldivers 2. “We did not make Helldivers for six million Call of Duty players. We absolutely didn’t. But six million Call of Duty Players bought our game.” Jorjani said. This made it hard to stick to the studio’s hardcore-focused design because they wanted to accommodate these players.

In August 2024, Helldivers 2 released a patch that nerfed a lot of weapons. This change proved to be controversial as players review bombed the game on Steam. The studio then worked on a 60-day plan, which brought players back to the game.

Shams Jorjani became Arrowhead Game Studios after the previous CEO, Johan Pilestedt, stepped down in May 2024. The studio currently has around 140 employees, according to its website.