Arrowhead Game Studios' chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt is to take an extended "sabbatical" from work, and when he returns, he'll be working on a new Arrowhead game.
In a post on X, Pilestedt says that while fans have been enjoying Helldivers 2 for almost a year, he's been "living it since early 2016", and if the first Helldivers is included, "since 2013".
He says that eleven years of working on the Helldivers games have caused him to neglect his family, his friends, his wife, and himself, and so he wants to take some time to "redeem what was lost from all of those that supported [him] for over a decade".

Expressing faith in his Arrowhead colleagues to continue doing "their utmost" to deliver "amazing stuff" for Helldivers 2 while he's off, Pilestedt says that on his return, he will "start working on the next Arrowhead game".
Whether that means he won't be involved in Helldivers 2 anymore going forward isn't clear, but at the very least, it seems his focus will be elsewhere for a while, so major showstopping creative updates for Helldivers 2 may be few and far between in future.
Well-wishers flocked to X to express their hope that Pilestedt enjoyed his break, with the likes of recent PlayStation leaver Shuhei Yoshida and Kinda Funny's Greg Miller sending their best wishes to Pilestedt.
If you're not familiar with Pilestedt, he served as the CEO and chief creative officer of Arrowhead Game Studios between 2009 and last year before stepping down and appointing a new CEO in order to focus on his creative work.

As for what's happening in the world of Helldivers 2, a movie adaptation of the game was recently revealed to be in the works, and the game also got its first crossover in the form of a Killzone collaboration in December, although the monetization of the latter was poorly-received by the game's community.
Helldivers 2 is available right now on PC and PlayStation 5. You can check out our review of the game here.