ARC Raiders CEO: ‘The Game Isn’t About Shooting Other Players’

by

The CEO of Embark Studios has stated they aren’t planning to focus on player-versus-player combat, as they don’t want to encourage that style of game.

ARC Raiders has become a major hit in 2025, recently reaching 12 million copies sold. The developers are focused on maintaining the game’s success without adding a strong player-versus-player (PvP) element, as that wasn’t the original design goal.

ARC Raiders Devs Don’t Want to Foster PvP-Type Gameplay

In a recent interview with GameBeat’s Dean Takahashi (reported by IGN), Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund explained why the studio isn’t planning to include player-versus-player (PvP) features in their game. While they considered systems like ‘Nemesis,’ the team hasn’t made a decision yet. Söderlund also expressed satisfaction that the game focuses on cooperation rather than competition, noting the absence of a leaderboard.

Söderlund explains the development team doesn’t want to encourage players to focus heavily on fighting each other, as the core of the game isn’t about player-versus-player combat. While players can definitely be aggressive and engage in fights, the game’s overall design isn’t centered around simply shooting other players. The team added player-versus-player elements to create a sense of excitement and tension.

The CEO of Embark explained that the game was initially built for a solo experience, and this approach worked well. However, when they started adding other players, the team had to find indirect ways to show information like server population or player deaths, rather than directly displaying those numbers.

In ARC Raiders, players rely on both what they hear and see during player-versus-player combat. They’ll listen for gunfire and watch for flares to pinpoint where other players are fighting. The game doesn’t reveal everything immediately, building suspense and making players carefully consider if investigating a conflict is worth the danger.

The CEO also mentioned they’re open to adding private servers to ARC Raiders, which would be great for players who enjoy player-versus-player combat.

So, I heard they’re already talking about turning ARC Raiders into a TV show or movie – pretty wild, right? And Shroud actually thinks this game could be bigger than Fortnite! I’m curious though, what does everyone think about the devs saying they’re not focusing on player-versus-player combat? Let me know your opinions in the comments, and if you want to chat more about it, come hang out on the TopMob Discord!

You can find more details from TopMob about how the ending of Stranger Things took inspiration from the game Baldur’s Gate 3. Be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more updates!

MOBILE APP

Level Up Your Gaming News

Real-time news, exclusive podcasts, push alerts, and a better reading experience.
Available on iOS & Android

App Store

Google Play

Read More

2026-01-07 16:19