“That’s Not The Intent of the Game’s Design” ARC Raiders CEO Addresses Matchmaking Controversy

by

Patrick Söderlund, CEO of Embark Studios, has addressed concerns about how players are influencing the matchmaking in ARC Raiders. He explained that the current situation, where players can create lobbies focused solely on player-versus-environment or player-versus-player combat, wasn’t the intended design. While ARC Raiders is meant to blend both PvP and PvE elements, players have discovered ways to join lobbies with either very cooperative opponents or those actively seeking conflict. This practice, often called “cheesing,” has caused some division within the community, but Embark Studios plans to continue improving the matchmaking system.

Like many online multiplayer games, ARC Raiders uses a matchmaking system to group players together. Most shooting games match players based on skill to keep things fair, but ARC Raiders focuses more on how aggressively players play. Players who frequently engage in PvP combat will likely be matched with other aggressive players, while those who prefer fighting enemies, collecting loot, and cooperating with others will be grouped with similar, more cooperative Raiders.

ARC Raiders’ Matchmaking Will Continue to Be Tweaked

Players have discovered a way to exploit the matchmaking in ARC Raiders, allowing them to consistently join player-versus-environment (PvE) lobbies instead of the intended player-versus-player (PvP) matches. By using a basic starting kit and avoiding combat for a few games, aggressive players can trick the system. Embark’s CEO acknowledges this isn’t fair and wasn’t the intended design. In a recent interview with IGN, he stated that while they are aware of the issue and monitoring it, they don’t want players to be able to deliberately manipulate the matchmaking to avoid PvP combat.

We want you, as a player, to have the experience that you’re looking for and makes you happy.

The CEO explained that while he personally prefers playing against the environment (PvE), he also enjoys player-versus-player combat (PvP) for the fun of it. He wants ARC Raiders to appeal to all kinds of players, but emphasized that Embark doesn’t want to force anyone into gameplay they don’t enjoy. When asked about the game’s matchmaking, Söderlund confirmed it will be continuously updated and adjusted over time.

Creating fair matches in any game is surprisingly complicated, as the studio head points out. It’s not just about whether a player is skilled at eliminating opponents; the system considers many things. While player-versus-player and player-versus-environment combat are factors, they’re just a small part of the overall picture. The game also looks at things like how often a player targets specific enemy types and their shooting accuracy. The studio plans to keep refining the matchmaking system and is likely working on even more improvements to be added later.

So, Embark just dropped a new matchmaking thing in ARC Raiders. Now you can queue up solo, which they said was to make things more intense, let us show off our PvP skills, and get extra XP. Honestly, it’s thrown a lot of us for a loop – we’re all wondering who even asked for this!

Players have been asking Embark to add a difficult, high-level raid to ARC Raiders for a while now. Embark has heard these requests and says the team has talked about it, but they haven’t announced any plans to actually add it. Recently, Embark shared its content plan for the first half of 2026, promising monthly updates from January to April. The April update will include a new, powerful ARC enemy and a completely new map to explore.

Read More

2026-02-09 21:08