With ARC Raiders coming out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in just a few hours, and THE FINALS also going strong, developer Embark Studios has revealed that it also has other projects that it has been working on that are yet to be revealed. In an interview with The Game Business, studio CEO Patrick Soderlund spoke about the future plans of the studio, as well as the challenges associated with high-risk projects like live-service games.
When asked by Christopher Dring whether the other projects that Embark Studios are also online games, Soderlund responded by saying “That I think is just engrained in our DNA,” referring tot he risks of the competitive online games market. “That doesn’t mean that they’re online necessarily games the same way as THE FINALS or ARC Raiders. One of the concepts we have has a lot more edge to it than THE FINALS or ARC Raiders does. The other one is a little bit more conventional.”
Further in the interview, Soderlund was also asked about the five-year goal for Embark Studios, he spoke about how Embark Studios wants to be seen as a place where curiosity is rewarded, as well as a developer that “has the deepest respects for the players” that play its games.
“I don’t envision Embark to be much bigger than it is today, that’s not a goal for us at all, to be a ginormous studio,” he said. “I hope that people can look at Embark and view it as a studio that stems from curiosity. We talk about being curious all the time. We want to look behind the curtain. ‘If we did this, what would that mean?’ That we’re seen as a studio that is doing something positive for the industry, where our obvious goal is to try and treat the players that play our game with the deepest respect. To listen to them on a continuous basis, and to try and adapt and improve the games as such.”
Earlier this week, Embark Studios had begun celebrating the impending launch of ARC Raiders with a brand new trailer. While it didn’t really showcase much gameplay, the trailer instead focused on showcasing the extraction shooter’s general atmosphere, while also emphasising the gameplay loop where players will often have to start over if they die on an expedition. Along with this, the trailer also unveiled the biggest ARC in the game so far – one even bigger than The Queen which we had last seen during the Server Slam event.
Speaking of the Server Slam, the developer had celebrated the success of the event, which managed to get a peak concurrent player count of 189,668 on Steam alone. As part of its celebration, Embark Studios revealed that 30 million rounds of ARC Raiders had been played during the event, which involved 77 Queens eliminated, and 816,162 rubber ducks having been collected.
For more details about ARC Raiders and its Server Slam, here is everything you need to know. In the meantime, also check out the design director’s thoughts on the future of the extraction shooter.
