The CEO of Embark Studios has revealed that they don’t wish to promote PvP systems, as they don’t want to foster that type of gameplay.
ARC Raiders is undoubtedly one of the standout titles of 2025, and it shows no signs of slowing anytime soon, having recently hit a new milestone of 12 million units sold. At the same time, it seems the developers aren’t looking to go all-in on PvP to keep the fire burning, since the game wasn’t designed with that as a focus.
ARC Raiders Devs Don’t Want to Foster PvP-Type Gameplay
During a new interview with GameBeat’s Dean Takahashi (via IGN), Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund revealed why they aren’t looking to promote PvP systems. The CEO first mentioned discussions about adding Nemesis systems; however, they don’t know where the team is at right now and are also happy that the game doesn’t have a leaderboard and “it’s not competitive.”
Söderlund adds that the dev team “doesn’t want to necessarily foster that type of gameplay” as “the game isn’t about shooting other players”. Of course, the game allows you to be aggressive and fight other players, “but the ethos of the game has never been to go in and shoot players.” The PvP element was added to craft tension.
The Embark CEO then spoke about the game being designed to be played “without other players for a long time,” and noted that this worked quite well in some instances. However, as soon as other players were added, the dev team had to resort to subtle ways of signalling, rather than telling you how many players are on the server, how many have died, etc.
Hence, ARC Raiders is all about players using audio and visual cues when engaging in PvP situations. Players need to hear other players shooting and see raider flares go up to see where the action is. Not providing all the information at once creates tension, forcing players to decide whether exploring the area where the action is a risk worth taking.
However, the CEO also said that private servers in ARC Raiders are “absolutely something we could consider,” and that could be an excellent addition for players looking for more PvP action.
In other news, ARC Raiders TV show and movie ideas are being pitched to Embark. Additionally, Shroud feels the game will be bigger than Fortnite. What are your thoughts on the ARC Raiders devs not looking to promote PvP? Leave your thoughts down in the comments, and join the official Insider Gaming Discord server.
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“Not about shooting other players”
*Todays extra Cred is earned with:
Shotgun damage to OTHER RAIDERS*
Some things that already are known shouldn’t have to be said. And I think they need to STFU a little bit. Ijs