Everyone and their dog knows about the big PvE vs. PvP debate in the ARC Raiders space. It has been one of the biggest points of contention since the game was released at the tail end of October 2025. For many, ARC Raiders lives and breathes a fine PvPvE environment, but for some, PvE is a dream that they’ll never truly grasp.
However, during a recent chat at GDC, the game’s production director revealed that the PvE dream almost became a reality, once upon a time. What’s more bizarre is that it almost surfaced after the development team opted to move away from a PvE-centric model and include PvP mechanics.
What Happened to ARC Raiders’ PvE Platform?
For those not in the know, it’s important to highlight that ARC Raiders was originally designed as a PvE-focused game. It would have seen players journey to the surface outside Speranza, fight fierce ARC enemies, and end up joining forces with other players to take down mighty boss characters.
Later, a pivot took place that manipulated the game away from this model and into a PvPvE loop instead.
But, during a recent panel at GDC, Embark Studios’ production director, Caio Braga, revealed that even after the pivot, they were doubtful that it was the right choice to make.
In his words, playtests involving player-vs-player combat revealed ‘a substantial negative PvP sentiment.’
They didn’t like the PvP.
A lot of our initial conversation was about whether we should have even done this reset. Should we add PvP to this?
(Thanks to PC Gamer for the quote)
As it turns out, the existence of PvP wasn’t an inherent issue, but the balancing of it was. Embark realized it needed to tweak weapons and offensive tools, make it so that solo players weren’t clashing with squads as often, and ultimately, address the concerns that players had regarding the ‘fairness’ of combat.
The decision stuck, and PvP became a core part of the ARC Raiders model, even if many would rather have a PvE-focused experience.
It’s an age-old debate, despite only having been around for a few months. In ARC Raiders, you play the role of a survivor at the end of all things, leaving the safety of a settlement called Speranza to raid ‘Topside’ with your fellow settlers and bring back loot from the surface.
Many have argued that the core operating model alone is enough to warrant a PvE-focused universe. Why would folks from the same end-of-the-world settlement gang up on each other and brutalize one another when there’s a much bigger threat at play?
It’s a debate that will exist for as long as the game remains online.
Which party do you fall into? Would you rather have a PvE experience, or do you like fighting other players in ARC Raiders? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Escape from Tarkov has a new event
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
I account madmax here I think they should introduce factions because when its a team most people attack anyway…. if its solos and you meet the same factions atleast it will give you time to run and escape or work together with your team if there was possibly be safe bases while playing adding something like own base military so the other enemy raiders cant camp outside the base something that can keep the game going with also more quests as im on the quest at a dead end i have gotten the real but died in the extraction I have done the mission several times for nearly a month but the film reel is never there and I cant reset the quest so I really am at a deadend with nothing to do… please help, thanks.