ARC Raiders’ approach to PvP and its $40 price point were discussed by Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund in a recent interview. Read on for his thoughts on competitive PvP and the game’s shift away from free-to-play pricing.
ARC Raiders Isn’t Built Around PvP
PvP is Part Of The Structure, Not The Focus
ARC Raiders is not designed around shooting other players, according to Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund, a philosophy that also informs the studio’s approach to PvP systems and the game’s $40 price point.
Speaking in a recent interview with GamesBeat journalist Dean Takahashi, Söderlund suggested Embark is unlikely to prioritize additional PvP-focused features such as player kill leaderboards or Nemesis systems, explaining that doing so would make player-versus-player combat a more central element of the game.
"One of the beauties of this game is the fact that we don’t have those leaderboards, and it’s not competitive. We don’t necessarily want to foster that kind of gameplay," Söderlund said. "You can do [it] if you want to, but the ethos of the game has never been to go in and shoot players."
Instead, Söderlund said Embark wants PvP only "to a point," describing it as a tool used to create tension rather than constant combat.
Reflecting on development, Söderlund noted that ARC Raiders spent a long period without other players. He said the early PvE-only version was "quite fun" and worked well in certain areas, but the game gained depth once other raiders were added and Embark began using sound and visual cues to signal activity elsewhere on the map. Their presence introduced pressure and unpredictability to a run, even when direct encounters didn’t happen.
"You hear them shooting. That's why audio is a very important part of this game. You hear them encountering ARC and other players. You see the raider flares as they go down," Söderlund said. He recalled a playtest where raider flares were briefly removed, saying he immediately asked for them to be brought back. "They’re such an iconic part of this game," Söderlund said, adding that the flares help signal when action is happening elsewhere and make the game feel populated.
For Embark, that means keeping PvP in ARC Raiders present but restrained, where tension comes from awareness and uncertainty instead of turning player combat into a goal.
Why Embark Chose a $40 Price Point
A Complete Experience at Launch
ARC Raiders was originally planned as a free-to-play title, a model Embark explored earlier in development. As development progressed, the studio reassessed that approach, concluding that an upfront price would better align with the experience it wanted to deliver while also considering where the game fit among mid-priced releases.
Söderlund’s comments frame the $40 price as a deliberate middle ground rather than a default choice. By moving away from a free-to-play structure, Embark positioned ARC Raiders as a paid experience intended to feel complete at launch.
The studio has said the shift was informed by concerns that a free-to-play model could influence progression, pacing, or incentives in ways that didn’t fit the game’s intended tone. An upfront price, Söderlund suggested, helps set clearer expectations around scope and value without relying on ongoing monetization systems to sustain engagement.
ARC Raiders is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Epic Games Store. For more information on the game, check out our related article below.
Source:
GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi talks to Patrick Söderlund of Embark and Owen Mahoney in ARC Raiders
