Creator Archers doesn’t worry about coming in between Battlefield 6 AND Call of Duty: Black Ops 7emphasizing, “We believe the game can launch there.”
Arc Raiders completed its recent “Server Slam” playtest with a vast number of players on Steamsuggesting a mighty launch ahead of its October 30 release date. It reached a peak concurrent player count of 189,668, making it one of the most played games on Valve’s platform the weekend it was released, and the biggest extraction shooter in Steam history. That said, with the full release scheduled for tomorrow, which falls between the launch dates of two of the world’s biggest first-person shooter franchises, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Soderlund admitted that some people may be wondering, “what the hell are they doing?”
What about whether the massive playtest was enough to keep players playing the full version? “I think it comes down to not being complacent and not believing that we can build something without having a significant impact or innovation,” Soderlund said. “We have to bring something to make people pay attention. And if we do a good enough job, maybe they will stick around. But for them to get away from what they’re already playing, there has to be an attraction.”
“A few years ago, I was worried about Arc Raiders and whether it would find its market. So when we started technical testing earlier in the spring, we were blown away by the number of people who were playing it. Of course, we tried to promote the game as much as we could, but it became one of those things that just went viral. We were humbled by that. It’s a testament to the work the team did to create something complex, yet accessible. Something that’s easy to play, yet has a lot of impact.” depth of gameplay.
Arc Raiders project director said it was coincidental timing for the extraction shooter to begin testing around the same time as Bungie’s shooter Marathoncalling it “a great A/B test for us.” In an interview last week, Virgil Watkins said: “It was very coincidental that they ran the test around the same time as us. As far as I know, I don’t think any of us knew that would happen. It was a very successful A/B test for us because obviously they made decisions that we didn’t make, and vice versa. So we were able to kind of compare and contrast how some of these things turned out.”
Embark Studios’ previous free-to-download shooter The Finals is still available, although the number of concurrent players on Steam is significantly different from its explosive December 2023 launch.
Vikki Blake is an IGN reporter, critic, columnist and consultant with over 15 years of experience working with some of the world’s largest gaming sites and publications. She is also a Guardian, a Spartan, a Silent Hillian, a Legend, and an eternally High Chaos. Find her on Blue Sky.
