In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund said the studio could not match giants like EA and Activision by following traditional development methods. He explained that trying to scale in the usual way would have required hundreds of staff, and Embark instead focused on changing production methods so a much smaller team could deliver high-quality games.
Söderlund said the studio spent its first seven to 10 months on Arc Raiders planning production methodologies and building tools and pipelines to speed development. He framed those changes as necessary to “be substantially faster in developing games,” and as the reason Embark could compete while remaining lean.
The studio has already shipped The Finals in 2023 and Arc Raiders in 2024, and Söderlund did not go into full technical detail about the new processes. However, Embark has previously talked about using AI to reduce workload and boost output, and how the studio’s machine learning and generative tools factored into development. Former Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney also weighed in during the conversation, noting Embark’s deliberate choice to rely on software and smaller teams to get the job done. Söderlund added that the studio’s work is not finished and they are still iterating on their approach.
The results are visible in Arc Raiders’ mix of extraction-shooter systems, emergent social moments, and its split between PvP and PvE lobbies. The game’s design and community reactions, including streamer concern about turning Arc Raiders into prize-driven tournaments, illustrate how Embark’s choices on development and tooling ripple into how the game is played and perceived, you can read more about those streamer concerns here.
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ARC Raiders
Developed by Embark Studios
ARC Raiders is a multiplayer, extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC.
- Genre: Shooter
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Modes: Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release: 2025-10-30
- Publisher: Embark Studios
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Age Rating:
ESRB T / PEGI 16 / GRAC 15+ / USK 18 / CLASS_IND 14 / ACB M
- IGDB Rating: 89.7/100
