Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund explained how the team built ARC Raiders to compete with big-budget shooters while keeping costs far lower than most AAA projects. Söderlund put the game’s estimated budget at about $75 million and said the studio has already recouped its development costs. He told reporters that the team’s focus was not on growing head count but on rethinking how work was done so the product itself could stand up against much larger projects.
Trimming repetitive work and retooling pipelines
The studio targeted tedious, time-consuming production tasks. Söderlund said they examined processes such as texturing, lighting, and object placement to see which parts could be simplified or removed. “A lot of it is reconfiguring what I believe are old ways of working – old toolsets, old pipelines, old engines,” he said, arguing there was a better way to approach those chores. He discussed the approach in an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz.
Söderlund also described using AI tools during development and then reducing reliance on them over time as the team refined its processes and direction for the game. The results, according to Embark, included high Steam player counts and strong commercial performance. For additional context on the game’s audience and sales milestone, see our coverage of ARC Raiders reaching 12 million copies. Embark’s approach represents a practical attempt to compress development cost without sacrificing the scope or reach that players expect from top-tier shooters.
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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
