Embark Studios' developers saw more potential in allowing players to explore rather than just shoot when they redesigned Arc Raiders as an extraction adventure. The philosophy represents a fundamental departure from the studio's original vision, reshaping one of 2025's most successful games.
Arc Raiders is a multiplayer third-person extraction shooter developed and published by Embark Studios for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. Yet despite the "shooter" classification, the game's design deliberately encourages non-combat playstyles that would be unthinkable in traditional shooters.
Production director Caio Braga explained that before the extraction pivot, no one could describe what the game was: "You'd ask someone who would say it was a battle royale versus Arc, or it's a co-op Shadow of the Colossus game, or it's a hero looter shooter...our Arc developers thought the game was a co-op Souls game". That creative confusion nearly derailed the entire project.
According to Braga, the adventure approach gives players freedom to "basically play the way you want," whether that's "PvP or PvE or role play". In practice, this means raiders can complete entire runs without firing a shot, hunting for specific resources or completing exploration objectives instead.
The shift required rethinking core mechanics. When Embark Studios originally envisioned the game as a co-op only experience in 2021, internal playtesting and feedback from early technical tests encouraged them to add a PvP component. The decision fundamentally changed how players interact with the world and each other.
The game's greatest strength is its sandbox approach, where players are dropped into a complex map with intricate tools while navigating AI-controlled Arcs and completing tasks. There are rounds where players won't shoot a single bullet because they're just hunting for mushrooms or trying to complete a specific quest.
The game was awarded Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2025. Arc Raiders had sold over four million copies worldwide by November 2025, with that figure climbing to 14 million copies by February 2026.
The commercial success validates Embark's willingness to challenge genre conventions. Rather than optimising for kill-count and competitive dominance, the studio designed systems that reward patient exploration, resource management, and emergent social moments between players. That philosophy turned a genre often seen as inaccessible into something that welcomes multiple playstyles.