Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may have hogged the limelight – and all the awards – at The Game Awards, but there were plenty of other big winners, like Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders. Despite competing against heavy-hitters like Elden Ring Nightreign, Battlefield 6, Split Fiction and PEAK, it won Best Multiplayer Game.
It probably shouldn’t be too surprising, given the impressive player counts and sales, but this is only the beginning. Art director Robert Sammelin reiterated to PC Gamer that the studio has a “10-year plan.” However, it goes even beyond that.
“Our ambition is to keep this game alive for the longest time. It is a live game. It’s something that we want to keep alive for the longest time possible, as long as players engage with it and have fun and see that it is evolving in a good way.”
Sammelin – and Embark as a whole – are cognizant of the fact that it won’t be steering the ship alone. “I think games like this will evolve depending on community behaviours, feedback, and how we pick out the things we see people engage really well with. But also throw things into the mix that sort of afford new challenges and opportunities within the game.
“I think there’s a wide range of routes that we can take with this, and time will tell how we sort of dig into it. But we for sure have a pretty long-standing plan of where we want to take it.”
If you’re wondering what Embark could introduce in the future, it seems that expanding on ARC variety is a priority. “We started with a fairly slim roster of ARCs, and that’s, of course, something that we’re expanding over time again. Different avenues open up for different types of behaviours with the arcs as well.” Thus far, we’ve seen two new ARCs introduced in the North Line update – the Matriarch, a bigger threat than the Queen, and the Shredder, a melee combatant that stalks the halls of Stella Montis.
The next major update, Cold Snap, arrives tomorrow and adds a new map condition, Snowfall. The first event, Flickering Flames, will also become available alongside a new Raider Deck and quests. Meanwhile, the Expedition departure window, an avenue for resetting one’s progress and earning new rewards, will open on December 17th.
