PvPvE extraction shooter ARC Raiders has seen incredible success despite launching in a relatively crowded period between industry heavyweights like Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. In an interview with GamesBeat, developer Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund spoke about the launch window, and how the only game the studio was looking to avoid launching around was Rockstar’s highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6.
Taking into account that Grand Theft Auto 6 was originally slated for release in Fall 2025 before being hit with a couple of delays, Söderlund spoke about waiting for Rockstar Games to announce a proper release date so that Embark Studios could avoid it. He noted that GTA 6 was the only unknown variable in discussions about ARC Raiders’ release date, with the studio having “a pretty reasonable hunch” that Battlefield 6 would be coming out during the same window, and Call of Duty would be following its yearly release cadence.
“When we spoke about whether we should move the game, the first dialogue we had was obviously centred around GTA,” said Söderlund. “We did not want to be close to them. I don’t think anyone wanted to be close to them. And we were waiting for them to announce when they were releasing, and once that became clear, we then felt we could build a date. We had a pretty reasonable hunch that Battlefield was coming around the time frame, we knew that Call of Duty was going to ship roughly when it did because it always does.”
Ultimately, ARC Raiders being released between Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was an intentional decision by Embark Studios. “It was absolutely something we did intentionally,” he said. “As we started to see more of Battlefield 6, we thought that looked good; we didn’t see much of Call of Duty. But at the end of the day, we felt that the game was ready to be launched.”
The more unique gameplay offered by ARC Raiders when compared to EA’s and Activision’s multiplayer shooters was what gave the studio the confidence to come out between the two titles.
“We had a long, long conversation about [changing the release date], and we came to the conclusion after going back and forth that we believed we had a game that was very strong,” Söderlund explained. “We also believed that we could get to a place where we could be competitive in a different way. We, of course, didn’t think it was a Battlefield in that way, but that the game had enough uniqueness that it could stand on its own legs.”
“We felt that the game was offering something very different from what those other games were, and we also had very strong KPIs from our last technical test, and we did a final test of the game just before launch, which we called Server Slam, gave us more data to feel comfortable with launching.”
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. Also check out what Söderlund said about making ARC Raiders a $40 release, his thoughts on competitive features like leaderboards, and potential TV and film adaptations of the extraction shooter.
