While ARC Raiders design director Virgil Watkins had previously spoken about wanting to expand Speranza into a full-fledged hub where players can hang out, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund has noted in a recent interview with IGN that he finds the area to be quite underutilized. When asked about how the studio will expand on the PvE experiences offered by the extraction shooter and how it this aspect promotes ad-hoc cooperation between different squads, Söderlund said that it wants to double down on the idea.
Noting that PvE and PvP are both important ingredients in the “unique sauce that we managed to cook that makes [ARC Raiders] special,” Söderlund admitted that it was actually a happy coincidence. “I could sit there and pretend like, ‘Yes, everything that happens in the game and everything that people do in the game, of course, was intended.’ That’s not the case, of course. When you build a game, and you structure it to a large extent with elements of a sandbox, the stuff that happens in ARC Raiders is just the output, which is incredible and very rewarding for us to see as developers,” he said.
“What we do is we look at, ‘OK, what do we think we should double down on?’ I, personally, am touched by all the social elements to this game and the things that make me and, I think, everyone else, believe in humanity again. There’s something very kind about that, in many aspects. Just as sometimes PvP can be exciting, frustrating, and thrilling, as well. Those are the aspects that we have to look into. I think we look at it from a holistic perspective and try to understand what more we can do to foster and to nurture both those sides.”
As for how Embark Studios can further build on the community that ARC Raiders has managed to foster, Söderlund acknowledged that Speranza being simply a menu is an underutilization of the idea. He noted that there is potential for the zone to serve as a big social hub, while also further expanding on the world of ARC Raiders by providing more lore for the area.
“One of the discussions that I think is, to some extent, public is ‘What’s Speranza?’ I think Speranza is heavily underutilized, personally. I think that’s something that we want to, probably, improve and make into something else. Are there elements of the game where there could be meeting points? Again, these are personal ideas, right now, that I’m basically brainstorming with you, but the Speranza idea is obviously something that I think people have told us about, something that I think could be cool.” he said.
“Could you meet up with people there? Could that be a social hub to some extent? What more can we do with that? It also deepens what I think is something that players maybe want more of, which is the lore of ARC Raiders. So, we look at it from multiple angles and multiple perspectives, and then, as we build content as quickly and fast as we can, we try and push updates and changes into the game that does more of what we believe is great about this game.”
Watkins had previously spoken about wanting to expand on the concept for Speranza, and turn it into a hub akin to the Tower in Destiny 2 or the various towns in Monster Hunter games. He said that internal discussions had happened, and that the studio was waiting for the right time to attempt an update of this massive scope.
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.