Hennet showcased some of her work during her tenure at Sandfall Interactive—which lasted from May 2023 to the end of 2024—through a showcase reel on ArtStation. It features plenty of motion capture footage for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Hennet was responsible for converting the raw motion capture footage into a cleaner version, which could then be further refined for the full game.

“During my time at Sandfall Interactive, my main responsibilities included cleaning up and refining body and facial motion capture, as well as managing data from Xsens to UE5,” wrote Hennet on ArtStation. “I also provided support on the motion capture sessions and contributed to building the animation pipeline for the cinematics.”

Development on The Witcher 4 has seemingly been going slow and steady, with CD Projekt RED also focusing on growing its team. Interestingly, December saw the studio add another cinematics-focused artist to its ranks—former Baldur’s Gate 3 senior cinematic artist Felix Pedulla.

“After an incredible and frankly wild six-year ride with the amazing team at Larian Studios, a new chapter begins,” wrote Pedulla on LinkedIn. “I’m so grateful for every chaotic, creative, and unforgettable moment we shared. We made some serious magic together, and I’ll forever cherish the lessons and memories. A huge thank you to all my incredible colleagues and friends I made.”

“As one adventure ends, another begins! I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I’m joining the legendary team at CD Projekt Red as a Senior Cinematic Designer! The opportunity to contribute to one of the most ambitious studios in the industry is a dream come true. Time to trade in my Baldur’s Gate dice for some Polish steel and get to work crafting some epic cutscenes.”

While few details about The Witcher 4 have been released in recent months, Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski has predicted that, when all is said and done, more than $800 million will have been spent on the RPG. In his analysis, while Chrzanowski noted that the development itself will likely end up costing CD Projekt around $388 million, marketing and other expenses will add on quite a bit, bringing the overall expenses to beyond the $800 million mark.

Rumors and reports by analysts have also indicated that, as the work on The Witcher 4 continues, CD Projekt RED has plans to bridge the gap between the upcoming RPG and its predecessor by releasing a new DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This DLC is expected to be priced at $30, and will likely end up being the start of a proper marketing push for The Witcher 4.

For more, check out what CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has to say about the role of generative AI in game development.

Garavaryan spoke about how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ticks many boxes that one might expect from a AAA RPG, from its polished gameplay to the fidelity of visuals, as well as the quality of its voice acting and soundtrack. However, he also noted that the novel experience offered by the title’s narrative played an important role thanks to its blend of old-school turn-based combat with more modern takes on the fantasy RPG genre.

“I think historically there was always some sort of space in terms of the visual fidelity,” he said. “I think there is less importance given by players on how high the visual fidelity is when you play a video game today. I also think the size of the experience, the depth, the number of hours you get out of the content is maybe less important than how exceptional, how interesting, how novel the experience is.”

The publisher and studio had discussions about pricing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lower than its contemporaries specifically because potential buyers would then find it to be “respectful of their money,” as well as their time.

“I think ultimately we’ve seen a number of larger companies increase prices quite regularly,” Garavaryan explained. “We try to think, ‘what do we think the price should be?’ And then we price it lower, so that when players buy a game from us, they feel like they’re getting a bargain. We want them to feel like we are respectful of their money, respectful of their time, and that fundamentally, every time they buy a game from us, they’re getting a great deal.”

The price also helped set Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 apart from its contemporaries, noted Garavaryan. The modern state of the gaming industry has seen prices going up across the board, from individual titles to subscription services and even consoles. Despite this, there has also never really been a time when players have had access to so many high-quality games on a regular basis.

“I think we are living in an industry where players have access to exceptional video games on a weekly basis,” Garavaryan said. “If you want to deserve their attention, their money, I think you need to bring something to the table that’s truly great and truly special.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about the title, check out our review. Also take a look at why the studio doesn’t believe that a big team is needed to develop high-quality games. While you’re at it, take a look at our thoughts about the “Thank You” update released back in December.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

It’s hardly surprising since the critically-acclaimed role-playing game swept The Game Awards and Golden Joystick Awards while being nominated for eight categories in the Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. That’s not counting the myriad of publications and websites that awarded it the same (although our top honors went to Death Stranding 2: On the Beach). Or the fact that it was disqualified from the Indie Game Awards due to the usage of generative AI, which the studio later clarified.

Following the “Thank You” update, Sandfall Interactive is seemingly moving on from Clair Obscur to its next project. Nothing is set in stone, and while the studio is certainly feeling the pressure to deliver, it wants to focus on “what we think is cool,” per lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen.

One thing that you can be sure of is that it won’t be bigger than Expedition 33. Creative director Guillaume Broche said it’s “good to have limitations” when being creative since “It’s the best way to be the best version of yourself.” Despite five million sales and counting, the team is also resisting the urge to scale up as Broche wants to focus on “making games” rather than managing.

When asked about whether the next game by Sandfall Interactive will be bigger than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Broche gave a definitive answer: “No, I think it’s good to have limitations when you are creative.”

“It’s the best way to be the best version of yourself. We could scale up now we have a lot more money, but I would say it’s not tempting for us, because even the management team and myself, we’d have to be hands-on and doing things for ourselves. We love making games more than we love managing, so we want to keep doing that. These past five years were some of the best of my life, and I want to be happy like that again,” he said.

Guillermin noted that a small team allowed everyone to essentially know each other, which in turn helps with better communication in game development. He also spoke about how, with the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the team now has a strong foundation to start building out its future projects, before noting that a large team isn’t really needed to make and ship high-quality games.

“In terms of team dynamics, everybody knows everybody in the team, and people are used to working together,” explained Guillermin. “Now we are lucky enough to have a strong foundation from the previous project, but expanding for the sake of expanding is not our vision.

“Our vision is to ship quality games, and we don’t believe you need to have a lot of people to do that. There are large teams that deliver great games, of course, but for us what works best is pretty much our current size. We don’t want to change the team structure and dynamic.”

Broche had previously spoken about how things at Sandfall Interactive wouldn’t really change much in light of the critical acclaim of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. He also confirmed at the time that the studio doesn’t have plans to grow its headcount.

“We don’t want to grow too much as a company,” he said. “We work well as we are now, as a small team, and we want to stay like that, because we are very happy, and why change?”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S last year, and since then has garnered near-universal praise and acclaim before going on to win several awards. The studio is currently working on its next project, and while it hasn’t revealed any details yet, COO and production director François Meurisse noted that the studio has been feeling “a bit of pressure”, and that it is working on “some great ideas we’re so excited to explore.”

For more on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, check out our review.

He acknowledged that, while they are great games, you can’t really make something like a new Grand Theft Auto with a budget of $10 million. He noted that the industry needs games of all kinds and expressed hope that the industry doesn’t jump on the AA game bandwagon in the future.

“You do hear, after the success of things like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, that the AA games are taking over,” he said. “But I would not be able to live without a AAA title. I really want to play the blockbuster games. You can’t do GTA for $10 million. We need both. It’s important not to get stuck in ideas, like AA is a new thing, or indie is a new thing, or ‘blah, blah, blah’ is a new thing. We need the diversity. I hope that publishers don’t just look at a game like Expedition, which has been super successful, and think, ‘oh, AA is a new thing. Let’s only do that.’ I don’t believe in that. You had a huge amount of AA games that came this year, which nobody cared about. Let’s remember that.”

When the concept of risk vs reward came up, with Dring noting that it’s often harder for games with AAA budgets to take major risks, Fares brought up studios like Naughty Dog that are using their massive budgets to push the creative envelope in different ways. He argued that it is possible to develop AAA games that also take risks to a certain extent. He did, however, acknowledge that incredibly large budgets (for example, $100 million) might make risk-taking a more difficult proposition for companies.

“I would argue that, actually, Naughty Dog is pushing the envelope of innovation with a AAA budget,” he counters. “I would argue Rockstar is doing it. Nintendo is, most of the time, doing it. So you can do a big AAA title but also take innovative risks. But once you go over a $100 million budget, you’re going to be like, ‘okay, s***. There’s a lot of money on the table’. People are more scared. It’s understandable. But it’s proven that you can do it.”

Fares spoke about how his own studio, Hazelight Studios, likes to take risks. He noted that the studio’s ethos is to “f*** s*** up” while still being careful about the responsibilities towards its employees.

“The f*** s*** up mentality, without f***ing up, is important, because we take things to the next level,” he said. “We can explore. If you are limited, because of risk and being scared, it’s not good for the game. So, for us, it will always be like that, whatever the budget.”

“With that said, obviously, there’s a responsibility. People need money to pay the rent, and there’s a responsibility to who’s paying for the budget, and to actually deliver the milestone, to do a great game, to not slack, to do something really well.”

Split Fiction is available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. For more details, check out our review.

But in the choice between Maelle and Verso, I hadn’t really been able to pick a winner when everything that the two Painters had to go through with the rest of the Expedition was so fresh in my mind. I picked Maelle, spurred on by Jennifer English’s earnestness and raw vulnerability. And of course, what I saw prompted me to dive right back into a New Game Plus run, where I went with Verso’s poignant appeal to bring him the release he desired with all his heart.

I’ve had some time to process the emotions that came along with those epic conclusions. And I do think that if I had to do it all again (which is a very strong possibility courtesy of the Thank You update and a holiday break), it’s Verso who gets my vote despite the merit I see in Maelle’s decision to keep her world alive. I’m well aware, however, that many of you might disagree.

Well, allow me the chance to convince you otherwise. Of course, if you haven’t had the chance to experience this adventure for yourself, there are going to be major spoilers ahead, so you might want to come back to this one once you get to make the choice for yourself at least once. Trust me when I say it’s going to be worth it. Let’s get started!

Father of the Year

We begin, of course, with Renoir, a man driven to the limits of his patience as he attempts to rescue his wife and daughter from the grief of losing Verso in the real world, even as he attempts to come to terms with that tragic loss himself. As The Curator, his motivations in bringing an end to the Paintress’ world involve helping his wife and daughter come to terms with Verso’s loss, a feat they can only achieve if his painted world in the Canvas is taken off the board.

Renoir’s wish to erase Verso’s canvas comes not from a desire to erase his memory, but to give closure to a family that’s very much alive but stuck in limbo in their refusal to process their grief healthily. He is a husband and a father, being torn apart by the sight of more members of a family he loves deeply withering away before his very eyes. His stalemate with The Paintress shows his determination to bring them back from the brink, and the compassion he shows towards Maelle, even as he places himself squarely against her, is proof of that.

To Renoir, Maelle is now Alicia, her memories and body restored. She is the sister that Verso gave his life to save in the real world, now made whole and perhaps able to live the life that her brother wanted her to have. But he also acknowledges her agency, imploring her to return to him and not wither away in the world she has built for herself, no matter how real it is to her after he is defeated. He sets the stage for either of the game’s endings perfectly.

But in Verso and Maelle’s respective journeys, we see how Sandfall constantly foreshadowed it all before bringing things to an epic conclusion. Let’s begin with Verso.

A Long Life Lived?

Verso is tired of his immortality within the Canvas he created. He makes that quite clear from the time he joins forces with the Expedition. He wants an end to it all, being held off by the painted version of his father created by Aline in order to protect her. But there’s also the fragment of his soul that we constantly encounter as we make our way through the Continent, giving us clues about the Painter’s complicated history that only really make sense once we have the whole picture.

I do agree with Verso. Living with loss is certainly exhausting, and the knowledge that he would have to endure the grief of all the people who had come and gone from his life as he lived it in the Canvas is sure to weigh on even the strongest, bravest warrior. He’s an unwilling survivor in this world, insulated from death by a mother who could not let him go.

And yet, he’s also a sensitive, caring person who truly bonds with the Expedition and fights alongside them, learning more about their lives and building a connection that’s as real as it can get in a world that’s built on an illusion. It’s those bonds that make his choice to bring an end to it all even more significant.

The way I see it, he chooses to sacrifice everything he holds dear in his world in order to let the mother and sister he never really knew have a chance at living a life that’s not an illusion. Despite all of his experience being very real to him, he chooses to sacrifice it all on the altar of his family, mirroring the sacrifice that the real Verso made for his sister.

Maelle may not agree with him, and I might have agreed with her if I didn’t know that grief is almost a duty we carry towards a loved one who is no more. Verso understands that sentiment, having seen so many such individuals come and go throughout his life. His choice is an impossible one, but making it allows his soul to finally rest, while his “family” can finally come to terms with his loss.

Verso knew he – and everything he lived through- was not real. The sadness I felt for the Dessendre family certainly was, though. It’s probably why I was curious to see what siding with Maelle could bring to the story’s conclusion.

A Life Yet To Be Lived

Maelle’s own arc is perhaps as tragic as Verso’s. Her life was spent feeling isolated and different until Gustave and Sophie showed her the love and affection Alicia might have had in another timeline where she wasn’t blamed for Verso’s death. And once she regains her memories, everything she does is to preserve the lives of the people she fought so hard to save.

Her decision to preserve the Canvas and risk withering away within its confines does make sense. To her, Verso’s world mattered more than the real one. And given her maturity in so many conversations with the Expedition’s members, it’s a choice I almost respect. Almost.

However, despite Maelle (or Alicia) being wiser than her years, having gone through so much that could have had any other adolescent unable to even process it all, the fact remains that she still is an adolescent. Her decision to keep the Canvas alive and the grim reality that she brings to it are a reflection of that immaturity, an unwillingness to grow into the woman her brother and father hoped she would become.

It’s clear in the tension in her eyes, and Verso’s grim expression as he approached a piano he once loved to play. His life wasn’t his choice, but Maelle’s, and as such, it is a selfish choice. But it isn’t entirely unexpected. If you followed Maelle’s journey through to its end, her decision to expel Alicia from the Canvas before Verso could say goodbye to the sister he thought was his is quite the revelation.

It showcases a sort of arrogance, an almost unshakeable belief that her newfound powers give her the right to make decisions unilaterally, no matter the consequences. Verso’s love for her might have allowed him to reconcile himself with that decision, but it never really sat well with me. And yet, she did have the right to make that choice and was perhaps even justified in doing so.

She lost just as much as Verso did, her young age perhaps limiting her from understanding that true grief and recovering from it begins with letting go of your attachment to that person, whilst continuing to keep their memory alive as part of the life you live in their absence. She chose a life free of pain, even if it meant she gave up on one that might have given her the closure she needed. It also tied the painted Verso to the Canvas, continuing the torment of his soul’s last remnant as he would have to keep painting endlessly, stuck in limbo between the Canvas and the real world.

Although her decision is justified from the standpoint of her character arc, it’s still one made by someone who may have thought differently had she had the chance to live a life that was as full as Verso’s.

What Does The Future Hold For the Painters?

Revisiting the incredible conclusions to Sandfall’s pilot project has me wondering what the studio could decide to do if it decides to take us back to Lumiere and the Continent. Expedition Zero might be a good place to start, allowing us to see the early days of Lumiere’s fight against The Paintress and the manner in which the technology that protected it was developed. I’d definitely not say no to an adventure with Expedition 60 either!

But I think that leaving the Canvas altogether is a great idea, taking us to the larger conflict between the Painters and the Writers. It could be a great way of revealing the events that led to the writers’ attack on Verso and Alicia, while perhaps giving Clea a more active role in a new story that showcases her tenacity and ruthless efficiency.

Whatever Sandfall decides, I can only hope that the studio sustains the quality of this one and perhaps gives us another story that demonstrates the beauty in art, and how it can either help a person process the most melancholy emotions or become a prison from which they cannot escape in the process of their grief.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Speaking to Edge Magazine’s issue 419 (via GamesRadar), Nohra noted that players tend to partake in side content before they finish the main story of a given game. This is because finishing a game takes away a lot of the motivation to return for any side content, and this was something Nohra admitted to having underestimated.

“Often, people don’t want to finish the game, so they do all the side content before finishing it, because once the story is over, you’re usually less motivated to do the side content,” said Nohra. “And that’s something I underestimated, which made people that wanted a challenging end boss fight feel a bit disappointed. I don’t regret doing it the way we did it, but [we could have] had more explanation about your choice [in Act 3].”

Adding to Nohra’s sentiment, lead programmer Tom Guillermin said that the relatively low challenge level for the final boss in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 comes down to the fact that Sandfall Interactive didn’t expect the RPG to be so beloved that players would try and do all of the side content. Instead, the studio expected most players to focus on finishing the main story.

“We weren’t sure if our game was going to be that good,” said Guillermin. “And if it’s not, people may just want to see the story and go directly to the end of the story. So it was a surprise for us [that] people were doing every single thing there is to do in the game before going to the final dungeon. We’re happy about that, but we didn’t see it coming.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released back in April 2025 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and quickly went on to become a success with positive critical and commercial reception. The title would also go on to win several awards, including the Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025. You can check out more details about it in our review, as well as our thoughts on its “Thank You” update. In the meantime, Sandfall Interactive has started thinking about its next title, and studio COO François Meurisse has acknowledged the pressure that the studio is facing going forward.

“We’ll have time to get really focused into the next game,” said Meurisse. “We have some great ideas we’re so excited to explore, and we don’t start from the same point. The team already has five more years of experience. So maybe we can do some great stuff.”

Studio COO and production director François Meurisse is acutely aware of this, telling Edge magazine in issue 419 (transcription via GamesRadar) that he feels “a bit of pressure.” Nevertheless, “it’s not so important” for the developer.

“We’ll have time to get really focused into the next game. We have some great ideas we’re so excited to explore, and we don’t start from the same point. The team already has five more years of experience. So maybe we can do some great stuff.”

Lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen agreed, though she admitted to being “a bit of a people pleaser, so it’s always in the back of my mind that we have a lot of fans now, and they have certain expectations and certain feelings towards the game.” While she’d be “lying if I said that I didn’t think about that at all,” the studio is ultimately marching to the beat of its own drum.

“Creatively, we’ve always let our North Star be our own personal taste in terms of what we think is cool, what it is we enjoy and want to see. I’ve seen too many TV shows and books be swayed trying to please a lot of people, and in the process, you end up losing the heart of what’s there. So [we] feel like we need to trust our instincts and continue to trust the vision behind the studio.”

Of course, Sandfall Interactive has yet to reveal what its next project will be, whether it’s a sequel to Expedition 33 or something brand new. Creative director Guillaume Broche previously said that the studio would continue making “stories that move people” and games that are “really honest and true.” And despite the overwhelming success of Clair Obscur, you shouldn’t expect the studio to suddenly balloon in size (at least for now).

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. You can check out our review here, and our thoughts on its big free “Thank You” update, which adds a new area, Endless Tower bosses, and much more.

Along with ARC Raiders, games like Battlefield 6, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Dispatch, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 were also among the top releases in the charts. Some older games could also be seen, with 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3, 2020’s Cyberpunk 2077, and 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5 also being represented, albeit with its Enhanced Edition release.

Valve has also seen continued success with the Steam Deck, with SteamDB ranking the handheld gaming PC as the second-best-selling Steam item, just under ARC Raiders. Check out the list below.

Embark Studios itself hasn’t revealed recent sales data for ARC Raiders, rumours from back in November indicated that it was close to hitting 7 million sales just a month after its release.

ARC Raiders art director Robert Sammelin had recently spoken about Embark Studios’ plans to support the extraction shooter for “the longest time.” In an interview from last month, he noted that the studio has a 10-year plan and that as long as players continue to engage with the title, support will continue.

“Our ambition is to keep this game alive for the longest time. It is a live game,” said Sammelin. “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.”

The art director also spoke about how the community of ARC Raiders plays a vital role in the game’s evolution, since a major reason for the extraction shooter’s success hinges on how players interact with each other.

“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,” he explained.

“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.”

As part of the studio’s plans to support ARC Raiders, the Cold Snap update was released last month, bringing with it a new Winter-themed weather condition which also affects gameplay by prompting players to seek shelter (or die trying). It also affects visibility and movement, making some surfaces much more challenging to traverse.

ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. Also check out our guide on all ARC machines and how you can beat them in battle.

Top ten best-sellers on Steam from December 23 to December 30:

1. ARC Raiders
2. Steam Deck
3. Battlefield 6
4. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
5. Baldur’s Gate 3
6. EA Sports FC 26
7. Dispatch
8. Cyberpunk 2077
9. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
10. Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced