This was the only game Embark Studios feared, but the studio got lucky as Rockstar pushed its release to May this year.

The end of 2025 saw the release of many great games. Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, Battlefield 6, and Arc Raiders. The latter faced the daunting task of competing with Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, two giants of the genre eagerly awaited by countless fans. But there was another shark in the water: Grand Theft Auto VI. Scheduling Arc Raiders between Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was neither a mistake nor a risk. Despite the crowded release calendar, Arc Raiders broke through, attracting more than 100,000 players in its first 30 minutes and achieving one of the best player retention rates.

“When we discussed whether we should move the release date, the first conversation was obviously around Grand Theft Auto VI. We did not want to be close to them. I don’t think anyone wanted to be close to them. We were waiting for them to announce their release date, and once that became clear, we felt we could set ours. We had a pretty good hunch that Battlefield would launch around that time, and we knew Call of Duty would come out roughly when it always does. This was completely intentional. As we saw more of Battlefield 6, we thought it looked good; we didn’t see much of Call of Duty. Ultimately, we felt the game was ready to launch.

We had long discussions about changing the release date, and after revisiting the topic multiple times, we concluded that the game was very strong. We believed we could compete in a different way. Of course, we didn’t think it was a Battlefield, but the game was unique enough to stand on its own. We felt it offered something different, and our last technical test delivered very strong KPIs. We also ran a final test before launch called Server Slam, which gave us additional data that made us comfortable going ahead with the release,” said Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund in an interview with GamesBeat.

The uniqueness of Arc Raiders clearly helped. Players had seen extraction shooters before, such as Escape from Tarkov, but Arc Raiders offered a more relaxed take on the genre. The lobbies are friendlier, loot is more plentiful, and death carries far fewer consequences than in other extraction shooters. There is clearly an audience for this softer approach, and now we know just how large it is.

Source: PCGamer