162 articlesAfter a series of successful playtests, ARC Raiders is now finally set to release across all platforms a few hours from now.
However, one surprising thing that we’ve noticed is that the game is actually coming out between Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
Despite that, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Soderlund says they’re not worried at all. In an interview he had with The Game Business, the game “needs to start somewhere.”
Just over a week ago, ARC Raiders had its final Server Slam playtest, which allowed everyone to try the game out for free. The overall positive reception during the test suggested a strong launch for the game.
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According to statistics, ARC Raiders hit a peak concurrent player count of roughly 190,000 players. This makes it among the most-played games on Steam during that weekend.
That said, its release date which was sandwiched between two highly anticipated games had some people thinking, “What the hell are they doing?”
In the interview, Soderlund said:
“I know. The insanity. People may look at that and say, ‘what the hell are they doing?’ We have spent a lot of time looking at this from multiple angles and you know, for right or wrong, we believe that the game can launch there. This is the start of a long journey. It needs to start somewhere.”
Patrick Soderlund Believes They Can Launch the Game in that Window
Soderlund’s statement might sound like absolute insanity, but if we look at the numbers, the game was actually doing very well during its playtests.
When asked how they’re able to attract a huge number of players during their playtest, Soderlund responded:
“I think it comes down to not being complacent enough to believe that we can build something without making a meaningful impact or innovation. We have to bring something so that people pay attention. And if we’ve done a good enough job, maybe they’ll stick around. But in order for them to break away from what they’re already playing, there needs to be an attraction.”
Back then, Soderlund was worried about how ARC Raiders might be able to find its market. However, they were surprised to find out how well-received it was when they launched their first technical test back then.
“We obviously tried our best to market it, but it became one of those things that just spread virally,” said Soderlund.
He believes it shows how successful they were in creating something complex yet accessible at the same time.
Meanwhile, ARC Raiders design director Virgil Watkins believes launching ARC Raiders’ playtest alongside Bungie’s Marathon was “a great A/B test for us” in an interview last week.
Just goes to show how confident Embark Studios is with regard to their game. With ARC Raiders releasing in a few hours from now, Embark Studios is already working on two projects that they have yet to announce.
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