TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
"It's quite challenging because we have these two, quite polar [types of] fans."
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The Arc Raiders developers have said in the past that during development playtests that preceded launch, raiders were behaving much more violently toward one another than how we've seen in the community post-launch. It's something that Embark production director Caio Braga mentioned to us multiple times when we spoke to him after his talk at GDC. After all, it took adding PvP to the concept before it started becoming fun in the developers' eyes.
When we asked Braga about how players received the game compared to their pre-release testing, he replied that "the most obvious [thing] was the PvE crowd." Frankly, it's Arc Raiders' most defining factor in the extraction genre, where many players would rather be allies and stick it to the Arc machines instead. It's the phenomenon of so-called 'friendly lobbies', though Embark insists it's not that binary.
During development, "Some people on the team had the feeling that it would be nice to play PvE in the game, but we didn't know, so [the players] proved it to us," Braga explains. Hindsight's 20/20, as they say.
"Nowadays, it's changed a lot of playtests because our tests have people saying, 'I actually enjoy PvE, so I'm going to play PvE. Because it's part of the game, I'm going to represent those players'."
One of the refrains seen in comment threads around Arc Raiders is for an exclusively PvE mode to be added to the game. And while it was an unexpected fan fixation before launch, it's evidently been acknowledged and accommodated by the team more since, such as with the Arc-hunting Shared Watch event and removing PvP Feats.
"It's quite challenging because we have these two, quite polar [types of] fans of the game," Braga adds, "But it's also quite interesting as well."
"We also had a few moments where the team got way too friendly. It was just a few moments, not always, but we would try to balance that a little bit to see how much fun we could have on all ends of it."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Allowing both playstyles to have a home in the game is evidently important for Embark, as you can't have the highs of either end of the scale without the opposite side. That's also been my reasoning when I've seen people ask for a PvE mode, in that it...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
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Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
The Arc Raiders developers have said in the past that during development playtests that preceded launch, raiders were behaving much more violently toward one another than how we've seen in the community post-launch. It's something that Embark production director Caio Braga mentioned to us multiple times when we spoke to him after his talk at GDC. After all, it took adding PvP to the concept before it started becoming fun in the developers' eyes.
When we asked Braga about how players received the game compared to their pre-release testing, he replied that "the most obvious [thing] was the PvE crowd." Frankly, it's Arc Raiders' most defining factor in the extraction genre, where many players would rather be allies and stick it to the Arc machines instead. It's the phenomenon of so-called 'friendly lobbies', though Embark insists it's not that binary.
During development, "Some people on the team had the feeling that it would be nice to play PvE in the game, but we didn't know, so [the players] proved it to us," Braga explains. Hindsight's 20/20, as they say.
"Nowadays, it's changed a lot of playtests because our tests have people saying, 'I actually enjoy PvE, so I'm going to play PvE. Because it's part of the game, I'm going to represent those players'."
One of the refrains seen in comment threads around Arc Raiders is for an exclusively PvE mode to be added to the game. And while it was an unexpected fan fixation before launch, it's evidently been acknowledged and accommodated by the team more since, such as with the Arc-hunting Shared Watch event and removing PvP Feats.
"It's quite challenging because we have these two, quite polar [types of] fans of the game," Braga adds, "But it's also quite interesting as well."
"We also had a few moments where the team got way too friendly. It was just a few moments, not always, but we would try to balance that a little bit to see how much fun we could have on all ends of it."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Allowing both playstyles to have a home in the game is evidently important for Embark, as you can't have the highs of either end of the scale without the opposite side. That's also been my reasoning when I've seen people ask for a PvE mode, in that it...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?