ARC Raiders could split into PvE and PvP, boss says ahead of October test
ARC Raiders could one day split into separate player-versus-environment and player-versus-player games.
Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal said a split is possible, in an interview reported by Eurogamer. The comment lands just before a limited experiment that will let players try a friendlier version of the shooter.
That experiment runs from 13 to 20 October. Embark calls it a PvE Toggle beta test.
PvE means players team up against computer-controlled enemies. PvP means players fight each other. ARC Raiders currently mixes the two.
The test uses opt-in PvE matchmaking. Raiders cannot damage each other in those sessions. You queue for the kind of run you want.
Solos, duos and trios will share the same sessions during the test. Night Raids and the upcoming Frigate map are excluded.
ARC Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure. Extraction is a simple loop: drop in, grab loot, get out alive. Players enlist as Raiders and scavenge the surface of a lethal future Earth ravaged by a mysterious mechanised threat known as ARC.
The numbers explain why Embark is testing the idea. Its player data puts 37 percent of players in the friendly co-op camp, 34 percent as pure PvP players and 27 percent playing both. In a survey, 51 percent of players expressed interest in a dedicated PvE option.
There is history here. Embark originally envisioned ARC Raiders as a raid-based PvE co-op game built around looting. The studio later reset the project to build what it described as a high-tension PvPvE extraction adventure, where both the machines and other players are a threat.
Embark is keen to cool expectations. The studio said the test is not a promise of a future PvE mode and that it is possible it will not work.
For players, this means a one-week chance to see how the game feels without watching their backs. Loot runs become about planning, noise and the machines. No ambush at the lift.
The test will also give Embark hard data on queues, match balance and mood. A full split would be a production decision, not a switch flicked overnight.
