Arc Raiders is one of the most popular multiplayer shooters of the last few years. Not only was it massively popular at launch, but the game even managed to hold on to its player count for a long time, overshadowing the likes of Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. It seems developer Embark has found the secret sauce of success for live games.
While developers like Ubisoft are going through major restructuring, layoffs, and studio closures, Embark has reaped the benefits of its approach. So what's it doing differently? Industry analyst Michael Pachter says it's thanks to the short development cycle and its relatively low budget.
On his SIFTD Games YouTube channel (thanks, Insider Gaming), Pachter spoke about Ubisoft's current predicament and how it managed to find itself there. He primarily blamed the studio's development formula, which featured massive budgets, long development cycles, and eventually mediocre sales. He said one of the biggest mistakes developers can make is comparing themselves to legacy studios, when they should be comparing themselves to Embark and Arc Raiders.
Ubisoft takes five years to put out a game that sells five million units, and this formula just doesn't work, according to Pachter....
