We all remember the reveal trailer for Arc Raiders. A squad of raiders running and super jumping towards a massive Arc at high speed with an absolute banger playing in the background. It wasn't clear what the gameplay loop would be, but the overall vibe and aesthetic piqued our interest. We eventually learned that Embark wanted to take a boss-rush approach, but eventually pivoted to the extraction shooter genre.
That was clearly a good call, as Arc Raiders is currently one of the most popular shooters on the market, with more players than giants like Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6. However, this pivot took a lot of time and effort. Where do you even begin when reworking a project into a different genre? According to production director Caio Braga, you start with the speed of the game.
Speaking to PC Gamer at a GDC 2026, Braga revealed that the biggest change the devs made to the game was "reducing the speed of everything" by around 60 percent. This is evident when you play the game now, with its slow and deliberate movements, and stamina bar that keeps you from zooming across the map.
The initial fast-paced boss-rush formula...
