Arc Raiders devs were inspired by Helldivers 2 when they shifted from free-to-play to a $40 game: "We don't want the price to be an offender for someone"

Embark Studios boss Patrick Söderlund says the team was inspired by Helldivers 2 when deciding Arc Raiders' $40 price point.

Arc Raiders was initially planned to be a free-to-play title like the studio's previous game, The Finals, but during development Embark Studios decided that it was going to pivot into a paid experience. While this would probably be controversial to some, it clearly worked out, as Arc Raiders has been the best-selling premium game on Steam every week since launch and is speculated to have sold around 12 million copies.

Speaking to GamesBeat (via PC Gamer), Söderlund explains: "It's something we discussed as the game went from free-to-play to a traditional business model. We basically looked at games like Helldivers and other games and decided, 'OK, that is where we should sit.'" He adds "whether that was [the] right or wrong [decision] one can argue."

He says, "I like the fact that the game is relatively affordable and that people can come in and try the game." Outside of that though, the team had a pretty solid reason not to go for a more typical premium game pricing, as Söderlund continues: "We didn't have a campaign, so we figured we don't want the price to be an offender for someone. We'd rather make people feel like it's totally worth 40 bucks."

"I hope that people, given how much time they seem to spend in the game, feel like we've given them value for money. That's where we want to be," Söderlund adds, and given just how much of a big deal Arc Raiders has been as of late, I'd say it worked out.

Arc Raiders' Trigger Nades are so overpowered in PvP that it's a wonder they survived this long, but at long last Embark is planning nerfs.