Arc Raiders "needs that element of tension and risk" from PvP to work, dev says, even though Embark knows people are loving its "safer lobbies"

One of the most fascinating things about Arc Raiders – or about PvPvE shooters more generally – are all the social dynamics fuelled by the knowledge that anyone in the lobby could hunt and loot your corpse like game or become your next virtual bestie. And while Arc Raiders' matchmaking does keep track of how prone each player is to aggression, one lead dev reckons the tension of not separating PvP and PvE enjoyers is essential to the game's winning sauce.

Embark Studios CEO Patrick Soderlund last month delved a little bit into how exactly the hit game's matchmaking works, claiming "first it's skilled-based," then it checks if you're playing solo or in a group, and then it also takes into account what side of the PvPvE spectrum you fall on.

Now, design director Virgil Watkins tells PC Gamer that Arc Raiders "needs that element of tension and risk from other players to be good." Hear, hear – even if you're a PvE preferer, knowing there may be another human threat out there somewhere, sometimes in your own party, is what makes matches so thrilling.

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Watkins also points out that "people are having a lot of fun with these safer lobbies," the ones full of players who fall on the Nice List in the aggression-based matchmaking algo. "I think it kind of surprised us in exactly how many people [did] latch on to and are having fun with these elements of the game," he adds. "So it certainly encourages us to lean more forward into giving opportunities to have friendly and fun interactions … but of course, we still need to cater to the PvP audience."

The same Arc Raiders lead previously told resident GamesRadar+ raider Austin Wood that aggression-based matchmaking wasn't totally "binary" and lobbies weren't strictly separated into friendly and aggressive camps: "Obviously you can tell it's weighted one way or the other, but it's never like, you are now only with PvE players, you are now only with PvP players. It's a weighted system. There's a lot of layers to it, so it's not quite so A/B as people might assume."