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As Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios sizes up a massive launch and considers how to build on the community it's cultivated, CEO Patrick Söderlund has his eye on social elements and interactions across the player base. Amid discussion of a more Destiny-style hub area, he reckons the city of Speranza is especially fertile ground.
Speaking with IGN, Söderlund examines the balance of PvE and PvP that defines Arc Raiders, and the surprisingly friendly player base that's sprung up around it. He reiterates that the sandbox and community surprised Embark in many ways, as "the stuff that happens in Arc Raiders is just the output, which is incredible and very rewarding for us to see as developers."
"I, personally, am touched by all the social elements to this game and the things that make me and, I think, everyone else, believe in humanity again," he continues. "There's something very kind about that, in many aspects. Just as sometimes PvP can be exciting, frustrating, and thrilling, as well. Those are the aspects that we have to look into."
Sure, you might get gunned down by bloodthirsty raiders when you were just minding your own business and dutifully hunting Arc, but equally, you may be revived by a kind stranger who happened upon your crushed body after you were flattened by the Arc. Arc Raiders giveth, and taketh away.
Söderlund focuses on Speranza as a conflux of player behavior and flavorful elements. "I think Speranza is heavily underutilized, personally," he says. "I think that's something that we want to, probably, improve and make into something else. Are there elements of the game where there could be meeting points?"
Quick to stress that these ideas are just rough hypotheticals and not a tease for things to come, Söderlund notes that expanding Speranza is "something that I think people have told us about, something that I think could be cool."
His comments follow discussion of Embark turning Speranza into a walkable hub more in line with Destiny 2 or Monster Hunter's multiplayer meeting points. In these hubs, you might see dozens of players roaming around, talking to vendors, emoting at each other, or – at least in modern Monster Hunter – arm wrestling or playing other minigames.
Design lead Virgil Watkins confirmed that this style of hub was one of the first topics the team tackled when building the front end of the game. We can see where they ended up; at least for launch, a usability-first hub made sense.
Söderlund, likewise, wonders, "Could you meet up with people there? Could that be a social hub to some extent? What more can we do with that?" And beyond the functional or social impact, how would Speranza – currently a fragmented series of menus and backgrounds – fill out "the lore of Arc Raiders"? Perhaps we'll see Embark come up with some answers, rather than pacing around possibilities, in the months ahead.
Everything in Arc Raiders' Escalation and 2026 Roadmap.
