Arc Raiders dev thinks yesterday's niche "can become mainstream tomorrow," and today's extraction shooters are simply "easier to step into"

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Extraction shooters are hotter than ever. What began as a niche subgenre with a single top dog (Escape from Tarkov) is thriving into an entire ecosystem that can seemingly sustain a bunch of similar games, including Arc Raiders, Marathon, and more. One Embark Studios developer reckons the once-niche is now booming because new entrants are designed to be "easier to step into."

In an interview with GamesRadar+ about the new slate of PvPvE extraction shooters, Arc Raiders' design director Virgil Watkins says multiplayer games "absolutely can be a difficult space to break into" because "the bar is extremely high" for live service titles. Players have already sunk sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours into a select few experiences, "so anything new really has to earn its place."

"At the same time, I think it's often a factor that often what's niche yesterday can become mainstream tomorrow," he explains. "It's often a question of opening up those experiences to be approachable to more players." Extraction shooters are a perfect example of a subgenre that previously had a pretty high barrier to entry that's now being lowered with something like Arc Raiders with its bigger emphasis on social elements and less punishing deaths.

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"It allows them [players] to have the experiences that first thrilled those more niche players when it was harder to get into," Watkins adds. "That doesn't mean they lack depth, but they're designed in a way that's easier to step into, understand, and 'find the fun' a bit faster."

However, Embark Studios apparently didn't intend to break into the extraction shooter niche. The developer's focus was said to have been simply building a game the staff wanted to play, and Watkins thinks anything that "feels engaging, approachable, and has room for players to make it their own" can also carve out a space for itself alongside your evergreen, almost immortal live service mainstays.

"So it's probably less about a single shift, and more about a broader evolution in how these games are designed and who they're designed for," he says.

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Kaan SerinFreelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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