There's a vibe shift happening in multiplayer shooters. The shine of free-to-play has thoroughly faded, and it's now fashionable to buy games again—a trend partially fueled by the howling success of Arc Raiders last year. The extraction shooter has sold millions over a few months and maintained a huge audience over the holiday break.
But it almost didn't go down that way. Arc Raiders was planned as a free-to-play game for the majority of its lengthy development, but in late 2024, Embark pivoted to a traditional paid model. In a recent interview with GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi, Embark founder Patrick Söderlund reflected on the decision, and said it was easier to cut against the grain of free-to-play after witnessing the success of other premium multiplayer games like Helldivers 2.
"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,'" Söderlund said. "We made that decision, whether that was right or wrong one can argue. I like the fact that the game is relatively affordable and that people can come in and try the game."
Without getting deep into the weeds about the somewhat arbitrary perception of value in games (like how Call of Duty and Battlefield have campaigns primarily to justify a $70 price tag), Söderlund said landing on $40 for Arc Raiders was ultimately about finding a price would go over well with players.
"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."
Indeed, it worked. It looks like $40 is an acceptable sweet spot for multiplayer-only games with a sizable budget, at least for our current moment. However, paid multiplayer games like Arc Raiders, Helldivers 2, Battlefield 6, and Call of Duty all share the same elephant in the room: they ask for cash up front, and then immediately begin the upsell on expensive microtransactions. Maybe that practice will soon see the same scrutiny folks are starting to apply to ugly skins.
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