"A Venn Diagram Between Shadow of the Colossus, Left 4 Dead and PUBG" ARC Raiders Devs Reveal Original Game Concept

The original pitch for ARC Raiders showcases a game that would have looked completely different from the final product, a new interview with developer Embark reveals. While ARC Raiders has hit the PvPvE extraction shooter community, the game almost had a completely different gameplay loop.

Extraction shooters have been a relatively niche genre, making the fact that ARC Raiders has surpassed the number of concurrent players in massive games that Battlefield 6 all the more impressive. Currently, ARC Raiders has over 400,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. Throw in that many players may come as a surprise to players when they learn where development is going ARC Raiders started.

ARC Raiders was originally launched as an Open-World Co-Op PvE game

A new one ARC Raiders video series posted on the game's official YouTube channel shed some light on its development process, including how gameplay and design concepts have changed since work on it began. Part of this series highlights the differences between the game as originally presented to the final product that players can access today. According to ARC Raiders Creative Director Stefan Strandberg, the development team “spoke of some kind of Venn diagram between Shadow of the Colossus, Left 4 Deadand PUBG“when deciding what kind of game they wanted ARC Raiders to be.

This inspiration formed the basis of the team's search for a game with a core mechanic of “session-based raids” that would fit in the middle of the hypothetical Venn Diagram these games would create. Strandberg goes on to note that the game that could come out of the overlap of these titles would be a “super compelling concept” for the team.

Despite its game change, ARC Raiders wears its inspirations on its sleeve

Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
Left 4 Dead (2008)
PUBG (2017)

For players who have experience ARC Raiders' PvPvE extraction games, it may sound strange to hear these titles listed as inspirations. Shadow of the Colossus is Sony Japan's 2005 single-player title that sees players take on massive bosses by scaling these behemoths to find their weak points. Left 4 Dead is Valve's iconic 2008 co-op zombie survival title that lets up to four players team up against hordes of the undead as they travel across unique maps. PUBG was a trailblazer for the battle royale genre when it was released in 2017, featuring both solo and team-based gameplay.

Although this initial pitch for ARC Raiders lacked the PvP component that is a central mechanic of the final game, it is clear that the remnants of its inspiration are included in the version of the game playable today. Players can likely trace a through line between Shadow of the Colossus' boss fight mechanics and ARC Raiders' raids against massive machines like Queens and Matriarchs. Likewise, the squad-based gameplay is off ARC Raiders it echoes off Left 4 Deads popular co-op loop.

ARC Raiders Beginner's Guides and General Tips

At first it seems like PUBG served as the inspiration for a title where players would be dropped into a session and allowed to explore and scavenge from procedurally generated loot placement. With ARC Raiders undergoing a shift during development that added a PvP component, the parallels to PUBGBattle Royale gameplay has become much clearer ARC Raiders' final product. Strandberg makes it clear that even before a solid vision for ARC Raiders' gameplay loop was established, the developers knew that the game would draw individual mechanics from these sources of inspiration. Although the released version of ARC Raiders places less emphasis on session-based PvE gameplay, what remains of the original pitch still seems to have been assembled to create the final version.