ARC Raiders launched just a few days after Battlefield 6, but that was completely irrelevant to the studio. The important thing was to avoid another competitor.

Where do the statements come from? Patrick Söderlund, one of the founders and current CEO of Embark Studios (ARC Raiders, The Finals), spoke in an interview with GamesBeat about the release of ARC Raiders and the competition.

Before Söderlund co-founded Embark in 2018 with Magnus Nordin, Rob Runesson, Stefan Strandberg, Jenny Huldschiner, and Johan Andersson, he worked at DICE and later at EA for several years. He served as CEO and Vice President of DICE and as Executive Vice President of EA’s Worldwide Studios.

Söderlund is credited for his time at DICE and EA in the credits of games like Battlefield (e.g., 3, 4, and 1), Titanfall 2, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

ARC Raiders shows no fear of competition

What does he say about the release and Battlefield 6? Söderlund mentions in the interview that the team at Embark talked a lot about the release date. They considered whether it made sense to launch so close to Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: “We had very, very serious discussions about this specific issue, really. We talked about: ‘Should we move the game?'”

Söderlund explains that Embark was confident that ARC Raiders did not need to hide from the competition:

After some back and forth, we concluded that we have a game that is very strong. We also believed that we could reach a position where we are competitive in a different way. Of course, we didn’t think of the game as a ‘Battlefield’ title, but we found that the game has enough uniqueness to stand on its own.

Söderlund mentions that they had a well-founded assumption of when Battlefield 6 would be released. Additionally, they were also confident about the rough release window of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 – nevertheless, they did not want to deviate from the set schedule:

“We wondered: ‘Hmm, did we really make the right decision?’ We talked about moving it elsewhere. But at the end of the day, we felt that the game was ready for launch. We felt that the game offers something completely different from these other titles.”

In conclusion, Söderlund states that they also collected important data during the final test just before the release, the so-called server slam, which gave them further confidence in the launch.

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Which game was ARC Raiders still afraid of? As Söderlund reveals in the interview, Embark Studios was afraid of GTA 6 and deliberately wanted to avoid the action game: “The first dialogue we had obviously revolved around GTA. We didn’t want to be near them. I believe no one wanted to be near them.”

Embark observed closely what Rockstar Games and GTA 6 planned when determining a release date before making a decision: “We waited for them to announce their launch date. Once that was out, we decided: Okay, good, now we have a solution where we can somewhat distance ourselves and set a date.”

The release of GTA 6 is a topic that has been occupying the entire gaming industry for years now. For other studios, it is particularly important to avoid the launch of the game as broadly as possible since the expectations for the highly anticipated title are extremely high. Even the biggest publishers fear the release of GTA 6

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Other games would have crumbled under such chaos, but Hytale is fighting back. However, the lead developer is angry – and wants to harness that anger.

The story surrounding the game Hytale, which many refer to as a “Minecraft lookalike”, is perhaps one of the more bizarre in gaming. The project was supposed to become much bigger and better under Riot than ever planned. The dream seemed to have faded – but Hytale lives on. And the first release is just a few days away, although the new and old owner primarily feels anger.

What happened? A few years ago, Hytale had a real hype. The game looked good, preparations for the release were underway, and everything pointed towards success. However, Riot took over the development, the release was postponed – because the entire game was to receive a significantly higher quality. It is actually surprising, considering how good Hytale looked years ago.

The project was then threatened with cancellation, until the original owner offered to buy the game back from Riot – and that is exactly what happened. Hytale is being saved. But this rescue was not only expensive but also requires many sacrifices in the future.

This is what the chief says: The last 4 years were probably not at all productive, as Simon Collins-Laflamme reports on X. He recently bought back Hytale from Riot and reveals how he perceived the last years and what the prevailing emotion is: anger.

People ask me how I feel after I got Hytale back and as we approach the release. Honestly, the transparent answer is anger.

He also elaborates on this and explains how the last years were wasted from his perspective.

The game has insane potential, but 4 years of development have gone into rebuilding the engine instead of gameplay features. This leaves us with a 4-year gap that we need to catch up on, and with a newly built engine that will now never be used.

If you don’t invest in gameplay, you don’t just lose time. You lose momentum, iterations, and player feedback. Now the focus has to be on “gameplay first” and on rebuilding trust by actually releasing things at a fast pace.

“It’s a damn miracle”

A project that has been developed “into nothing” for 4 years would probably be a reason for most developers to simply bury the matter. After all, the initial hype of Hytale has nearly been extinguished, and only the biggest fans remain. But they are not intimidated and hope to still realize the vision of Hytale. The developers have reportedly achieved nothing less than a miracle in recent days, as stated:

It’s a damn miracle that we were able to save Hytale. It was barely playable. All foundations were broken. The camera, movement, combat, crafting, building, the game loop, the sounds, the rendering. Everything. Just everything was wrong.

That they were apparently able to make quick corrections here is not a reason for the developers to slow down. Quite the opposite. Making up for lost time will be a project that will likely take many, many months:

It should have taken years to fix this, but within weeks we got the game back into a playable, fun state. And now, instead of slowing down or celebrating the release, we have to keep pushing forward for years to catch up on the lost time.

He concludes his summary by stressing the anger once again. Collins-Laflamme does not want this anger to turn into a negative mood, but instead to harness it:

So yes, I feel anger. But I transform this anger into focus and execution. I am putting in more money, more time, and personal sacrifices to deliver the game that this vision deserves.

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When can you play Hytale? The release of an “Early Access” version of Hytale is imminent. Starting from January 13, 2026, you will be able to play Hytale – but not on Steam. Hytale will initially only be offered on the official game website. A large launch on Steam is not planned yet, as they expect a lot of negative reviews from players who “are not yet well informed about the work of the [team].”
The developers prefer to collaborate with the core community, listen to their feedback, and not get too bogged down by negative reviews on Steam – there will be time for that later.

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