14 March 2026

Arc Raiders Boss Praises Bungie After Marathon Backlash

By newsgame

Embark Studios CEO and ARC Raiders director Patrick Söderlund applauded Bungie’s work on Marathon and the manner in which the Sony-owned studio responded to player feedback following the game’s rocky playtest. He offered his praise alongside a nuanced comparison of Marathon and Embark Studios’ own extraction shooter, ultimately suggesting the two may not be competing for the exact same audience despite sharing a genre.

ARC Raiders and Marathon are among the highest-profile extraction shooters to hit the market since 2025, but they have not followed the same path. While ARC Raiders emerged as a major hit after its October 2025 launch, Marathon drew mixed reactions during early testing and required further iteration after Bungie acknowledged player feedback and pushed back its planned September 2025 release to March 2026.

Marathon Launches to Positive Reviews but Fails to Dethrone ARC Raiders

Destiny and Halo developer Bungie launches its new extraction shooter, Marathon, to positive reviews, but fails to dethrone ARC Raiders.

ARC Raiders Director Impressed With Marathon Turnaround

In a March 13 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Söderlund reflected on Bungie’s recent launch and the circumstances leading up to it, praising the Sony subsidiary for how it handled the negative player response to the Marathon alpha test from spring 2025. He noted that the game had been “heavily criticized,” though he stopped short of judging whether all of that backlash was fair, and added that Bungie appeared to have done a “really good job” turning around what looked like a major problem in such a short period of time. “Credit to that team and to the work that they have done with the game,” the executive said. “I hope that they do well.”

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Söderlund’s praise was not limited to Bungie’s responsiveness. He also said that the studio’s new extraction shooter has “many things” he likes, citing Marathon‘s progression system as one example. The remark suggests his overall comments were more than a passing show of support, given that they came from the director of one of the most successful extraction shooters in recent memory.

Embark Boss Doesn’t Think ARC Raiders and Marathon Are That Similar

Elsewhere in the interview, Söderlund shared his view on how Marathon compares with Embark’s own ARC Raiders, drawing a clear distinction between the two. He described Bungie’s new game as more PvP-oriented, saying his initial impression is that PvE “doesn’t feel like the focus” of Marathon. Conversely, Embark has consistently presented ARC Raiders as a more accessible take on the extraction shooter genre, with PvE playing at least as large a role as PvP. That focus on mass-market appeal is further reflected in the game’s matchmaking system, which pairs ARC Raiders players based on playstyles: those who prioritize ARCs are more likely to end up in lobbies with other PvE-focused individuals, while those who frequently attack other raiders have a greater chance of matching with opponents ready and eager to fight back.

ARC Raiders Was Made With ‘Maybe a Quarter’ of Typical AAA Game Budget

While he proved more than willing to discuss it, Marathon wasn’t the focus of Söderlund’s interview. Instead, the industry veteran spoke at length about how ARC Raiders was made with what he described as “maybe a quarter of the budget” of a typical AAA game. The Embark CEO said this was possible by leveraging new technology, development pipelines, and even organizational structure, all of which combined to allow Embark to compete at a high level without the resource scale typically associated with AAA development.

While ARC Raiders stirred up some controversy over its use of AI voices, Söderlund said his approach to development efficiency relies less on heavy AI use and more on rethinking older development habits. He pointed to photogrammetry (using sets of photographs to generate 3D models), procedural generation, and the use of real-world topography from Google Maps as examples of how Embark has streamlined environment creation, while arguing that much of the industry remains constrained by legacy technology.

Released: March 5, 2026
ESRB: Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op