ARC Raiders And Marathon Add PvE Modes As Extraction Shooter Talk Turns To Decline
The two biggest names in the genre are testing the same concession at the same time, and the loudest player complaints in the thread are about being killed before they can reach the content, not about difficulty settings.
Key Facts
- Embark Studios announced a limited-time PvE mode test for ARC Raiders starting October 13.
- Bungie announced a PvE mode for Marathon in the December update Symbiosis.
- The ARC Raiders Frozen Road update releases October 8 with a new map, a hideout expansion, a grappling hook, a selfie camera and three new enemy types.
- A Reddit thread on the ARC Raiders board citing the Forbes article drew over 1,000 comments.
- Forbes reported that Marathon faces a serious player count decline and described its operation as a big bet on sustainability.
Reporting from 2 sources: GameBusiness.jp, Game Spark.
Embark Studios has announced a limited-time PvE mode test for ARC Raiders starting October 13, and Bungie has announced a PvE mode for Marathon in its December update, Symbiosis. The two announcements arrived back to back, and both titles are PvPvE extraction shooters. Forbes published a piece framing the pair as a pivot, saying interest in high-difficulty PvPvE elements is fading and that both games took the same strategy to acquire players. The Forbes article says Marathon faces a serious player count decline and described its operation as a big bet on sustainability, while ARC Raiders is only running a test. On the ARC Raiders subreddit, a thread citing the article drew over 1,000 comments debating whether the genre is declining or whether the problem is each game's design.
The two PvE pushes are not the same size. ARC Raiders is running a limited-time test under its major "Frozen Road" update, while Marathon has committed to a PvE mode inside the December update "Symbiosis." Separate reporting on ARC Raiders notes that "friendly players make up 37% of the total," data cited alongside the ARC threat and Raider cooperation focus of the test.
Forbes also carried pushback from the existing community. Those players say pandering to PvE damages the game's original intent and that anyone who does not want to take risks should not be playing the extraction shooter genre. Forbes added that "the game industry is likely beginning to distance itself from new extraction shooter titles," and said the answer on whether the PvE modes bring players back will arrive before long.
The loudest complaints in the thread were about dying before reaching the content:
- "Hardcore players keep hunting casual players, casual players get fed up and quit, then the player layer below them gets hunted and leaves the game."
- "Losing equipment you spent hours collecting because of cheaters or despicable players who camp extraction points feels terrible. The frustration when you lose is awful."
- "Out of 10 attempts, 9 ended with me being shot in the back."
Other posters argued the genre is too small to carry many entrants and named Escape from Tarkov as the model everyone copied, calling PvPvE extraction a niche genre to begin with.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.