According to IGN, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund said the studio “should do a lot more” with trading in its extraction shooter Arc Raiders, teasing the potential for player-to-player exchanges and a more robust market. This came from a nearly two-hour interview during a gameplay session, where Söderlund also discussed movie deals and aggression-based matchmaking. The comments have sparked significant concern within the game’s community, with players on platforms like Reddit arguing that easy trading could ruin the core thrill of finding rare loot and extracting under pressure. Embark has not confirmed any specific plans or timelines for such a system, with Söderlund stating “there’s nothing that we’ve decided yet.” The studio is now gearing up for 2026, with plans to tackle cheaters and roll out balance updates soon, while also ruling out the addition of leaderboards.
Player Backlash and Core Concerns
Here’s the thing: the player reaction isn’t just mild worry. It’s a fundamental debate about what makes an extraction shooter fun. For a lot of fans, the entire point is that white-knuckle moment. You find a super rare weapon, your heart starts pounding, and you have to fight your way to an extract point without losing it. That’s the core loop. So when the CEO starts talking about letting people trade items, the immediate fear is that it turns the game into a stock market simulator. Why risk your neck in a raid when you can just farm common loot, sell it for coins, and buy the best gear from an auction house? That fear is very real, and it’s not coming from nowhere.
Look at the comments from the Escape from Tarkov community. They’ve been through this. Once you attach a direct dollar value to every piece of gear in a game, the psychology changes. It becomes less about the in-game experience and more about min-maxing your virtual wealth. That’s a valid concern. And another player nailed a practical issue: what is there to even trade right now? The game had a reset three weeks ago, and dedicated players already have most things. Without a constant stream of new, randomized loot (think Diablo or Warframe), a trading economy has nothing to fuel it. But introducing that kind of loot would, as they said, “destroy balance” in a PvPvE shooter. It’s a tough puzzle.
Embark’s Business Strategy Dilemma
So why would Embark even consider this? From a business standpoint, it makes a ton of sense. Player-driven economies are incredibly sticky. They keep people logging in not just to play, but to engage in a meta-game of commerce. It can encourage more casual players to stick around because there’s always a path to getting the gear they want, even if they don’t have the time or skill to extract with it themselves. It’s a proven model for long-term engagement. Söderlund isn’t wrong when he says it’s “fun” – for a certain type of player, it absolutely is.
But the risk is massive. Arc Raiders found its audience by offering a specific, tense experience. Pivoting too hard towards a trading hub could alienate the core players who made it popular in the first place. They’re basically trying to thread a needle: add a feature that increases player retention and daily engagement without dismantling the very thing those players love. And they have to do it in a genre, the extraction shooter, that’s notoriously finicky and hardcore. It’s a classic case of a studio seeing a successful live-service game and wondering how to expand its revenue and engagement hooks. Trading is a obvious lever to pull. The question is whether pulling it breaks the machine.
The Path Forward: Cautious Experimentation
Basically, it sounds like Embark is in the earliest “what if” phase. Söderlund’s comments are classic CEO blue-sky thinking, not a product roadmap. The smart move, and probably what they’ll do, is to experiment in a very limited, controlled way. Maybe they introduce a barter system between squadmates first. Or a severely restricted marketplace for cosmetic items only. They have to prove to their skeptical community that they can add trading without breaking the game’s soul.
The good news is they’re listening. The fact that this backlash is so visible and that IGN is reporting on it means Embark can’t ignore it. Their immediate focus for 2026—anti-cheat, balance patches—is the right one. You have to fix the foundation before you add a fancy new wing to the house. If they’re smart, any trading system will be developed slowly, in close dialogue with the community. But one thing’s for sure: the mere mention of it has already defined a major fault line in the Arc Raiders player base. How Embark navigates that will be crucial for the game’s future.
