If you had any concerns that developer Embark Studios would embrace the Call of Duty-like goofy costumes for its stylish extraction shooter Arc Raiders, you can rest assured. While you never say never, the team has made it clear that “novelty” skins are not coming to the game at this point.
Design director Virgil Watkins told PCGamesN on October 30 that the game’s visual identity is so strong that adding silly skins would tarnish that artistic vision.
“What I believe to be true is that we will maintain the current aesthetic that we have,” Watkins said. “It will fit within our sensibilities of how these things look and fit within the world and inside the fiction.”
That’s not to say “novelty” skins like Ronald McDonald or something like that will never appear in Arc Raiders. Instead, if Embark Studios were to consider these out-of-place costumes, Watkins said the team would likely create a skin that alludes to a person rather than being that person. Think more color scheme and less actual appearance. So, no Nicki Minajs or Snoop Doggs here.
“I think it was said a little while ago in a meeting [that] we would never, say, make a Santa Claus outfit, but we may make something that is of our own tone and our own aesthetic that evokes a Santa Claus,” Watkins said. “That’s not even a statement that we will have a Santa Claus outfit, but I think that’s kind of the line you can draw. We’re pretty protective of making sure that anything that goes into the game fits within the visual identity, fits within the tone, fits within the setting. I think because so much of our game is strong around that element, it would be really unfortunate to upset that by injecting, I don’t know, a T-Rex costume running around suddenly–I don’t think the novelty is worth the trade.”
It would be hilarious to see Santa Claus or a T-Rex– or even Sabrina Carpenter–tearing robots apart with a pulse rifle, but that doesn’t fit the game’s design language. Maybe this could happen in the future, but for now, there are no such “novelty” skins coming.
“Novelty” and silly skins have been a hot-button topic in shooters lately, particularly among the likes of Battlefield and Call of Duty. Activision Blizzard admitted that the series may have strayed from its grittier identity, confirming that the upcoming Black Ops 7 won’t let you transfer your wacky costumes from Black Ops 6. EA reacted to this decision, clarifying that Battlefield 6 will have “grounded” skins instead of troves of incongruous cosplayers traipsing into the field.
Arc Raiders launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on October 30, and is having a moment right now, reaching 354,836 concurrent players as of this writing, according to SteamDB data. With all that momentum behind it, Embark Studios revealed a roadmap for this month and next month that comes with new maps, community events, quests, and more.
