Arc Raiders developer finally addresses theories over matchmaking, confirms player behaviour is a factor in who you’re playing against

Arc Raiders art director Robert Sammelin has shone some light on the inner workings of the extraction shooter’s matchmaking system, confirming that player behaviour is indeed a factor in the “complex” process of assigning players to online matches.

Speaking to PC Gamer at The Game Awards, Sammelin stated: “Without going into excruciating detail, it is quite complex. We analyse behaviour and match accordingly.” When asked if he was able to elaborate on the matter, Sammelin said “no” and laughed.

Instead, the interview shifts to the topic of player passivity in general, and how the team at Embark has been able to see it in data gathered from Arc Raiders matches. Sammelin explained: “We got some figures on how many people have even downed another player, and they were surprisingly low at a large scale. There’s also quite a difference in playing with a squad or solo with this, [which] opens up a very different experience depending on how you choose to engage with the game from the get-go.

“Of course data is great, the amount of data we get from telemetry is really helpful in finding out what we should be addressing, tweaking, or tuning. Pairing it up with internal assumptions is invaluable in terms of tuning and balance. That’s something we’ll keep doing continuously.”

Arc Raiders has garnered somewhat of a reputation for player pacifism since its launch earlier this year. Some players have even argued that PvPers were ruining the experience, in what is clearly a high-stakes PvPvE genre. Eurogamer even quizzed a sociologist on the matter, given the interesting dynamic between those friendly players and others engaging with the extraction shooter as intended.

Regardless of where you stand, there’s plenty to do right now in Arc Raiders. In fact, today the game’s frosty map condition has been added to the game, with a Christmas-themed community event pushing raiders to head out and collect berries for the festive season.