Nearly three months into its lifecycle, and Arc Raiders has never been more popular than it currently is. Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement or new additions, and Embark Studios is keenly aware of that, having already acknowledged the calls for saved custom loadouts.
In a new interview with PCGamesN, Arc Raiders’ game design director, Virgil Watkins, discussed the potential of creating a “Hub World” for Speranza, noting that it’s something that the studio has discussed before.
“I mean, we’ve 100 percent discussed it,” Watkins said. ” … It always came down to time and scope for us… We can build a menu, and the menu will do its job. And, you know, all the extra time involved in making a hub wasn’t worth it, really, or we traded other features for it.”
Still, much like with the situation involving saved custom loadouts, in which Watkins admitted that it’s something that he’d like to see implemented in-game, too, a walkable hub world is of interest here as well, except with a few major changes.
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“For me, personally, I love the vibe and aesthetic of a walkable hub, but I would want to preserve the menuing so that you can do it quickly and efficiently, rather than [having to] run to Celeste and then run to my [raider’s room], and then ‘Oops, I forgot this thing at Shani,'” Watkins explained of the potential pitfalls.
As with most things, never say never.
“But there’s also, of course, an immersion factor to that,” Watkins said. “So yeah, it’s something we have discussed, and we’ll continue to discuss, and I think there’s definitely a good appetite on the team for it as well. It’s more about when the right moment to open that door is.”
While it’s probably not at the top of the priority list, it’s still nice to know that it is an active discussion.
Meanwhile, Fans Are Split On Whether They’d Want A Hub
Over on the official Arc Raiders sub on Reddit, the reaction to word of a potential hub was mixed at best. That’s to be expected, especially given how clunky other hub worlds have been and how well Arc Raiders has played without one.
“It wastes your time, wastes the Devs’ time, takes up resources that could be put into things that actually matter,” one defiant user wrote. “No, I don’t want to run between traders and see people dancing and bunnyhopping, thank you.”
On the other end, someone pointed out the kinds of things that a hub could provide, some of which sounds pretty cool.
“Man, a social hub done right would be sick, not just another way to visit vendors, but somewhere with a chess table, mini-games to earn seeds, a music stage to play instruments, possibly your own apartment to show your trinkets off to others,” someone in favor wrote.
Perhaps there’s a middle ground that could leave both sides happy.
- Released
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October 30, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen / Violence, Blood
- Developer(s)
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Embark Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Embark Studios
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