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| ARC Raiders and Marathon are opening up more to PvE players. |
The extraction shooter genre has always thrived on a simple, brutal premise: trust no one. Every corner could hide an AI enemy—or a real player ready to take everything you've earned. But that core tension may be losing its appeal. Two of the biggest upcoming titles in the space, ARC Raiders and Marathon, are now testing the waters with dedicated PvE options, and the gaming community is paying close attention.
ARC Raiders Tests the Waters
Embark Studios has announced that ARC Raiders will run an optional PvE mode from October 13 to 20. During this limited test, players who want to avoid the stress of hostile players can focus solely on fighting the ARC machines. There's a trade-off, though—loot is expected to be less valuable in PvE mode. Embark is careful to label this as a test for now, but the implications are hard to ignore.
Marathon Goes All In
Bungie appears to be taking things a step further with Marathon. The developers are planning a permanent PvE mode for December, with additional variants that separate PvE, PvP, and PvPvE experiences more clearly coming later. This represents a significant departure from the traditional extraction formula, where the ever-present threat of other players is often the defining feature.
The Reddit Debate: Too Stressful to Enjoy?
The timing of these announcements has sparked a broader conversation across the gaming community. In a widely discussed Reddit thread, players are asking whether extraction shooters are simply too exhausting for most people. After all, spending twenty minutes carefully looting only to be gunned down by another player—losing everything in the process—requires a serious tolerance for frustration.
"Honestly I just want the loot goblin fantasy without some guy with 4,000 hours evicting me from the raid. PvE it is," wrote Reddit user u/boxing-boxing, capturing a sentiment many seem to share.
The Counterargument: Tension Is the Point
Not everyone agrees. For a dedicated segment of the player base, the constant threat posed by other players is precisely what makes the genre compelling. Without that risk, they argue, the experience loses its edge.
"When you remove those elements it's just a boring game that has no intense moments since there's nothing to lose, gain or improve/build on," countered u/haste57.
It's worth noting that ARC Raiders and Marathon are still relatively new to the scene. Meanwhile, established titles like Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown 1896 have maintained successful PvPvE models for years, proving that the traditional formula can work.
The Real Issue: Audience Size
Perhaps the problem isn't the genre itself, but rather how many players are actually willing to commit to this style of gameplay long-term. ARC Raiders generated enormous hype at launch, peaking at over 400,000 concurrent players according to SteamDB. Today, however, it typically sits at just 30,000 to 40,000 concurrent players—numbers comparable to Tarkov.
The question remains: can extraction shooters retain more than this dedicated hardcore audience over time? If ARC Raiders and Marathon hope to recapture their early momentum, they may need to rethink what the genre can—and should—be.