Someone should talk to Patrick Soderlund, CEO of Embark Studios. He sees nothing but money signs since Arc Raiders' success. If no one talks some sense into him, Arc Raiders will have another reason it could fail well before its time.
Here's some evidence: Patrick mentioned to GamesBeat that he doesn't want a leaderboard in Arc Raiders because it's not a game about shooting, but he's thinking about adding a trading marketplace. According to Soderlund, a leaderboard would make Arc Raiders focused on PvP, which apparently violates its design ambition. Yet trivializing loot with a marketplace is worth thinking about. Make it make sense.
Embark Studios has two games—The Finals and Arc Raiders—both which have been successful. Only Supergiant Games and Respawn Entertainment are studios that I can think of in the modern era that have had this much success consistently. But the studios mentioned have had success because they have standards they have not negotiated. Embark Studios now has a choice for how it will think about their successful games, and Arc Raiders is the first test. It's not looking good. If the CEO is even thinking about adding a marketplace to a game that is based on getting loot as the core of the gameplay, it's clear greed is setting in.
If Arc Raiders had similarities to Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike, I could see the logic of including a marketplace. If a game like Overwatch decided to add a marketplace based on its coveted skins, I wouldn't like it but I could understand it. Loot-based extraction shooters cannot get away with a monetary trading marketplace where the inventory is the loot you're supposed to extract.
I'm sure we can easily imagine what would happen: You open a store, exchange something that you want for money, then go into the field to potentially get something else. Or let's say Embark patched weapon balance, and now your weapon is in high demand. What are you going to do? That's right, charge more. Also, less valuable loot would lose even more value, and it becomes a race to the bottom.
Escape from Tarkov introduced the flea market and, as expected, it ruined the balance and feel of the game. Now Battlestate Games spends a lot of time balancing the flea market so it's less advantageous to cheaters and other methods of exploitation.
This shouldn't even be a consideration for Embark Studios. It would pervert gameplay and make loot only about its monetary value. The damage from including a trading marketplace does not outweigh any advantage. Unfortunately, when your parent company is Nexon, it's not enough to have a successful game, it must keep making money. And it seems like anything that can make more money is absolutely on the table, even if it corrupts the game. Enjoy Arc Raiders while it lasts.
