Embark is enjoying the organic trading culture that’s emerged in Arc Raiders, but when it expands on trading in the future, it won’t be in the form of an Escape From Tarkov-style auction house. That’s because, according to design lead Virgil Watkins in an interview with GamesRadar+, they tried it during development and found that it made the game less fun.
“We’re not building an auction house or anything like that. Currently, I think it’s more leaning into the aspect of social facilitation in that sense of our design.”
That limitation pushes players toward the workshop, which is balanced so that crafting your own stuff is always the better deal anyway. But it takes time and effort to upgrade your workshop to the point that it’s capable of producing high-end equipment. Auction houses offer a third choice: buy the guns you want directly from other players instantaneously, based on a market price. It’s convenient—so convenient that it becomes the default.
Watkins says Embark’s plans for trading are not set in stone, but they’d rather lean into the manual, in-person process that exists right now.
“One thing we really wanted to do, and may still try to do, is: it’s fine to trade by just dropping something on the floor, and you can pick it up, but we really want to do an offer where you hold it out and someone actually interacts with the thing in your hand to take it from you,” he said. “And it’s kind of a small thing, but it feels a lot better than, ‘Here’s your thing I threw on the floor for you.’ So I think it’s things on those ends.”
Watkins’ chat with GamesRadar has produced a handful of interesting Arc Raiders insights this week, including plans for several new maps in 2026 and Embark’s view on pre-set loadouts.
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