AB

Arc Raiders isnt groundbreaking. It was a pve game that changed to pvp at the last minute. Its a casual game for casual gamers that barely belong in the extraction genre. The stakes arent high risk high reward because the games loot does not matter and none of it is rare enough to care about. Most the people in it run free kits and are at risk of losing nothing and if you dont shoot at other players you get matched with other pacifists making pve lobbies. Its the only pvp game where people will actively yell at someone for shooting them like they are the scum of the Earth. Its popularity just proves there are more casuals than competetive players out there.

Arc Raiders was made for casual gamers. How many people that play that game arent even pvp player? They play it for pve and hand holding with other players. Many of these players think they are extraction shooter gamers so they bought Marathon. After playing Marathon and realizing it a real extraction game with full pvp and no one singing kumbaya together they scurried back to their safe space where they can yell at people for shooting them. Id bet this is the biggest reason for falloff from its peak player count. Ive seen numerous complaints from Arc Raiders gamers saying "Good luck trying to find someone friendly in Marathon." Arc Raiders has done nothing but breed a class of gamer that doesnt know how the extraction genre actually works.

If you dont need to eat or consume something for sustenance its not a survival game. The amount of non survival games on Steam that have the survival tag is getting out of control. Wave defense is not survival. Every crafter is not a survival game.

Then these 'AAA' companies should stop spending their entire budget on visually appealing games with poor gameplay and recycled mechanics. These companies operate only by the numbers and never take risks with something new. Indy developers are the ones changing the industry with innovation. After they create something new and popular, some suit at a AAA company wants a clone made of it. And don't compare 95% of AAA games to GTA 6. Its been in development for 10 years and will be in development for another 10. They are not worth $100.