{"id":1861846,"date":"2026-04-02T13:41:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1861846"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:41:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:41:59","slug":"nexon-calls-arc-raiders-a-trojan-horse-for-proving-controversial-ai-tools-can-build-triple-a-hits-with-smaller-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1861846","title":{"rendered":"Nexon calls Arc Raiders a &#8220;Trojan Horse&#8221; for proving controversial AI tools can build triple-A hits with smaller teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Nexon calls Arc Raiders a &#8220;Trojan Horse&#8221; for proving controversial AI tools can build triple-A hits with smaller teams<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;A gift that contains a shift in the mindset about how technology frees developers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/arc-raiders-face.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A camo-painted feminine character with long, plaited brown hair stares into the camera with a stern expression. Behind them, the Arc Raiders logo can be seen.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"arc-raiders-face.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer \/ Embark<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-04-02T13:41:59+00:00\">April 2, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/nexon-embark-arc-raiders-ai-push?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          9 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"6bd46880-2f1c-43d7-b873-ed10ed59c226\" data-name=\"ARC Raiders\" data-follow-text=\"Follow ARC Raiders\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following ARC Raiders\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow ARC Raiders\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following ARC Raiders\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow ARC Raiders\" title=\"Follow ARC Raiders\"><br \/>\n  Follow ARC Raiders<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/arc-raiders-ceo-says-studio-has-re-recorded-ai-lines-a-real-professional-actor-is-better-than-ai-thats-just-how-it-is\">Arc Raiders developer Embark might have retreated slightly on the use of AI-generated voices <\/a>in its game, but company owner Nexon has big plans for the use of AI, and it&#8217;s using the success of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/arc-raiders\">Arc Raiders<\/a> as proof of concept for it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Beyond the breakaway commercial success, Arc Raiders is a Trojan Horse,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nexon.co.jp\/en\/ir\/events-interviews\/detail\/?entry_id=663\">Nexon president and CEO Junghun Lee said in a financial presentation<\/a> held 31st March &#8211; &#8220;a gift that contains a shift in the mindset about how technology frees developers and live service teams to spend more time thinking and less time typing. More time innovating; less time writing code.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/arc-raiders-review\">Arc Raiders was criticised for featuring AI-generated voice lines<\/a> instead of having actors record the lines &#8211; a decision Embark later walked back on by having actors re-record some of them. But that wasn&#8217;t the only way AI tools were used in development of the game. &#8220;During the development process, we may use procedural- and AI-based tools to assist with content creation,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1808500\/ARC_Raiders\/\">the Arc Raiders Steam page notes<\/a>. Though, &#8220;In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lee was talking about Arc Raiders&#8217; AI-use while promoting Nexon&#8217;s Mono Lake AI initiative during the presentation. &#8220;Nexon has used AI tools for some time and we&#8217;re quickly moving past the tool level to applying context to everything we do,&#8221; Lee said.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Referring to Arc Raiders&#8217; use of the tools, Lee added: &#8220;It changes how people work &#8211; the tools they use, how fast they can move, what they can accomplish. But what goes into our games &#8211; the creative content our players actually experience &#8211; that remains the work of our developers. Our methodology doesn&#8217;t replace creative people, it frees them to create, with context.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today, our best people spend more time making creative decisions &#8211; decisions guided by context, context based on billions of player decisions, context that precious few companies can match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Patric Soderlund, the founder and CEO of Embark, and the recently appointed executive chairman of Nexon, was even more strident with his remarks about the potential of Mono Lake AI. &#8220;At Embark, we started with a blank slate, questioning everything from: How do you get from an idea to a green light? To what needs to be done by hand versus what a machine can do more efficiently?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Yes, some of that involves AI. But it&#8217;s really about encouraging people to use smarter processes, better tools, and to let go of habits that no longer serve them.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><p><em>&#8220;Our success wasn&#8217;t an accident, it was deliberate. And now we&#8217;re bringing that thinking to the rest of Nexon&#8221; -Patrick Soderlund<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The initial outcome of that process is two games: The Finals and then Arc Raiders. Two games, built with significantly fewer people, at a fraction of the cost you&#8217;d expect for a AAA game. Our success wasn&#8217;t an accident,&#8221; he added, &#8220;it was deliberate. And now we&#8217;re bringing that thinking to the rest of Nexon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Arc Raiders was the stand-out star for Nexon in the financial presentation, having delivered &#8220;the most successful launch in company history with more than 14m units sold in 15 weeks&#8221;, Soderlund said. The game&#8217;s performance was even more important for Nexon, a South Korean-Japanese company, in that it was predominantly Western success &#8211; something the company hasn&#8217;t before experienced.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>An overwhelming 85 percent of the game&#8217;s revenue came from North America and Europe, Soderlund said. &#8220;Arc Raiders is the first real proof that Nexon can build something that lands with a global audience,&#8221; he added. &#8220;That&#8217;s not a small thing, it changes how the market should think about what this company can become. And the game is still early. It&#8217;s live and it&#8217;s growing. What&#8217;s ahead of it is bigger than what&#8217;s behind it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for what&#8217;s next for Arc Raiders, Junghun Lee revealed that &#8220;there are multiple projects in development at Embark&#8221;. &#8220;While it&#8217;s still too early to offer details, each has the benefit of the Arc Raiders playbook \u2013 smaller, more nimble creative teams, using new technology to simplify time-consuming, less-creative work in order to focus on breakthrough innovation. Arc Raiders provides us with a roadmap for success in Western markets, on consoles, and, with alternative pricing models.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/arc-raiders-ceo-says-studio-has-re-recorded-ai-lines-a-real-professional-actor-is-better-than-ai-thats-just-how-it-is\">Arc Raiders developer Embark might have retreated slightly on the use of AI-generated voices <\/a>in its game, but company owner Nexon has big plans for the use of AI, and it&#8217;s using the success of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/arc-raiders\">Arc Raiders<\/a> as proof of concept for it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Beyond the breakaway commercial success, Arc Raiders is a Trojan Horse,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nexon.co.jp\/en\/ir\/events-interviews\/detail\/?entry_id=663\">Nexon president and CEO Junghun Lee said in a financial presentation<\/a> held 31st March &#8211; &#8220;a gift that contains a shift in the mindset about how technology frees developers and live service teams to spend more time thinking and less time typing. More time innovating; less time writing code.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/arc-raiders-review\">Arc Raiders was criticised for featuring AI-generated voice lines<\/a> instead of having actors record the lines &#8211; a decision Embark later walked back on by having actors re-record some of them. But that wasn&#8217;t the only way AI tools were used in development of the game. &#8220;During the development process, we may use procedural- and AI-based tools to assist with content creation,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1808500\/ARC_Raiders\/\">the Arc Raiders Steam page notes<\/a>. Though, &#8220;In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lee was talking about Arc Raiders&#8217; AI-use while promoting Nexon&#8217;s Mono Lake AI initiative during the presentation. &#8220;Nexon has used AI tools for some time and we&#8217;re quickly moving past the tool level to applying context to everything we do,&#8221; Lee said.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Referring to Arc Raiders&#8217; use of the tools, Lee added: &#8220;It changes how people work &#8211; the tools they use, how fast they can move, what they can accomplish. But what goes into our games &#8211; the creative content our players actually experience &#8211; that remains the work of our developers. Our methodology doesn&#8217;t replace creative people, it frees them to create, with context.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today, our best people spend more time making creative decisions &#8211; decisions guided by context, context based on billions of player decisions, context that precious few companies can match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Patric Soderlund, the founder and CEO of Embark, and the recently appointed executive chairman of Nexon, was even more strident with his remarks about the potential of Mono Lake AI. &#8220;At Embark, we started with a blank slate, questioning everything from: How do you get from an idea to a green light? To what needs to be done by hand versus what a machine can do more efficiently?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Yes, some of that involves AI. But it&#8217;s really about encouraging people to use smarter processes, better tools, and to let go of habits that no longer serve them.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><p><em>&#8220;Our success wasn&#8217;t an accident, it was deliberate. And now we&#8217;re bringing that thinking to the rest of Nexon&#8221; -Patrick Soderlund<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The initial outcome of that process is two games: The Finals and then Arc Raiders. Two games, built with significantly fewer people, at a fraction of the cost you&#8217;d expect for a AAA game. Our success wasn&#8217;t an accident,&#8221; he added, &#8220;it was deliberate. And now we&#8217;re bringing that thinking to the rest of Nexon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Arc Raiders was the stand-out star for Nexon in the financial presentation, having delivered &#8220;the most successful launch in company history with more than 14m units sold in 15 weeks&#8221;, Soderlund said. The game&#8217;s performance was even more important for Nexon, a South Korean-Japanese company, in that it was predominantly Western success &#8211; something the company hasn&#8217;t before experienced.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>An overwhelming 85 percent of the game&#8217;s revenue came from North America and Europe, Soderlund said. &#8220;Arc Raiders is the first real proof that Nexon can build something that lands with a global audience,&#8221; he added. &#8220;That&#8217;s not a small thing, it changes how the market should think about what this company can become. And the game is still early. It&#8217;s live and it&#8217;s growing. What&#8217;s ahead of it is bigger than what&#8217;s behind it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for what&#8217;s next for Arc Raiders, Junghun Lee revealed that &#8220;there are multiple projects in development at Embark&#8221;. &#8220;While it&#8217;s still too early to offer details, each has the benefit of the Arc Raiders playbook \u2013 smaller, more nimble creative teams, using new technology to simplify time-consuming, less-creative work in order to focus on breakthrough innovation. Arc Raiders provides us with a roadmap for success in Western markets, on consoles, and, with alternative pricing models.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Nexon calls Arc Raiders a &#8220;Trojan Horse&#8221; for proving controversial AI tools can build triple-A hits with smaller teams &#8220;A gift that contains a shift in the mindset about how technology frees developers.&#8221; Image credit: Eurogamer \/ Embark News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on April 2, 2026 9 comments Follow ARC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1861846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1861846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1861846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1861846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1861846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}