The Finals devs weren't even going to make a shooter at first, but what else are you gonna do with a team full of Battlefield veterans?
The Finals from developer Embark Studios has made quite a splash for a new free-to-play shooter. During its launch week, it pulled in well over 225,000 players on Steam alone and has retained a solid number of players in the following weeks. It's a fast-paced and robust shooter that's all about tearing down maps to come out as number 1, but it's also a game that was close to being passed over by the development team.
In a recent interview with Game Informer shortly before the announcement of the stealth release of The Finals at The Game Awards 2023, creative director Gustav Tilleby spoke about the early stages of Embark Studios' first game and how they initially thought doing another shooter would be a "boring" concept. But as it turns out, having a bunch of ex-Battlefield devs making a new type of multiplayer shooter that leverages environmental destruction would result in a pretty solid game.
"To begin with, we [initially] weren't going to make a shooter. I don't think that was really something that was spoken out loud; it was something everybody assumed, like, 'no, we shouldn't do that,' Because we did it before," said the creative director while reflecting on Embark Studios' debut game.
"We actually had game jams and stuff pretty regularly from work early on, where everybody pitched ideas and stuff. I pitched some ideas, including the 'boring idea one' and the 'boring idea two,' and those were both shooters," said Tilleby. "I call them that because I didn't think anyone would be interested in making them anyway. So, we just talked about that and said, 'Maybe we should give it a go.' A few of us sat down and said that if we're going to do it, it needs to be unique; it needs to be something that no one else is doing.
