Embark Studios Takes Its Shooter Franchises Beyond Gaming
ARC Raiders and The Finals, the multiplayer shooters developed by Embark Studios, are heading toward film and television adaptations through a new partnership with Chernin Entertainment. The production company, part of The North Road Company, will serve as lead producer on screen projects based on both games, marking another expansion of Nexon-owned Embark’s entertainment ambitions. (Variety)
The agreement brings together two properties with distinct identities: ARC Raiders, a successful extraction shooter set in a hostile, machine-dominated future, and The Finals, a free-to-play competitive shooter built around a televised combat spectacle.
According to Variety, Chernin Entertainment was selected from several competing production companies and studios seeking the rights. However, the announcement does not yet clarify which game will receive a film or television adaptation, whether both properties will appear in both formats, or when the projects might reach audiences.
Chernin Entertainment Will Lead the Adaptationse
The partnership places Chernin Entertainment at the center of the projects’ development. The company has experience across film and television, including the recent Backrooms film and the Apple TV series Chief of War.
David Ready, president of film at Chernin Entertainment, described the two games as “ambitious global IP with the potential to become major franchises across film and television.”
For Embark and parent company Nexon, the deal represents an opportunity to extend the games’ reach beyond their existing player communities.
Nexon executive chairman and Embark founder and CEO Patrick Söderlund described the agreement as the next major step toward developing both properties into “deeply integrated transmedia experiences.”
That ambition suggests the adaptations are intended to be more than isolated licensing projects. Embark’s existing worlds and their identities will be central to the transition into new formats, although specific creative arrangements and production details have not yet been announced.
No confirmed casting, release dates, directors or distribution platforms have been revealed.
ARC Raiders Brings a Growing Gaming Franchise to the Screen
Released in October 2025, ARC Raiders quickly established itself as one of Embark’s major commercial successes.
The extraction shooter takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where players venture into dangerous environments threatened by hostile machines known as ARC. Players must collect valuable resources and survive encounters with both mechanical enemies and rival Raiders.
According to the supplied industry report, the game has sold more than 16 million copies. It also won Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2025 and received the multiplayer award at the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards.
Its setting provides several potential directions for a screen adaptation, including the wider world beyond individual raids, humanity’s struggle to survive and the relationship between competing groups of Raiders.
Those possibilities remain editorial considerations rather than confirmed plans. Neither Embark nor Chernin has announced a specific storyline or revealed how closely a future adaptation would follow the events and perspective of the game.
Nevertheless, ARC Raiders offers an established science-fiction setting that could support storytelling beyond its multiplayer matches.
The Finals Presents a Different Adaptation Challenge
The Finals approaches multiplayer combat from a very different angle.
The free-to-play first-person shooter frames its battles as a competitive virtual game show, combining destructible environments with teams competing for victory in an entertainment-driven setting.
The game has registered more than 30 million players over three years, according to the supplied source material.
Its premise offers a different foundation for television or film. Rather than relying primarily on a conventional post-apocalyptic narrative, an adaptation could explore the fictional entertainment industry surrounding the competition, the contestants or the world in which the show operates.
Those are potential creative avenues, not announced story details. The challenge will be to translate a format built around competitive multiplayer matches into a narrative that can sustain an audience outside the game.
The two properties therefore give Chernin and Embark different creative starting points, even though both originated as multiplayer shooters.
Gaming Adaptations Continue to Expand Across Entertainment
The partnership arrives amid continued interest in adapting video game properties for film and television.
Recent adaptations have demonstrated that games can provide the foundation for successful screen projects when their worlds, characters and storytelling are translated effectively. The second season of Arcane, based on the League of Legends universe, has also received exceptionally strong critical recognition.
However, success is not automatic. Multiplayer games can present particular challenges because their appeal may depend on player agency, competitive systems and repeated gameplay rather than a single, clearly defined narrative.
For ARC Raiders and The Finals, the adaptations will need to establish stories that work independently while retaining the qualities that distinguish each property.
Chernin’s involvement provides an experienced production partner, but the announcement alone does not establish what the finished projects will look like or how audiences will respond.
Two New Franchises Enter the Transmedia Conversation
The move gives Embark Studios another way to develop the identities of its two best-known shooters beyond their original format.
For ARC Raiders, the opportunity lies in bringing its hostile science-fiction world to a broader audience. For The Finals, the distinctive televised competition setting offers a different foundation for screen storytelling.
The partnership also reflects a wider industry strategy: successful games are increasingly being treated as intellectual properties that can extend across multiple entertainment formats.
For now, the projects remain at an early stage, with the specific formats and creative details still to be clarified. Whether the adaptations become films, series or a combination of both, their success will depend on more than brand recognition alone.
The key question is whether Embark and Chernin can turn two very different multiplayer experiences into compelling stories for viewers who may never have played either game.
