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.
