Overview
- Design lead Virgil Watkins says the team explored and partly built an auction-house-style system before removing it after tests made play "just about coins."
- Embark concludes a player market is "very risky territory" because it undermines the core loop of finding specific items for progression and crafting.
- The studio is not building a traditional auction house and is instead prioritizing social, in-person exchanges between players.
- Planned improvements include a tactile offer interaction where one player holds out an item for another to take, moving beyond simple floor drops.
- CEO Patrick Söderlund remains interested in expanding trading over the long term without firm decisions yet, as the team also teases multiple new maps in 2026.