ARC Raiders and The Finals Head to Hollywood: Chernin Lands the Film and TV Rights

Embark Studios has just made a move in an arena that has little to do with servers and leaderboards: its two flagship games, ARC Raiders and The Finals, are getting both film and television adaptations. As reported by Vida Extra, based on information published by Variety, the production company behind the projects will be Chernin Entertainment, which beat out other companies also bidding for the rights to these two properties from the Nexon-owned studio.

Why should you care if you're here to compete, not to watch movies? Because when Hollywood sets its sights on a game, it changes how that game is supported, promoted and planned for the long term. A universe with a film and a series on the way stops being just another shooter on the store shelf and becomes a brand the publisher will want to keep alive for years. And for anyone investing hours into mastering it or creating content about it, that's a very meaningful signal.

What you need to know

• Double announcement: both ARC Raiders and The Finals will be adapted for the big and small screen.
• Chernin Entertainment is the production company that closed the deal with Embark Studios.
• There was competition: other companies were in the running for the rights, and Chernin came out on top.
• David Ready, president of Chernin's film division, celebrated the deal and highlighted the potential of both worlds as franchises.
• The news was first reported by Variety, and so far no release dates, cast or specific formats have been confirmed.

What's behind the deal

The film and TV industry has been looking to video games as its next gold mine for a while now, and the recent success of adaptations like The Last of Us and Fallout has convinced many studios that game material is no longer a risk but an opportunity. In that context, a production company going after two properties from the same studio in a single move says a lot about the confidence Embark's worlds inspire.

In his statement, Ready essentially said that ARC Raiders and The Finals fit exactly what Chernin was looking for: properties with global reach, ambition and the ability to grow as franchises in both formats. He also praised the visual work of Nexon and Embark, and stressed that these worlds have a wealth of stories still waiting to be told. The company also plans to bring its film and television teams together to develop the project.

Two games, two very different challenges

This is where it gets interesting. ARC Raiders, with its hostile planet and its machines, has a sci-fi foundation that lends itself naturally to storytelling. The Finals is a different story: a televised game show built around destruction and team combat, where the spectacle is the game itself. Turning that into fiction means inventing characters and conflicts the game barely hints at. For now, the source doesn't specify which game will become a film and which a series, or whether each will get both formats separately.

Our take

Here at Underworld Lordz, we're viewing this with a mix of excitement and skepticism. The upside is obvious: a screen adaptation brings in new players, and new players mean faster queues, more viewers on streams and more interest in tournaments. For content creators, a film or series means a spike in searches and conversation that can be capitalized on with guides, lore breakdowns and reaction videos. If you play or cover these games, it's worth starting to think now about how to ride that wave when it arrives.

That said, let's not get carried away. A rights deal isn't a movie, and Hollywood's history is full of projects announced with great fanfare that never saw the light of day, or that arrived late and disappointing. We're also concerned about priorities: if Nexon starts thinking of its games as transmedia franchises, we hope it doesn't neglect what matters most to the competitive community, which is balance, anti-cheat, tournament support and a consistent update schedule. A broken game can't be fixed with a good trailer.

And when it comes to The Finals, we're especially critical: its appeal lies in chaotic gameplay and team strategy, not in a plot. If the adaptation works, it could give the game a narrative identity it currently lacks; if it doesn't, it'll be yet another example of a studio milking a brand without understanding it.

What do you think?

Hollywood now has two shooters on its radar that many of you play every week, and the result could be anything from a major franchise to a forgettable misstep. We want to hear from you: do you think ARC Raiders and The Finals have enough story for film and television, or would you rather Embark focused all its efforts on the games? Drop by the team chat or our Discord and let us know what you think.