Patrick Söderlund is the founder and CEO of Embark Studios, the maker of Arc Raiders. And Arc Raiders, you may have heard, is something of a hit—well, no, it’s a huge hit, one of the biggest releases of 2025 and enough to give Bungie some serious flop sweat about Marathon. It did so well, in fact, that Nexon, Embark’s parent company, has decided to put Söderlund in charge of all its creative endeavors.
Söderlund has been appointed Nexon’s executive chairman, a new role that gives him “broad authority over the company’s long-term strategy, creative direction, and how Nexon develops games globally.” Simply put, Söderlund will call the shots on the creative side of things, while Nexon CEO Junghun Lee handles the biz. Söderlund will also continue on as CEO of Embark.
“Nexon has all the assets to unleash dramatic growth—incredibly talented people, iconic franchises, large and committed player communities, and best-in-class live service capabilities,” Söderlund said. “This is an enormous opportunity, but one that will require deep focus and discipline. Junghun and I are aligned on what needs to happen and I’m ready to get to work.”
It’s quite a get for Nexon. Söderlund may not be the most famous ‘celebrity’ game developer ever (although I’d probably include him in my top 20 list) but he’s had a hell of a run over the years in executive positions at DICE and Electronic Arts, where he served in roles including chief design officer and executive vice president of EA’s worldwide studios before stepping down in 2018.
And he’s been down this road before: He became CEO of DICE after its 2000 acquisition of Refraction Games, a studio Söderlund co-founded in 1997, and then he became a vice president at EA after it acquired DICE in 2006. Söderlund founded Embark in 2018, not long after parting ways with EA; Nexon acquired it in 2021. So you might even say this was inevitable.
“Patrick and I are fully aligned on transforming Nexon,” Lee said. “He’s built studios, attracted the industry’s best people to work with him, and shipped massive global hits. That’s exactly what Nexon needs right now.”
That promised transformation sounds potentially interesting too—Nexon said it’ll have more to share on that at its Capital Markets Briefing on March 31.
