According to IGN, Embark Studios is ending PS4 support for The Finals on March 18, 2026, just over a year after the free-to-play shooter launched on that platform in December 2023. The developer confirmed Season 10 will proceed as planned across other platforms while completely cutting off PS4 access to “focus our support on current generation hardware.” Meanwhile, their newer title Arc Raiders has achieved massive commercial success, selling over 4 million copies worldwide in less than two weeks and hitting 700,000 concurrent players across all platforms. Interestingly, Arc Raiders never released on PS4 at all. Players’ progress and purchases will transfer via Embark ID to current-gen systems, but PS4 access will stop responding completely after the deadline.
The inevitable last-gen sunset
Here’s the thing about game development – supporting older hardware eventually becomes a massive resource drain. Every patch, every update, every new feature has to be tested and optimized for systems that are fundamentally less capable. The PS4 is now over a decade old, and we’re seeing this pattern across the industry. But cutting off access completely? That’s still pretty rare. Most games just stop receiving updates while letting players continue on the last available version. Embark’s approach is more decisive – they’re pulling the plug entirely.
The technical realities
Basically, maintaining cross-generational support means designing everything for the lowest common denominator. You can’t fully leverage the SSD speeds of PS5 or the advanced CPU capabilities when you’re still catering to mechanical hard drives and much slower processors. For a fast-paced competitive shooter like The Finals, that performance gap matters. Every frame rate drop, every loading delay, every visual compromise affects the competitive experience. And with their new hit Arc Raiders already skipping PS4 entirely, it makes business sense to consolidate their development efforts.
Arc Raiders’ explosive success
Meanwhile, Arc Raiders is absolutely crushing it. Four million copies in under two weeks? Seven hundred thousand concurrent players? Those are numbers that would make any publisher jealous. The extraction shooter genre is having a moment, and Embark clearly nailed the formula. Despite the AI controversy they mentioned – which seems to be becoming more common in game development – players are voting with their wallets. The fact that their first major update, North Line, is already live shows they’re moving fast to capitalize on this momentum.
What this means for players
If you’re still gaming on PS4, this is probably frustrating news. Losing access to a free game you’ve invested time and possibly money into never feels great. But Embark is handling the transition about as well as they can – your progress transfers, your purchases carry over, and they’re giving plenty of notice. The writing has been on the wall for last-gen support for a while now. As developers push technical boundaries with games like Arc Raiders, the gap between generations becomes impossible to bridge. The question is: how many other live service games will follow this same path?
