A Destruction-Heavy Shooter Reaches Gamers on 4 Platforms, Including PS4
6.5M
copies
sold
78%
rating
by Steam users
250K
downloads
on day one
/ Testimonials /
Players love a “shockingly great destruction system”
4/5
An easy-to-learn FPS playground with strong visual identity and some of the best destruction tech I’ve ever seen.
8/10
Excellent gameshow-infused style and a brilliantly destructible playground. [...] The destructibility of each stage is the real star of The Finals.
90/100
With entire buildings being destroyed, my game never once crashed or had any slowdowns. [...] It looks spectacular when all the destruction occurs
80/100
There's innovation behind this destruction, as it all occurs server-side. [...] This prevents any performance issues … since it's not relying on your own hardware.
4/5
An easy-to-learn FPS playground with strong visual identity and some of the best destruction tech I’ve ever seen.
8/10
Excellent gameshow-infused style and a brilliantly destructible playground. [...] The destructibility of each stage is the real star of The Finals.
90/100
With entire buildings being destroyed, my game never once crashed or had any slowdowns. [...] It looks spectacular when all the destruction occurs
80/100
There's innovation behind this destruction, as it all occurs server-side. [...] This prevents any performance issues … since it's not relying on your own hardware.
/ Project overview /
Pingle & Embark Studios
About the game
THE FINALS is a first-person shooter that features team-based matches on maps with destructible environments. Launched by Embark Studio in December 2023, the game became an overnight hit, with 250k players downloading it on Steam.
Client
Solution
Co-development
Porting
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Platforms
Release
PC, PS5, Xbox
December 8, 2023
PS4
December 12, 2024
Partnership timeline
2021-2024
About Pingle & Embark Studios partnership
Pingle helped Embark Studios bring The Finals to PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S. Then in 2024, we pulled off the impossible — porting the game to PS4 without compromising the high-quality performance its impressive destruction system demands.
The release of PS4 has been successful and a lot of players are enjoying it, even though it's 30 FPS and an old platform.
Jonas Kjellström
Technical Director of Embark Studios
/ The Challenge /
Taking a destruction-heavy shooter cross-platform
Embark Studios needed extra firepower to bring their explosive game-show shooter to PS5, PC, and Xbox. They brought us in to co-develop key parts of the game.
Several months after a successful launch, expanding to PS4 became the next big question. We knew the demand was there. But the challenge? Optimizing the PS5 build to run at 30 FPS and keeping each destructible element look smooth on older hardware. All while Embark was busy with LiveOps.
Here’s how our entire collaboration went down.
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/ Phase 1 /
Embark Studios finds a trusted co-development partner in Pingle
Our partnership goes way back to 2021 when Embark first reached out for our mobile game porting expertise. That project is still ongoing, so we can’t share much, but it kicked off a strong working relationship and showed Embark we could handle complex, performance-heavy systems.
A year later, they hit us up again. This time to team up on The Finals.
During this phase, our team — 7 Unreal developers and 1 project manager — took on several key tasks to help ship the game:
1
Improved the Xbox build to meet Microsoft Store requirements
2
Adapted UI for smooth performance and gameplay on PS5 and Xbox
3
Developed the functionality of the PS5 activity and achievements systems
4
Improved multiplayer VoIP for clear, reliable communication
5
Configured console-specific hardware accelerators to boost arena sound and reduce CPU load
The next phase of our partnership was another win
/ Phase 2 /
Pingle ports The Finals to PS4 at a fixed price
With 117 million PS4s sold and 45 million still actively in use, we saw an opportunity. With our experience porting 30+ games, we pitched Embark Studios on bringing The Finals from PS5 to PS4.
They agreed: the port was untapped potential.
But…porting a 60-FPS, next-gen, destruction-heavy shooter from PS5 to older hardware? Sounds like a horror story. Not for us, though.
1
Proof of concept in 2 months
We kicked off a feasibility study first to show that a port was a real deal. For that, we stabilized the PS5 build for PS4: fixed Angel Script issues, set up multiplayer servers, and ran local playtests.
2
Full port in 4 months
Full port in 4 months We kicked off a feasibility study first to show that a port was a real deal. For that, we stabilized the PS5 build for PS4: fixed Angel Script issues, set up multiplayer servers, and ran local playtests.
3
Our 22-person team beat the odds
Our 22-person team beat the odds We kicked off a feasibility study first to show that a port was a real deal. For that, we stabilized the PS5 build for PS4: fixed Angel Script issues, set up multiplayer servers, and ran local playtests.
4
Sony requirements: Nailed it!
Sony requirements: Nailed it! We kicked off a feasibility study first to show that a port was a real deal. For that, we stabilized the PS5 build for PS4: fixed Angel Script issues, set up multiplayer servers, and ran local playtests.
5
The best part?
The best part? We kicked off a feasibility study first to show that a port was a real deal. For that, we stabilized the PS5 build for PS4: fixed Angel Script issues, set up multiplayer servers, and ran local playtests.
The Finals was actively in development while we ported it to PS4 — Embark kept updating, optimizing, and refining its content. That meant we had to continuously integrate their changes and adjust our own optimization work. In short, it was a true co-development effort.
Oleksii Klymiuk
Project Manager at Pingle
/ The results /
Together with Pingle, Embark Studios makes The Finals shine on every platform
Before
After
Bringing The Finals to PS5, PC & Xbox needed extra firepower.
Co-dev power-up! We optimized UI, multiplayer, and console performance.
PS4 port? Maybe... but risky.
Feasibility study proved it could be done. Then we nailed the port in 4 months.
Destruction tech too heavy for old hardware.
Every explosion, every crumbling building—still epic!
Major performance concerns.
Locked in smooth gameplay with smart optimizations.
Live updates made porting tricky.
Kept up with Embark’s updates, no sweat.
"No way The Finals could run on PS4."
The PS4 launch was a hit! Players are loving it, even at 30 FPS.
/ The team /
Cast
7 Developers
1 Project Manager
Porting To
6 Unreal Engine Developers
7 QA Engineers
4 Technical Artists
1 Project Manager
1 Sound Designer
1 Render Developer
/ Cases /
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