ARC Raiders News

Raiders!

On Thursday, October 24, we’re kicking off the ARC Raiders Tech Test, where invited Steam playtesters will be able to experience the Rust Belt and some of what it has to offer, for four full days.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The purpose of this test is to assess how the game plays in a live setting, get feedback, and evaluate the experience across several areas. It’s an important moment for us to get valuable input from players outside the studio, that will help inform our priorities and focus as we head into the last stretch of development before the game’s full release in 2025. This won’t be the last public test before release.

Now let’s go over some housekeeping!

How do I get a chance to play?

First, make sure you’re signed up for Playtesting on our Steam app, and check your email to see if you have an invite! You need to be at least 16 years of age to participate in the test.

While this is the largest external playtest of ARC Raiders to date, we will need to cap the maximum amount of players. Access is given randomly, and we will distribute invites gradually throughout the test — so if you don’t get an invite on day one, you may get one later!

Invited participants will also be able to invite two friends after completing four rounds, so if you have a pal with access, check with them!

Can I stream or share gameplay online?

Short answer: no.

This test is not intended as a public marketing beat for the game. We want to introduce ARC Raiders to the world when the game is polished and ready and we need your help to keep the mystery and excitement alive while we finish the game. This is why tech test participants are subject to non-disclosure obligations, to preserve the experience for everyone.

This means that testers are not allowed to talk about the playtest or share images, videos, or streams of gameplay.

What are the minimum / recommended PC specs?

Minimum
OS: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update)
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K or AMD Ryzen R5 1600 processor
RAM: 12GB RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 580

Recommended
OS: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update)
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor
RAM: 16GB RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

Anything else I should know?

Here’s a link to a document we put together with some key details about ARC Raiders, the Tech Test, the experience of playing the game, an overview of some of the progression features, and more. You can also head over to our Discord for more info, troubleshooting, and bug reporting.

See you in the Rust Belt,

/Aleksander Grøndal, Executive Producer on ARC Raiders

Arc Raiders was announced back in 2021 as a free-to-play co-op third-person shooter, and has been delayed several times since. That's partly because Embark Studios' other in-development game, The Finals, progressed faster than planned and stole its momentum. It's also because it was re-tooled at some point as a PvPvE extraction shooter.

Now it's back again, aiming for release next year, and it's been re-tooled a little more: it's no longer free-to-play.

Read more

Remember Arc Raiders? It was first revealed during The Game Awards 2021 and instantly started creating a lot of buzz... and then it just sort of disappeared.

But today, out of absolutely nowhere, it has risen back up to the surface to show a pretty cool trailer that has once again got people talking. At Gamescom Opening Night Live, the trailer revealed that the game is still kicking and screaming somewhere in development hell, and it's coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC next year. In theory.

I've written extensively about the game in the past, and everything I loved about it back then still looks cool now - and it's even had a bit of a graphics upgrade.

Read more

Raiders!

I’m Aleksander Gröndal, the executive producer on ARC Raiders!

In case you missed it, we just announced some news about ARC Raiders at the Gamescom Opening Night Live show in Cologne (where I’m at right now).

Let’s get into it.

First things first, ARC Raiders will launch in 2025 here on Steam, as well as on the Epic Game Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on cloud streaming via Nvidia GeForce Now.

There will be opportunities for you to experience the game earlier than that. In around two months from now, between October 24 and October 27, we’re planning a first public Tech Test here on Steam. For an opportunity to play, make sure to sign up for Playtesting on our Steam store page. For this test, we will select participants randomly from our pool of playtesters.

We’re also making an important change to our business model.

You may recall that ARC Raiders was announced as a free-to-play game. Today, we announced that ARC Raiders will be released as a $40 premium title. There are many reasons for this change, and they all boil down to our conviction that a premium business model is a better fit for the type of game we’re building. A premium model allows us to create a more focused, balanced, and engaging action-survival experience.

We also released a teaser, that you can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8NN00Wtj5c

I know it’s been some time since we talked about ARC Raiders, so here’s a refresher:
In ARC Raiders you enter a vast and lethal world.

People have fled to the underground colony of Speranza, seeking supplies to survive, and shelter from ARC machines on the surface. Demand for resources is at an all-time high, but venturing the surface to get them is a risky job.

You’re a newly enlisted as a Raider, fighting for your own survival and that of your neighborhood in the underground colony — scavenging and hunting for resources that must be extracted back safely from the surface. Standing in your way are ARC machines — a mysterious, deadly foe — as well as other players — Raiders — who are also competing for loot and their own survival.

To grow as a Raider, you must make it back down to the colony alive. There, you get to meet the traders of Speranza to trade your loot and valuables, embark on quests, upgrade and improve and expand your chambers, and grow your character to suit your playstyle — to become the Raider that you want to be.

Whether teaming up or going solo, it’s a game that rewards thinking ahead and carefully observing the world around you, rather than running into action guns blazing. The gameplay is tactile, visceral, and grounded, with a rich and playful sandbox of gadgets and tools, beyond just guns and ammo.

While ARC Raiders has changed and evolved over the course of development, the world we have built has always been our anchor. To cite Stefan Strandberg, our creative director, we’re drawing inspiration from current-day themes taken to their extreme — like the prospect of colonizing space, at a time when the relationship between man and machine is becoming increasingly fraught.

It’s a game that takes place in a post-post apocalypse — a distant future where humanity has moved on to build anew. Surely, this world can be a dangerous and treacherous place — but at the same time, it’s inherently hopeful, vibrant, and charming.

With the first Tech Test coming up in October, you should stay tuned for the latest updates and information on ARC Raiders here on Steam, via Embark’s Discord, arcraiders.com, Twitter / X, and YouTube.

With that, I hope to see you in the Rust Belt.

I am Aleks and I am the executive Producer for ARC Raiders here at Embark Studios.

If you venture over to the Steam page for ARC Raiders, you might notice some changes in the way we describe the game.

These changes are fundamental enough that we think it’s important to provide some context and describe in some more detail what kind of game ARC Raiders is.

Last spring, we made the decision to move the release of ARC Raiders in order to focus on releasing THE FINALS, our team-based first-person shooter, as our first game. At that time, we also said we were giving the ARC Raiders team time to add PvP to the existing foundation of the game.

Since then, over the course of development, ARC Raiders has taken the shape of what we believe to be a truly promising PvPvE survival extraction shooter — a game that stays true to the ARC Raiders universe and we’re having a blast testing internally.

ARC Raiders drops players into a lethal but stunningly beautiful future earth, with hair-raising moments of survival and suspense. Human versus machine, human versus human, together or alone, and you versus the sometimes conflicting nature of your own humanity, all in the spectacular backdrop of a landscape littered with the haunting remains of the past.

Here is an excerpt to help paint a picture of what you can expect at this time in our development of the game:

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People have fled to the underground colony of Speranza, seeking supplies to survive, and shelter from the machines. Demand for resources is at an all-time high. But getting those resources is a risky job, and it isn’t for everyone.

But it is a job for you.

That’s why you’ve enlisted as a Raider, scavenging for vital supplies that are scattered across the 5landscape. Everything from leftovers from yesterday’s run-in with ARC to the unlikely remains of a pinball machine.

Out there, the stakes are high, and you will have to fight for your loot. Lethal ARC machines roam the surface. And there are no rules in Calabretta, so beware of other Raiders.

With the traders in Speranza, trust is hard-earned and easily lost. You need to earn your keep. So don't come back from a quest empty-handed.

When you see another Raider chased by a swarm of ARC drones, do you go in for the kill? Do you lend a helping hand? Or do you hold back and feast on the valuable remains?


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The next step for us is a Closed Alpha test to and get feedback on the game’s core systems and loops. This will be the first road test of ARC Raiders and an important step for the game, which so far has never been in the hands of external players.

This test will be closed and under NDA, because work remains on the game and we’re not quite ready to reveal everything about it. We have some big theories to prove before it’s time to put them on the world’s stage.

If you would like to give it a try and help us illuminate the path, we’d love for you to head on over and sign up for the opportunity to playtest this summer.


[h3]Sign up for the playtest Now![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1808500/ARC_Raiders/