ARC Raiders, the upcoming cooperative third-person shooter from Embark Studios, has been delayed to 2023. The game was originally set to be released this year. However, updates from the developer have been sparse, so a delay won’t come as a huge surprise to those who have been following it closely.
Embark Studios made the announcement on Twitter earlier today, saying that ARC Raiders “is an ambitious game, and we will be using this extra time to expand the experience, and allow it to reach its fullest potential.” Unfortunately, the ARC Raiders studio didn’t provide any timeline for when in 2023 gamers can expect to get their hands on the delayed free-to-play title.
ARC Raiders is a third-person co-op game that tasks players with fending off hordes of ARC. The ARC are a “ruthless mechanized threat descending from space.” The game was first unveiled at last year’s The Game Awards, with the trailer being one of the undisputed highlights of the show. The game is designed around squads of players taking down the ARC, which range from small flying drone types to massive mecha Godzilla-Esque juggernauts. To be successful, players will need to improvise, use their surroundings and “do the unexpected.”
Unfortunately, since the original announcement of the game, new details have been few and far between. Aside from what was originally unveiled, very little info has been divulged from Embark Studios. In fact, the only update on the game’s official Twitter page since December was on March 1, when Embark made an announcement that the studio was looking for voluntary playtesters. It isn’t clear if any playtests have taken place since then, but the studio did say it would be starting “to test [ARC Raiders] more extensively with players” soon.
Embark Studios is a relatively new developer, founded in 2018. The studio is made up of former members of EA’s prestigious developer, DICE. The studio is responsible for games such as the Battlefield series, Star Wars: Battlefront, and the Mirror’s Edge games. Many of which the folks at Embark Studios worked on before going solo. ARC Raiders is the long-awaited first title from the Swedish developer.
ARC Raiders will be released exclusively on current-gen consoles and PC when it launches next year. Players will be able to enjoy the game on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. ARC Raiders will be free-to-play at launch. It’s confirmed (via the Steam page) that the game will have in-app purchases, though there are no details at this time on what those in-app purchases will look like.
Hopefully, those looking forward to ARC Raiders don’t have to wait too long before Embark provides a new release window for the game.
