Design Director Explains Why ARC Raiders Didn’t Release Immediately After April Playtest

Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders is scheduled to launch on October 30, 2025 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, and has been drawing attention from players who have been following it since the April playtest. Many hoped for a surprise release during Summer Game Fest, but the team opted to delay the launch, calling the shooter “absolutely not ready.”

Design director Virgil Watkins explained in an interview:

“It’s striking how many people wanted the release immediately after the test. For us, however, the game wasn’t ready. Even though it appeared to run well for some, optimization work remained and numerous systems still needed finishing. There were bugs — fortunately they rarely showed up in players’ videos — but they nonetheless required fixes.”

Watkins added that telemetry exposed balance issues and revealed the need for additional assets. The team has added a new map and is preparing a fifth for launch, while also refreshing item pools, enemy types, and map conditions to expand gameplay and introduce new ways to approach runs.

The project, announced in 2021 as a free-to-play cooperative shooter, later shifted into a PvEvP extraction shooter sold as a one-time purchase. The game will launch at an initial price of $39.99.

Source: iXBT.games