Kyle Gratton is an editor and writer for Screen Rant's Gaming section, a terminal Midwesterner, and lifelong Zelda fan.
April's Riven Tides update was a major milestone for ARC Raiders, marking the final content drop from the game's original 2026 roadmap. Embark Studios' extraction shooter burst onto the scene last October and immediately began an ambitious post-launch support regimen: one major content update every month.
Six months later, players have been treated to six marquee patches, but Embark tells ScreenRant's Rob Keyes that this is far from the end of the road for ARC Raiders in 2026 even if the cadence is changing in a big way. Just days after the latest Expedition wipe, we learned today the big news that the cadence of major updates is changing to bi-annual, for larger, more significant changes to the game going forward.
We spoke to Executive Producer Aleksander Grøndal and Design Director Virgil Watkins about ARC Raiders' Riven Tides update and what comes next for the ongoing game. A detailed roadmap for the second half of the year will be shared with players"very soon," because the rest of ARC Raiders' 2026 is already laid out.
"Currently, our plan is up to early 2027," says Grøndal,"but we're actively working on a longer term plan for the game as we speak, so expect lots of cool and new stuff coming from us. " Ironing out a roadmap has itself been a challenge following ARC Raiders' unexpected level of success. Embark"had a shape of a longer post-launch plan" when ARC Raiders was released late last year, but it was"based around some pretty vague assumptions.
" Adding to the difficulty in planning are the various play styles that have emerged:"The details of that plan have changed quite a fair bit based on the reception of the game. " ARC Raiders Devs Promise More New Content Throughout 2026 When ARC Raiders launched, Embark"didn't really know what the players wanted," says Grøndal, and the wide range of ways people interact with the game remains a challenge as post-launch development is ongoing.
There are PvE players, who are friendly towards their fellow Raiders and singularly fight ARC's machines; then there are PvP players, who are in it purely for the shootouts against others; and finally, there's"a large group in the middle that does a mix of both.
" This social experiment gameplay is what makes ARC Raiders so compelling, but it's also difficult to develop content for. "Most of our content is sandbox in nature and that supports various different play styles," says Grøndal,"and we prefer to keep it that way rather than building specific content for a specific player type at the moment.
" The game's immediate future is pretty clear, if a little broad:"Right now, one of the big things that players are saying is that they are running out of things to do, so a key focus for us is to give players just that. " New Maps, Weapons, & More Planned For ARC Raiders Giving players more things to do means building on ARC Raiders' success without straying from what gained the game its popularity.
"The key for us is to improve ARC Raiders to the best it can be," says Grøndal,"and not pivot the game to be something that it's not. " This means adding"more new and unique weapons and gadgets," while also refining existing systems.
For instance, the notoriously derided Hairpin – a silenced, single-action pistol – was mentioned as a specific item that the devs would like to reevaluate. New weapons, attachments, and gadgets will also bring further balancing, like Riven Tides' changes to weapon degradation.
Watkins noted that this too was, in part, a response to ARC Raiders' disparate subsets of players:"we could see that more PvP- and PvPvE-oriented players had a quite healthy weapon economy, in that they would gain and lose weapons at a pretty consistent rate and more actively engage with traders, repairing, and crafting. Players on the more PvE end are often sitting on hoards of guns, so we want to nudge this a bit to smooth out the disparity.
" Such a mindset extends to upcoming changes throughout the game, like potential blueprint and expedition reworks, but when it comes to simply giving players more to engage with, new maps reign supreme. Riven Tides is ARC Raiders' sixth map, but it is far from the last.
"We have a lot of concepts for future maps and several in production," says Grøndal. New ARC Raiders maps may even take players beyond the Rust Belt. ARC Raiders' two post-launch maps arrived five months apart, and while it's unclear if a similar cadence will continue for the future maps , numerous new maps being on the way sets the game up for long-term support regardless.
Embark is keenly aware that the game's unpredictable sandbox is the main attraction, so after six months of enthusiasm, ARC Raiders is full steam ahead by simply adding more sand to play in. 9/10 ARC Raiders Like Follow Followed Extraction Shooter Third-Person Shooter Survival Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 87/100 Critics Rec: 93% Released October 30, 2025 ESRB Teen / Violence, Blood, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact Developer Embark Studios Publisher Embark Studios Engine Unreal Engine 5 7 Images Close Genre Extraction, Shooter, Third-Person Shooter, Survival Powered by Expand Collapse
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