While Embark Studios have continuously updated ARC Raiders with new content and updates, general sentiment surrounding the popular extraction shooter has waned somewhat over the past months. As a result, the team have now announced that they are shifting their live-service plans, replacing smaller more consistent updates with “major updates twice a year.”

Following the successful launch of ARC Raiders last year, Embark Studios shared a detailed 2026 roadmap, confirming that they planned to release updates on a monthly basis. While the team have managed to maintain this promise so far, reactions to the updates themselves have been less-than-stellar.

It appears the team are listening, with Embark Studios taking to their blog to confirm some pretty wide-sweeping changes, writing:

“When ARC Raiders launched, we planned to offer monthly updates. The intention was to keep you all engaged, to ensure the game always felt fresh, and to give you reasons to keep braving topside. But once the game was in players' hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for ARC Raiders requires more transformative updates.”

Describing this previous schedule as not “sustainable, or compatible with the bigger ambitions we have for this game,” Embark are now shifting strategies, confirming that “going forward, we've made the decision to release major updates twice a year – larger in scale, more impactful, with the goal to genuinely change how you play the game.”

Of course, a dedicated team will persist to ensure that day-to-day balance changes, updates and tweaks can continue to be released at regular intervals. That said, in terms of substantial content updates, these will now come far less often, but should be more exciting.

Offering a tease on what to expect from this new release schedule, the team confirmed that the next major update will arrive in October. Dubbed the ‘Frozen Trail’, this content drop will introduce:

• A new landscape in the Rust Belt (the largest so far)
• The biggest ARC Operation so far (with new enemies, fresh designs and more)
• New progression system
• An improved skill tree
• New weapons, items and more

KitGuru says: What did you think of ARC Raiders’ current live-service approach? Did it need an overhaul? Are you more or less hopeful for the future of the game in the wake of these changes? Let us know down below.

Following the explosive launch of Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders late last year, the team shared an official roadmap detailing the live-service extraction shooter’s Q1 2026 plans. With their Flashpoint Update coming to an end, the team have now detailed Arc Raiders’ next big release – with Riven Tides officially arriving today alongside enhanced PSSR support on PS5 Pro.

Detailing the latest update via their blog, the team at Embark Studios shared everything that players can expect from Riven Tides, writing: “Raiders, Scout reports have been returning from Riven Tides. Fragments of observation logs, faded photographs, and footage of the coast have finally made their way back to Speranza.”

Available to experience in full from today, the update includes a number of major additions:

• New Map: Riven Tides
• New Enemy: Arc Turbine
• New minor Map Condition: Beachcombing for buried loot
• New items for added traversal:
  • Crash mat
  • Powered Descender
• New event: Last Resort
• New Raider Project: Avian Alarm
• New cosmetics

As mentioned, alongside these additions, PlayStation 5 Pro users are set to be treated to a much-improved experience visually, with Sony’s upgraded PSSR 2 bringing an impressive amount of added detail and perceived sharpness.

Embark Studios are continuing to add to Arc Raiders at a consistent pace, but with the Riven tides update being the final piece of their previously-released ‘Escalation’ roadmap, it will be interesting to see what the team have planned for the rest of 2026 and beyond.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you looking forward to today’s update? How big of a deal is the new PSSR to you? What do you hope to see from future updates? Let us know down below.

Following the explosive launch of Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders late last year, the team shared an official roadmap detailing the next 12 months of the live-service extraction shooter’s update plans. Ahead of its arrival later today, the team have shared everything you need to know about ARC Raiders’ Flashpoint Update.

Releasing a blog post to detail all of the upcoming content coming to ARC Raiders with the Flashpoint Update, the team at Embark have shared everything players will need to know upon its arrival later today. Partially teased in the initial roadmap, the Flashpoint Update is set to introduce the following:

• New Major Map Condition – ARC Operations (Close Scrutiny)
  • Features less loot around the map
  • Increased importance on the ARC Assessor
• New ARC Threat – Vaporizer
  • A flying ARC type featuring “devastating laser attacks and idiosyncratic attack patterns”

• New Weapons and Items
  • Canto submachine gun with medium ammo
  • Dolabra energy shotgun with a variable focus
  • Surge Coil deployable defensive device
• New Project – High Gain Antenna
• You can now increase the types of loot Scrappy collects by feeding him particular items
• Enemy placement adjustments
• Crafting improvements with less tab-switching required to craft gear

Of course, the update will also launch alongside a suite of new paid cosmetics – a staple for pretty much all live-service titles at this point. Regardless, the Flashpoint Update represents the next stage in ARC Raiders’ first year on the market. It will be interesting to see how players respond to these changes and additions.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the Flashpoint Update? What feature are you most looking forward to? Do you enjoy the game’s various Map Conditions? Let us know down below.

Arc Raiders was easily one of 2025 biggest surprise hits, with the PvPvE extraction shooter having sold over 14 million copies since the game’s launch in October while continuing to see strong levels of engagement from players. Perhaps the biggest stain on the game was its use of gen-AI for its voice acting – some of which has since been replaced.

Taking part in an interview conducted by the publication Gamesindustry.biz, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund spoke on the development of Arc Raiders, its relatively small budget and the size of the team itself.

The full interview can be found HERE, but by far the most interesting part pertains to Arc Raiders’ use of gen-AI. While the team have addressed this previously, Söderlund spoke on their evolving use of the technology, stating:

“We pay our actors for all time spent with us in the booth and continue to bring many of them back as we carry on updating the game. For select usage, we also pay them for the approval to license their voices through text-to-speech for lines that aren't as essential to the immersion of the experience, mostly ping system audio.”

Despite the use of AI, Embark admits that nothing can replace a voice actor’s talent, claiming: “We re-recorded some of the lines post-launch and made them with real voices. There is a quality difference. A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is.”

Söderlund continued, “We look at [AI] first and foremost as a production tool. We can test things internally. We can test 15 different lines without recording them, and then we know what to record. It's also a way for us to work, not replace actors. We don't necessarily believe in replacing humans with AI all the time.”

AI in art remains a contentious topic, and one which is changing all the time as the tech itself evolves. Here’s to hoping that eventually all of Arc Raider’s AI voices are replaced by real talent.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Arc Raiders’ use of AI? Is it distracting? Let us know down below.