Embark Studios revealed a new trailer for their upcoming title Arc Raiders at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event. This PvPvE action survival shooter has shifted from being a free-to-play title to a $40 premium release, and Embark has set the launch date for some time in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. GamesBeat got a glimpse of the title’s gameplay ahead of its showing at Gamescom, which appears to favor measured, cautious approaches rather than all-out chaos for players.
The player characters are the titular Arc Raiders, topside explorers scavenging for supplies on the world’s ruined surface for subterranean settlements. They must battle each other and hostile robots called Arc Machines for the limited resources, and can only grow as characters if they successfully make it back to the settlement alive. From what GamesBeat was shown, Embark intends for players to approach situations thoughtfully, rather than going in weapons blazing.
Stefan Strandberg, Embark cofounder and creative director, said in a statement, “Our inspiration draws 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. Arc Raiders 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.”
As for why the game is now premium, rather than free-to-play, Aleksander Grøndal, the game’s executive producers, said, “This shift allows us to focus on what truly matters for this game — creating an engaging, balanced, and replayable action survival experience.”
According to Embark, Arc Raiders will have its first public tech test on Steam from October 24-27, 2024.