Latest news with #ARCRaiders
Forbes
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘ARC Raiders' Gets A Promising, Imminent Release Date Update
ARC Raiders Players recently fought and stealthed their way from the ARC Raiders Closed Alpha, and almost everyone had a similar thought: This game seems ready for release. That's not usually the case with an Alpha, and while there were certainly balance issues, it felt like a complete game perhaps minus a few things that were being held in the test. But it didn't even look like it needed say, visual polish. There may be a reason for that, and some players believe they've found the actual release date for ARC Raiders, which may be imminent. A post-Alpha update was added to the game and for ten minutes, players dug around to find that through the .exe file it led to a 'tick counter' link which ended on June 6. In what seems like an unlikely coincidence, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest show begins on, you guessed it, June 6. You will also never guess when Embark's last game, The Finals, debuted. That was at The Game Awards 2023, where it was instantly playable when it was shown off. A 'shadow drop.' The one difference was that there was an actual open beta for The Finals a month before The Game Awards, where there has not been anything like that here. But: 1) The game feeling ready to release 2) This dug-up date being the day Summer Games Fest starts 3) Embark shadow-dropping The Finals at a different Keighley event I mean, that all points to the idea that this June 6 date, just under two weeks from now, may in fact pan out. Arc Raiders ARC Raiders was viewed as a solid new entry in the extraction shooter genre during its last Closed Alpha, with its playercount increasing each day during the test. It also had the benefit of running the test at the same time as rival extraction shooter Marathon, the upcoming Bungie game and most players would say it compared very favorably. Marathon was more unfinished in what felt like a true Alpha test ahead of an alleged September 23 release date. Bungie just stumbled into a controversy when it was revealed that stolen art assets have been used in the game. ARC Raiders has had no such controversy and it would simply not be surprising if it dropped at Summer Games Fest. One issue with shadow drops, however, is that everyone is suddenly rushing to play all at once, creating server or login issues, which is exactly what happened with The Finals. But hopefully they're preparing for that. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The ‘ARC Raiders' Alpha Gained Players Nearly Every Single Day
ARC Raiders The second Closed Alpha test of ARC Raiders got a lot of attention this week as word spread about the new extraction shooter. That positive word of mouth led to a significant achievement, an increase in the number of players every day minus a tiny tick down last night, reflecting glowing sentiments about the game and also more codes being issued over time. ARC Raiders will be a new entry in the extraction genre releasing some time this year, it's claimed. But after experiencing the Alpha it seems pretty close to ready at this point, and many are predicting developer Embark may pull off another shadow drop this summer like they did with The Finals, their other PvP game that you may not realize has in fact maintained a solidly consistent playercount over time. Arc Raiders Pretty quickly, ARC Raiders demonstrated how it was a somewhat less hardcore, but appealing version of Tarkov with traditional extraction elements ranging from crafting to home base upgrades. The game itself features harrowing robotic PvE enemies, including one hulking boss that was only defeated 58 times total as tens of thousands of players played the Alpha. And of course, there are plenty of PvP fights as well, the core of the experience and there have been some pretty funny clips already from the test. What stood out most to me as I played was the sound design, relying more heavily than most other games I've ever played on footsteps, gunfire and often looting, prying open extremely loud containers or setting off blaring alarms when looting big drops. Yes, other games have this but it's also how it sounds. I've never been so terrified of cracking gunfire nearby or grit my teeth as hard as when I'm jamming a crowbar into a screaming rusted box. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Yes, all this is inevitably leading to the performance of the game versus Marathon, another high profile extraction shooter that has been running a Closed Alpha simultaneously, though a game that is obviously far less finished than ARC. It was a stark contrast in reception, and Bungie's new shooter lacked many of the extraction elements fans of that genre want, Alpha or not, while also feeling somewhat inaccessible to new players, especially those hoping to play solo. More than ARC, anyway. As such, the Marathon Closed Alpha lost PC players every day, the inverse of ARC, though some of that may be due to the somewhat inexplicable decision to barely give out new codes despite always promising more. There are still too many unknowns to know what will happen with Marathon, but ARC? ARC seems destined to be at least some level of genre hit. I am not expecting insane numbers or the ability to dethrone Tarkov. But if it settles into a Finals cadence, I think Embark would be just fine with that. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Yes, ‘ARC Raiders' Makes ‘Marathon' Look Bad
Arc Raiders It's an unproven trend at this point, but the new race toward live multiplayer games appears to be the genre of extraction shooters, and this week brought an unusual situation with two upcoming 2025 extraction games both running Closed Alphas and so far, eliciting different reactions. Those two games, as you can guess, are Bungie's Marathon and Embark Studio's ARC Raiders, both entries in the extraction genre that are allegedly being released in 2025. Marathon has a date, September 23, but as of now ARC does not. There's no getting around it. The reaction to the Marathon Alpha has mostly been mixed to underwhelming. The initial reaction to the ARC Raiders Alpha has visibly skewed more positive. So what's going on? Simply put, ARC Raiders is a much more traditional extraction shooter in the vein of Tarkov, but at least somewhat more accessible and better-looking, given it's a 2025 release. It's a Fallout-esque concept of scavenging a ruined wasteland populated by hostile robots and other players. At its core, you skulk around, harvest materials and weapons, and attempt to extract (by going down, not up), either avoiding or killing enemies along the way. Or being killed, of course. It's got all the traditional extraction-y things. Custom characters, crafting, proximity chat, a home base of sorts, and it just…plays much more like a traditional extraction shooter with its grounded combat. Add in some great visuals and truly fantastic sound design, and it's not a mystery why this positive reception is occurring. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Marathon Marathon has ditched a lot of this in an attempt to be unique, but in many ways that doesn't feel like it's the case, taking out hardcore elements extraction players want, while also perhaps not being all that accessible to the wider playerbase they want to attract. The opposite is true here. Hero characters, not custom ones. No proximity chat, no crafting and importantly, no Solos at launch, which is something ARC Raiders does have. Community conversations with Bungie are not terribly promising, saying they'll get around to things like proximity chat and Solos eventually, but not for launch, as neither are an urgent priority according to them. The end result here is an odd mix of traditional extraction elements, slow moving looting and stamina roadblocks, but paired with often Apex-like firefights with less mobility. It often pairs uncomfortably. The Marathon Alpha feels less polished and more feature-light. All the claims of 'it's early, it's a Closed Alpha' don't exactly match up with the fact that ARC is also doing a Closed Alpha which seems more substantive and finished, and is likely to be out a good bit after Marathon, if not pushed to 2026. But Marathon launches in six months. Marathon The expectations are also not comparable. Marathon has been in development for six years and this will be Sony's biggest upcoming live service game after a string of cancellations and failures. And of course its famed shooter-maker Bungie's new IP after massive hits Halo and Destiny spanning 20+ years. ARC's Embark has the same amount of devs in the entire studio as are working on Marathon at Bungie, around 300, but a portion of those are managing The Finals, the studio's other multiplayer game that may not be the talk of the town these days, but boasts a consistent playercount, which many may not realize. The reception here has almost been night and day. There's no telling if ARC will for sure be a hit or if Marathon will for sure be a failure. It's not that simple. But observing how this has gone, it's impossible not to compare the two and say this has been a much better week for ARC. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
