ARC Raiders
Arc Raiders did not get shadow-dropped during Summer Game Fest. My day is ruined, my disappointment—immeasurable. Despite the horoscopes aligning perfectly, cryptic teasers counting down to the show, and even Scrappy the chicken appearing front and centre in SGF promo material, Arc Raiders isn’t out. It’s not out for another five months.
This all seems just a little bit mishandled by Embark Studios. I haven’t seen hype around a game quite like the explosive outpouring of love after Arc Raiders’ previous tech test — a relatively small test that a bunch of people didn’t even get a chance to play— in a long time. It seemed like Embark Studios were about to clinch the moment and drop the game in the middle of all the hype, to mass praise, huge player numbers, the kind of stuff studios can only dream of.
Instead, we got a pretty lacklustre trailer swamped on either side by so many games that most viewers leave SGF feeling a bit dizzy. Embark certainly didn’t help temper expectations as it sat quietly as the hype built up in the community. In the end, Embark is aware of its misleading teasing because it made a post in its Discord apologizing for getting people’s hopes up about being able to play the game again.
“Hello Raiders—
In the lead-up to the ARC Raiders date reveal, we put out a countdown to June 6. This gave the false impression that we would be shadow dropping the game. Instead, you found out that ARC Raiders is coming on October 30, making it a countdown to a countdown.
The frustration and disappointment that is 100% our fault.
The teaser we posted came from a place of genuine excitement. We finally have an actual date! But it’s clear that what we saw as playful and hype-building came across as misleading and frustrating to many of you, and we get why.
We mismanaged the hype, we misread the situation, and we’re so sorry that this led to disappointment.
We’re making this game for you and your reaction to ARC Raiders has been humbling and overwhelming and exciting.
Next steps: we’re putting our heads down and focusing on building the game. We know that games live and die by polish and quality, balance, and long-term fun. We need this additional time to ensure we can meet your expectations.
Look here and on our socials for updates on our progress and the road to launch.
Thank you for holding us to a high standard. We intend to meet it.
//Dusty
And the ARC Raiders Team”
So, Uh, Where’s The Game?
I’ll pull on my hat of rationality here because I don’t mind waiting for Arc Raiders, and I understand why the studio is keen for the game to launch in its smoothest, most complete state. No one wants a broken game at launch. It’s much better to wait for the game to be as polished as possible. I am more than happy to wait for an excellent product. And Embark has experience with this already, thanks to its previous game, The Finals.
An excellent game that sort of got a bit lost along the way, The Finals peaked at over 200,000 concurrently at launch but dropped to 20,000 within a month of release. It’s probably the best FPS game I’ve played since Titanfall 2, which is enormous praise. But the only people left playing what is an excellent game are a diehard cohort of Finals lovers, not the casual crowd.
The Finals didn’t launch with everything it needed to maintain a big player base. The marketing push was there, but it didn’t seem to capture everyone’s attention. Big streamers played their sponsored segments and then logged off. After the initial hype, it all trailed off rather quickly. I imagine the team would like to avoid these pitfalls again.
Arc Raiders seems perfectly poised to do so. I watched a lot of content creators log in and play dozens of hours of Arc Raiders, sponsor-free. They were playing the game because it’s a seriously good game. When you’ve captured the hearts and minds of some of the biggest FPS communities in the space, you know you’re on to a winner. It markets itself, or so you’d think.
Now, Arc Raiders heads into a busy end-of-year bonanza, rather than launching as the supreme game of the moment. While a shadow drop would have had to contend with Dune: Awakening, the rest of the summer seems like pretty smooth sailing, with plenty of space for a game like Arc Raiders to breathe. At the end of the year, we’ve definitely got Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and we might even have Battlefield 6. While I personally think Arc Raiders is probably going to be a better game than either of these, you’ve got two mainstream FPS juggernauts there. Can it really compete?
My only worry is that we face another Finals situation here. Embark now has to carefully manage the hype in the build-up to release, and I expect it’s already making plans for another beta, hopefully an open one this time. The game sells itself: Embark just needs to get players in front of it and let the gameplay take the reins.
