Arc Raiders team ends monthly updates — here's what that means

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios is making a major change to how it updates its sci-fi extraction shooter. The studio announced Wednesday that it no longer plans to issue monthly updates to Arc Raiders, because doing so “isn’t sustainable, or compatible with the bigger ambitions we have for this game.”

Instead, Embark plans to radically alter its cadence, focusing on “major updates twice a year.” The first of those large-scale updates will arrive in October.

“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,” said executive producer Aleksander Grøndal. “Over time, we’ve found that the pressure of a monthly cycle limits how impactful these updates can be. You feel it, and we feel it too.”

Image: Embark Studios

The new plan will focus on twice-yearly updates that are larger in scale, more impactful, and will “genuinely change how you play the game,” Grøndal said.

Embark still plans to issue regular live updates, balance fixes, and bug fixes to Arc Raiders. But the change in how the studio rolls out updates will allow it “to invest more deeply in the health of Arc Raiders, from progression and economy balancing to fair play and anti-cheat efforts,” Grøndal said.

Arc Raiders‘ October update is titled Frozen Trail, and will represent the biggest content update yet for the game. It will include the following, according to Grøndal:

A Sprawling New Frontier – Explore a new landscape in the Rust Belt with layered design and new mysteries to uncover in the largest map in the game.
Our Most Ambitious ARC Operation So Far – including new ARC enemies with fresh designs, and unique behaviors that will challenge Raiders in new ways.
New Systems of Progression – Many players have maxed out their Raider Den and hit the Skill Point ceiling. Frozen Trail will introduce new goals and more ways to shape your Raider’s progression.
Exploring the origin of ARC – What are ARC and where do they come from? Frozen Trail gives Raiders the opportunity to begin uncovering that mystery.
Improved Skill Tree
New weapons, items, instruments, cosmetics and more

So far, response to the changes (and promised content updates) appear to be well-received by the Arc Raiders community. “This is MASSIVE and exactly what so many of us have been asking for,” said one player in the game’s subreddit. “This literally addresses everything.”

An Arc Raiders character looking behind them in a forest at another player aiming at them. — *Arc Raiders* is the leading example of a new wave of mid-price multiplayer games outperforming free-to-play peers.

“I’m beyond hyped,” said another player. “They addressed virtually every major community concern, especially the lack of a meaningful endgame loop, which is exactly why most of my friends stopped playing and a huge sentiment expressed by the community.”

Embark Studios released Arc Raiders in October 2025, and the game quickly found success, particularly for a premium paid multiplayer game. On Steam, Arc Raiders peaked at 459,483 concurrent players in January, and has since steadily declined. But Arc Raiders remains in Steam’s most-played games, and with Embark’s new plan, it may find long-term success too.

Arc Raiders is available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.