Embark Studios has shared its plans for ARC Raiders through 2026, detailing a new stream of content for the game. This announcement comes after a quiet period over the holidays, where players expressed frustration with a lack of new activities and things to do beyond the winter event.
The recent update has provided players with four months of new content, though some feel the release of important features, such as new maps, is happening too slowly. The last new map, Stella Montis, came out in mid-November, and the next one isn’t expected until April.
Is ARC Raiders Suffering From a Lack of Updates?
ARC Raiders has been incredibly popular, selling approximately 12 million copies since its release on October 31st and significantly impacting the extraction shooter genre. Despite its success, players have consistently voiced concerns about various issues, particularly those that arose during the holiday season.
Over the past few weeks, many players have grown frustrated with Embark Studios due to issues like cheating, exploits that let players go outside the game’s boundaries, a shortage of fresh content, and disappointing rewards from the initial Expedition Project. These problems combined to create a feeling of burnout for many.
The team finally released their initial 2026 roadmap after nearly a month of work. It covers plans from January through April.
The update begins with new ways to find matches, player-created content that adds to the game’s story and quests, and some smaller challenges. In February, players can look forward to a new Raider Deck and Expedition Project, along with improvements to the current maps.
Fans of the popular game ARC Raiders will have to wait until April for the promised new map and major enemy update, leaving some a little let down.
If the upcoming map, expected with the Riven Tides update and designed for water-based gameplay, arrives around mid-April, it will have been five months since the last new map was released.
Slow content updates are common in extraction shooter games. Escape from Tarkov is a good example – they typically only release a new map every year or two. For example, the ‘Ground Zero’ map came out in December 2023, and before that, ‘Streets of Tarkov’ was added in December 2022.
That’s just one example.
Extraction shooters usually feature much bigger and more complex maps than typical first-person shooters. Unlike games like Call of Duty, which get new multiplayer maps fairly often, creating these maps is a huge undertaking. Developers need to carefully consider and refine every detail – how balanced the map is, the best paths to find loot, where players start, and where they can safely escape – to ensure a smooth and engaging experience.
Okay, so some people are complaining about waiting for a new map in ARC Raiders, but honestly, I don’t think it’s a big deal. There’s already plenty to keep me busy and having fun with what we’ve got right now. I’m still getting a ton of playtime out of the existing maps!
Grant Taylor-Hill
Grant first fell in love with gaming in 1996 on the Amstrad CPC. Since then, he’s become a skilled gamer across many platforms, with a strong passion for both gaming and competitive esports.
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2026-01-24 17:18