The popularity of ARC Raiders proved to be a serious challenge for Embark Studios. In an interview with Game Developer, executive producer Alexander Grondal admitted that the team underestimated the burden associated with continuous support for a live-service game:
“I was mentally prepared for it to be difficult, but I wasn't prepared for how difficult it would turn out to be.”
According to Grondal, after the release, the developers tried to maintain a monthly schedule of major updates and constantly took on more than they could handle. At the same time, players still lacked new content, and a significant amount of time was spent on bug fixes, exploits, and other technical tasks. As a result, fatigue and dissatisfaction grew within the team.
“Eventually we asked ourselves, 'Why are we doing this?' Everything indicated that we were working better before the release, so we need to build on our strengths.”
Back in May, Embark decided to abandon this race and switched to two major releases per year. The first major release under the new schedule will be Frozen Trail, the largest ARC Raiders update, which will be released on October 8, 2026. And on October 13, the studio will also launch testing of a separate PvE mode. If it interests players, the mode may be kept permanently.