Arc Raiders Delay Has Completely Changed Its Genre

After its delay last year, Embark Studio’s third-person shooter, Arc Raiders, has changed direction enough to necessitate a genre change.

Prior to the delay, Arc Raiders was billed as a PvE shooter, where players could team up to survive deadly enemies in a distinct future-vision of the world. When Embark Studio made the decision to focus on The Finals, its other first-person team-based shooter that is launching soon, it decided to delay Arc Raiders while also figuring out how to fold in PvP elements.

In the latest update for the game, executive producer Aleksander Grøndal reveals that in that pursuit Embark Studios ended up changing a big part of Arc Raiders’ structure. The game is now more of a PvPvE extraction shooter, where players will compete against the numerous machines that inhabit the world while also challenging other player teams aiming to extract vital loot from the battlefield.

It sounds a lot like the formula established by the likes of The Division with its Dark Zone mode, where players similarly fought to extract loot while surviving against players and increasingly hostile enemies. If you’re intrigued by the new direction for Arc Raiders you can sign up for the game’s latest closed beta, although you will be required to sign an NDA and limit what you share of the experience.

Embark Studios is planning to launch The Finals before shifting full focus to Arc Raiders again, so it might still be sometime until its launch. It’s scheduled to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC when it does arrive.