ARC Raiders – Dev Teases 2026 Roadmap, Hints at "Even Grander" New Maps

Following a successful launch attracting over 12 million players, Embark Studios is planning substantial new content for ARC Raiders in 2026, as revealed in a GamesRadar+ interview with design lead Virgil Watkins.

Watkins stated:

sometime soon, I believe we're going to be putting out a chunk of a roadmap for the upcoming months. But right now, it's us kind of deciding exactly that cadence, that stuff. And you are correct on the types of content, and we're going to parcel that out across the coming year.

He elaborated on the philosophy behind updates:

Some of it is reacting to the things you're talking about here, like how players are actually engaging with the game and the things that they're doing, but a lot of it for us is trying to see how we can move the experience forward. Of course adding a new map has its own novelty, and it's a new place to play and do that. But what else? Thematically, gameplay-wise. How do the enemies and the items and the experiences in that map all point toward something? It's kind of getting that thematically cohesive stuff together that feels like, 'Oh, guys, the Whatever Update just came out for ARC Raiders. Let's go check that out.' That's what we're trying to template out for the coming months.

While specifics are pending the roadmap, Watkins discussed ambitions for future maps, emphasizing novel experiences:

the ambition is to try to pair it with some new type of experience, whether that's the map conditions or weather conditions we put in that make the play feel different, enemy types or compositions feeling different, or we're escalating the types of loot available there... How do we keep – not necessarily escalating all the time, but – giving you a new way of play, a new way to approach, making you make different decisions with things you've already been using in one context, and trying to use it in a different way in another context?

He confirmed a key detail on the quantity and scale of new locations:

There are going to be multiple maps coming this year, and I think it's going to be across a spectrum of size to try to facilitate different types of gameplay. So you might see some that are smaller, and you might see some that are even grander than what we've got now.

Regarding map design and the balance between PvE and PvP, as seen in the dense Stella Montis, Watkins noted:

That's certainly a consideration that goes into it. When you create a dense interior that's sort of spider nest-y, it's going to evoke that, right? Certainly, the style of play, or the predominant play that's going to happen there, is a factor in that.

Practical and technical constraints also play a major role:

Then we're going through considerations of practical stuff like server performance. We can have X players and ARC present before the server explodes and we can't run anymore. So that influences some of our choice making. And client performance... Those are the practical side of things, and then it's just getting into the pacing territory. How many spawns can we have? What's their time to travel? How quickly do they collapse different locations? What's the density of drones and players in any given spot, and loot dispersion and value concentration? That's a bunch of stuff that comes into play when we put these spaces together.

The article also confirmed that the Bettina weapon has "the highest PvE damage output of any weapon" in ARC Raiders.

In short, in an interview with GamesRadar+, the developer shared:

• A 2026 roadmap for ARC Raiders will be revealed soon.

• New content, including maps, weapons, and enemies, will be rolled out throughout the year.

• The goal is to create thematically cohesive updates that offer new gameplay experiences.

• Multiple new maps are confirmed for 2026, varying in size from smaller to even grander than current ones.

• Map design considers the balance between PvE and PvP engagement.

• Technical factors like server performance and player pacing are crucial in map development.