Arc Raiders Transitions From F2P to $40 Premium Title, Fall Testing Begins This October With Full Release in 2025

Remember Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders? The development team’s first project that was announced publicly, but sat on the backburner as The Finals made its way out? Well, it’s back, and there’s a lot of changes to it.

Thanks to an invite-only media briefing which MP1st was invited to, Embark has announced that Arc Raiders, which was originally announced as a free-to-play title, is now a full premium game and will target a price of $40 when it launches in 2025.

Aleksander Grøndal, Arc Raiders Executive Producer, explained the change:

“It became increasingly clear to us during development that a premium model is a better fit for the experience we’re building with ARC Raiders. This shift allows us to focus on what truly matters for this game — creating an engaging, balanced, and replayable action survival experience.”

Embark will soon be conducting its first public playtest of Arc Raiders, as players can sign up for it on Steam to be one of the lucky ones picked when it kicks off this October 24 – Oct. 27, 2024! There’s also a new trailer released which we’ve included below.

Not familiar with Arc Raiders? Here’s the official description per Embark:

In ARC Raiders you enter a vast and lethal world.

People have fled to the underground colony of Speranza, seeking supplies to survive, and shelter from ARC machines on the surface. Demand for resources is at an all-time high, but venturing the surface to get them is a risky job.

You enlist as a Raider, fighting for your own survival and that of your neighborhood in the underground colony — scavenging and hunting for resources that must be extracted back safely from the surface. Standing in your way are ARC machines — a mysterious, deadly foe — as well as other players — Raiders — who are also competing for loot and their own survival.

To grow as a Raider, you must make it back down to the colony alive. There, you get to meet the traders of Speranza to trade your loot and valuables, embark on quests, upgrade and improve and expand your chambers, and grow your character to suit your playstyle — to become the Raider that you want to be.

Whether teaming up or going solo, it’s a game that rewards thinking ahead and carefully observing the world around you, rather than running into action guns blazing. The gameplay is tactile, visceral, and grounded, with a rich and playful sandbox of gadgets and tools, beyond just guns and ammo.

Arc Raiders will makes its way this 2025 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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