ARC Raiders may change their most famous feature for the better

Embark Studios confirms that they are currently experimenting with the current team size ARC Raiderssuggesting that future plans could include larger groups to overcome challenges. After a steady and predictable flow of content after launch ARC Raiders in August 2025, Embark Studios is preparing a number of major changes for the game in the future.

That success cannot be debated ARC Raiders seen since its original launch. While the extraction shooter genre is typically one that has been considered more niche and commonly associated with hardcore gamers, Embark seemingly defied those labels and expectations. While softening typical extraction features like seasonal wipes, adding content each month, ARC Raiders became an Embark hit and passed numerous sales and player milestones. While the ride hasn't always been smooth, the developer is trying to keep evolving the world ARC Raiders through several major changes for 2026.

Arc Raiders: Riven Tides interactive map

Our interactive map for Riven Tides in Arc Raiders. All the most important locations, weapon cases, items and ARC types found in the game.

Embark Studios is experimenting with larger group sizes for ARC Raiders

Embarkation continued under pressure ARC Raiders every month after new updates, but the studio has plans to take things even further. ARC Raiders currently supports groups of up to 3 players, though that seems to be changing as executive producer Aleksander Grøndal recently confirmed in an interview with ScreenRant that the studio is experimenting with larger squad sizes. However, Grøndal was quick to mention that nothing is official and there are no commitments at this time. However, he went on to mention that the team is constantly coming up with new ways to “create interesting challenges that challenge players to think and strategize a little differently than they're used to.”

Place 9 games in the grid.

For now, players are left to speculate what this could mean, whether it will simply be the ability to have 4 or 5 player platoons and potentially risk breaking the balance, or perhaps create the ever-requested PvE experience in the form of a raid or boss fight against some massive ARC unit. The other one might come back ARC RaidersEarly development build as a PvE shooter. Either way, Grøndal makes it clear ARC Raiders thrives in a sandbox environment that supports multiple ways of playing, so the team prefers to keep it that way, although anything can happen with this change in party size.

Arc Raiders players targeting each other while the queen watches

This news is also part of a larger development effort ARC Raiders forward. Earlier this month, Embark announced a regional pricing initiative for ARC Raidersa policy of adjusting the price of the game based on the market of specific areas rather than setting one flat price which is then converted to another currency.

Guess the emoji games.

Easy (120s) Medium (90s) Hard (60s)

The biggest news about this change, however, came when Embark announced it ARC Raiders they will no longer see monthly content updates. Instead, the developer is planning two major content releases per year, as the previous monthly release cycle simply wasn't sustainable. To help Embark achieve its goals and ambitions ARC Raidersthese updates will be much larger in scale, with October's Frozen Trail already becoming the game's biggest release to date. In addition to these major content releases, Embark has a dedicated live team that will continue to release patches, in-game events, and smaller updates such as the new endgame Trader, which launches this month.