Embark Studios’ free-to-play, cooperative shooter will not be released in the previously planned 2022 timeframe.

ARC Raiders is a game that isn’t even planned for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, so it’s also coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC, and you’d better accept that soon, as the PS4/X1 pair came out in 2013. If you count the PlayStation 3’s launch in 2006, there were cross-gen releases too until about 2015, and then it stopped (especially around AAA development).

In a statement on Twitter, ARC Raiders developer Embark Studios justified the delay to 2023: “We’ve decided to delay ARC Raiders to 2023. ARC Raiders is an ambitious game, and we will be using this extra time to expand the experience and allow it to reach its fullest potential. We will be diving into more details as soon as we start to test the game more extensively with players. The excitement around ARC Raiders since its reveal has been so encouraging for us, and we truly appreciate your support.”

The official description of the game reads like this: “ARC Raiders is a cooperative third-person shooter where you and your squad of Raiders unite to resist the onslaught of ARC—a ruthless, mechanized threat descending from space. You play as one of the Raiders, a rogue group of resistance fighters. With the help of a patchwork early warning system, you fight to protect our home against enemies dropping from orbit. ARC is faceless and unfeeling, but no one could accuse ARC of being unresponsive. ARC responds to resistance with ever-increasing destruction.

As a Raider, you know that defeating ARC requires more than simply pointing and shooting a gun and more than one person trying to be a hero. When ARC is around, lone wolves never make it very far. As underdogs, we need to believe in something bigger than our strength, in something unapologetically human. That’s why we come together. United amid the unlikelihood of success, what seemed implausible may become the best course of action. So, by all means, come prepared and plan, but sometimes you have to wing it. Scavenge the ruins of the past. Wield tools and gadgets to outsmart the enemy. Use on-the-fly tactics, your surroundings, and physics to your advantage. If you and your squad play well together, one day, the stars may again become beacons of hope instead of omens of oblivion.”

So ARC Raiders is coming in 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store).

Source: Gematsu