Embark Studios announced a release window for ARC Raiders, their upcoming free-to-play shooter.

ARC Raiders is now launching sometime in 2025 across Windows PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. The game is also shifting to a premium $40 release, dropping its previous free-to-play launch model.

Players that want an early shot at trying the game can sign up for a playtest on its Steam page, which is set to run from October 24th through the 27th.

“While ARC Raiders has changed and evolved over the course of development, the world we have built has always been our anchor,” said Stefan Strandberg, Co-Founder and Creative Director. “Our inspiration draws from current-day themes taken to their extreme, like the prospect of colonizing space, at a time when the relationship between man and machine is becoming increasingly fraught.” 

ARC Raider’s Executive Producer Aleksander Grøndal added, “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.” 

Here’s a rundown on the game, plus a new teaser trailer:

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.