Co-op alien robot shooter Arc Raiders delayed into 2023

Cooperative shooter Arc Raiders has been delayed. Though the alien robot invasion was originally scheduled for some time this year, it'll now be descending from the upper atmosphere in 2023.

The announcment was posted to the game's Twitter account, where the team wrote that "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." So it goes! When a game needs a bit longer in development, it's good that it should get that time.

Arc Raiders was originally announced at The Game Awards in 2021, so you'd be forgiven for missing it among the absolute deluge of trailers that make up any of Geoff Keighley's advertise 'em ups. As a refresher, it's a co-op, free-to-play, third-person shooter about fighting a bunch of evil space robots who just won't stop trying to invade earth. Looks like there's some scavenging bits too, making new tools for more effectively dispatching alien machines and fitting it all into that scrappy, underdog resistance theme.

It's the first planned release from Embark, a development studio set up by former EA executive Patrick Söderlund. Söderlund was CEO of Dice, the Battlefield developers, and it certainly seems from the look we've had so far that Arc Raiders carries some of that same DNA.

More details on the game are apparently coming soon, once Embark have carried out some more extensive playtesting. Arc Raiders is now scheduled to launch in 2023 on Steam and the Epic Games Store.