ARC Raiders Expeditions delayed until 2027 after September event
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Embark Studios has confirmed that ARC Raiders' next Expedition will not arrive until 2027, extending the game's content drought well beyond what was previously expected. The fifth Expedition, running from 8 to 29 September, will be the last of these limited-time endgame events this year, leaving players facing at least three further months without one, on top of an already thin schedule that includes just a single major update before year's end.
Expeditions have been a core way for players to reset progress in pursuit of rewards, so their absence removes a key incentive to keep playing. The fifth event changes format slightly, dropping the requirement to reset quests for item farming and distributing Hullcracker blueprints through other means, likely future challenges, while also scrapping the advance "last call" notice, leaving players to track the dates themselves. The wider concern is timing: with five months between major patches and no Expedition until 2027, ARC Raiders has already slipped into "mixed" Steam reviews for the first time since launch amid reports of cheating and matchmaking problems, and has shed around 95% of its peak player base.
- Next ARC Raiders Expedition delayed until 2027, no more this year
- Fifth Expedition runs 8-29 September, changes quest-reset requirements
- Game has lost ~95% of peak players amid mixed Steam reviews
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Embark Studios' co-op extraction shooter ARC Raiders relies partly on "Expeditions" – limited-time events that let players reset their progress in exchange for special rewards. These have been one of the main reasons for people to keep coming back to the game after finishing its core content.
The developer has now confirmed that the next Expedition won't arrive until 2027, meaning a gap of several months with no new one after the current event ends in late September. This comes on top of an already sparse schedule of major updates, at a time when the game is also dealing with reports of cheating and matchmaking issues.
The story matters because it reflects a broader question about how well ARC Raiders is being supported since launch. Player numbers and review scores on platforms such as Steam are widely used as indicators of a live-service game's health, and both are cited as having declined, making the pace of future content a point of scrutiny for the studio and its player base.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Embark is right to prioritise technical stability over rushed content when cheating and matchmaking fundamentally undermine the player experience. Expeditions released under time pressure won't retain players in a broken game. The format changes demonstrate the developers are listening to feedback about grinding mechanics. Quality content from a technically sound foundation in 2027 serves the game better long-term than hurried expeditions that compound current problems.
The case against
The timing is catastrophic when ARC Raiders is haemorrhaging players—down 95% from peak with mixed reviews emerging for the first time. Expeditions drive retention, and removing them during this critical window accelerates collapse rather than stemming it. A five-month content drought compounds technical problems rather than solving them. The studio needed to maintain engagement whilst fixing foundations, not eliminate a core retention tool when the community is already deciding whether to stay.
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Originally published by Destructoid as “ARC Raiders players just can’t catch a break as Expeditions are delayed into 2027”.