ARC Raiders Could Add a Walkable Social Hub, I'm Intrigued

ARC Raiders developer Embark Studios could be adding a highly-requested feature in a future update.

Over the last few months since release, Embark Studios has been quietly adding new features and updates to ARC Raiders that have been welcomed by the community.

Last week, Embark released a roadmap detailing the content that would be released in 2026, which includes “new maps, weapons, objectives, and enemies.”

“Of course adding a new map has its own novelty, and it's a new place to play and do that. But what else? Thematically, gameplay-wise. How do the enemies and the items and the experiences in that map all point toward something?” said Embark’s design lead Virgil Watkins.

The development team has also teased a walkable social hub set in Speranza, which is currently only available to see in menus when preparing for various missions.

The idea behind this should mean that players could use Speranza as a social space in order to interact with each other and various NPCs, similar to how it’s handled in Destiny 2.

Embark Studios

Embark Studios Is Looking Into Adding A Walkable Social Space In ARC Raiders

Watkins has stated that this has been discussed at length within the development team, and we could possibly see this in a future update.

“I mean, we’ve 100% discussed it,” Watkins said to PCGamesN. “I think it was like the first question asked when we started building the front end of the game, you know, ‘what would that experience be like?’ It always came down to time and scope for us.”

Watkins adds that: “We can build a menu, and the menu will do its job. And, you know, all the extra time involved in making a hub wasn't worth it, really, or we traded other features for it.”

He explains how adding such a system could be seen as cumbersome for players, though. “For me, personally, I love the vibe and aesthetic of a walkable hub, but I would want to preserve the menuing so that you can do it quickly and efficiently, rather than [having to] run to Celeste and then run to my [raider's room], and then 'Oops, I forgot this thing at Shani.'

“But there's also, of course, an immersion factor to that. So yeah, it's something we have discussed, and we'll continue to discuss, and I think there's definitely a good appetite on the team for it as well. It's more about when the right moment to open that door is.”

So, it sounds like there might be a chance of something like this coming in the future, but I wouldn’t count on it being any time soon.