Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders has already sold over 12 million copies, and the game’s juggernaut success is already causing the game’s developers to ramp up plans for its multiplayer game.

After revealing plans to add multiple new maps to the game across 2026, as well as significant rebalancing patches, Arc Raiders design lead Virgil Watkins revealed that Embark is planning to massively expand the game’s PvE content with new ARC enemies and new features.

In a recent discussion with GamesBeat, Embark CEO Patrick Söderland expressed a desire for more PvE social features such as player-to-player trading. However, for now, the studio is focused on bringing unique enemies to the game for players to fight and team up against.

“I think we are pretty happy with what they are now, but I don’t think we can subsist forever on that,” Watkins told GamesRadar. “I think eventually, if we introduce yet another six-legged giant spidery robot, it’s kind of like, ‘Okay, we got it.’”

“Our ambitions are definitely large, and I’m not going to say that you’re going to meet one anytime soon.”

Arc Raiders design lead Virgil Watkins on future ARC enemies.

Watkins explained that they want to “escalate the experience for the player on the PvE side” as the game becomes dull for experienced players. “As players get more advanced with the game, more sophisticated in their approach, or they just understand how to play better – the current set of drones becomes much less of a threat to them,” the design director said.

“They’ve figured out their attack patterns and how to avoid them,” they continued. “So I think continuing to escalate that is where we’re looking at growing next,” although there may be some technical restrictions that Embark may have to overcome as it continues to expand the game.

Watkins confirmed that the team’s “ambitions are definitely large” with the team looking at additional titanic ARCs that make headlines and awe-inspire players. However, when it comes to adding additional large-scale enemies into the game, there are going to be limitations as the team aims to keep performance in check.

“We want to go wherever’s practical for us, or wherever feels fun, but then you start running into the practical side of, will this blow up the server?” Watkins said. “Can it even support these kinds of things? Our ambitions are definitely large, and I’m not going to say that you’re going to meet one anytime soon, but obviously you see the giant walking ones in the background and stuff. That’s what we’re trying to show some contrast with as we go forward.”

Additionally, Watkins confirmed that the team is also looking at “variants” of existing ARCs that could quickly bring new enemies to the game. Instead of a Rocketeer firing rockets, maybe there could be a variant that lays out fields of mines; maybe a leaper could jump and fire out a huge net that players would have to break out of. Unlike completely brand-new enemies, reworks of existing creatures allow for quicker experimentation.

The design lead explains that future variants need to be specific enough that players don’t complain about simple changes. “We want to be a little careful of that,” they said. “Not to say that simple variants don’t have their place, but we want to make sure they are actually serving a purpose in the ecosystem we have.”

Arc Raiders is a fresh-faced new game, and there’s a lot of potential for its future. Right now, we only know of the new upcoming Toxic Map condition coming to the game, as leaks have been surprisingly tame since launch, but Embark certainly have huge plans for the remainder of 2026.