Arc Raiders Dev Admits Late Spawns Do Suck But Says There's A Major Upside

Arc Raiders development studio Embark has big plans for the game in 2026, after upon realize it became a smash hit in 2025. And now the developer hopes to attain the success of long running online games such as Fortnite. This includes potentially making changes for players who join raids that are already underway, even though it notes these players “profit way more” when joining late.

Lead designer Virgil Watkins shared with GamesRadar+ that the studio is aware that players can be frustrated by having too little time to accomplish a task they were hoping to tackle. However, he says that the game is designed so that those joining late benefit from sticking around as they can encounter “remnants of fights or can maybe take out bigger drones or hit high-ticket areas more readily than other players.”


When the team implemented this gameplay feature it did so expecting players would be flexible in their planning. That if someone jumped into a session to compete a specific task they would shift to something else once they realized they joined in late. For example, pivoting to hunting for loot or seeing it as an opportunity to mix it up with the players who had been in that session from the start.

Players should expect small changes rather than seeing Embark remove this feature entirely, as the team explores how to minimize the “pain points.” That’s because it plays a crucial role in how raids play out, ensuring that there are other players around towards the end of a raid to up the stakes and keep things tense, rather than "running around by yourself, effectively."

While many players will likely be disappointed to see the feature stick around, they should be heartened by the fact that Embark is listening to player feedback and will try and improve it. It’s exactly the kind of responsiveness the team will need to help Arc Raiders stick around for the long haul.