Arc Raiders getting new maps in 2026, but Embark shouldn't forget the old maps

"Even grander than what we've got now"

Arc Raiders is getting "multiple maps" in 2026, and they'll be "across a spectrum of size to try to facilitate different types of gameplay." This comes from design lead Virgil Watkins in an interview with GamesRadar, where he elaborated that some of them may be smaller than any currently in the game, while others may be "even grander than what we've got now."

Safe to say, this is exciting stuff for anyone who's got the Arc Raiders bug like I do. Almost 100 hours in and the existing five locales — Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, Blue Gate, and Stella Montis — are like a second home to me now, which means I know my way around them like the back of my hand. Well, except for Stella Montis; I'm convinced that maze shifts its walls and corridors every visit.

Watkins also explained that the aim is to "pair future maps with some new type of experience, whether that's map conditions or weather conditions that make the play feel different, enemy types or compositions feeling different, or escalating the types of loot available. How do we keep — not necessarily escalating all the time, but — giving you new ways to play, a new way to approach, making you make different decisions with things you've already been using in one context and trying to use it in a different way in another context?"

This all sounds brilliant and highly promising, but my hope is that developer Embark Studios also applies that thinking to the existing maps and that they don't get forgotten about. The Cold Snap weather condition during the winter event handled this brilliantly, adding a new element to gameplay where you couldn't be outside for too long before suffering from frostbite, but I'd like to see that taken one step further.

More environmental evolution, for example. Imagine if the eponymous dam on Dam Battlegrounds burst and flooded the swamp even more than it is already, making it impossible to traverse. What if Spaceport had a permanent Queen or Matriarch patrolling its central zone, around the base of the Control Tower? Why not make the various doors and corridors on Stella Montis randomized, with some blocked off or locked, meaning you have to adapt your path on the fly each time?

Additionally, loot zones should be random each time, as should the schedule for map events. The former would mean different locations would become hotspots every time you go topside, while the latter would mean players who only get an hour or two to play at the same time each day aren't always faced with the same options on repeat.

Arc Raiders has an incredibly bright future — it's likely already won the 2026 extraction shooter arms race — but if existing maps aren't given TLC to keep them interesting and enticing for long-term players who may otherwise get bored of them, it'll shoot itself in the foot.