Arc Raiders, Embark’s upcoming PvPvE extraction shooter, is slated to launch on October 30, 2025. But if you want to get in on some of the extractive action right now, the devs are holding a “Server Slam” playtest across all platforms. And it sounds like that was a wise thing to do as, well, them servers are getting slammed.
The Server Slam (a term I sincerely hope catches on) is expected to go from October 17-19, which means you can download the game on PS5, Xbox Series consoles, or PC via either Epic or Steam and jump in for some fun. After jumping in for a little bit myself today, I think Arc Raiders might have captured something special.
Steam’s Server Slam was slow to roll out, but it should be good now
Console players and those OK with the Epic Games Store were the first to get the chance to leap into the fray. Those on Steam had to wait a bit, however, as some hotfixes went out to deal with server issues and other bugs (h/t GamesRadar). In a post on the game’s official Discord server, Embark said that it had to issue a “full redownload of the game” to address a variety of issues.
At the time of this writing, Arc Raiders is enjoying a healthy peak of 182,188 concurrent players via Steam’s metrics. If for some reason you can’t find the playtest on Steam, Embark advises literally searching for “Arc Raiders – Playtest,” though it seems like just hopping onto the game’s page on Valve’s storefront will reveal a “Play Now” option to get in on the action.
That said, over on Reddit, there are folks reporting some matchmaking issues and a few crashes. I was surprised by how quickly I was able to get into a game, and it runs rather well on my PC running a 3070ti and an i7 11700k (it’s otherwise a notoriously temperamental machine that’s long overdue for an OS reinstall). And at least one person on Reddit seems to have had a good time on a Steam Deck.
Even when it does run well, however, it’s looking like the usual discomforts of PvPvE are entering the conversation, as one Reddit post documents a run-in with a very unfriendly team of human enemies. Should Arc Raiders sustain some level of popularity, I expect this to be a regular conversation.
And on that note, I’m sorry to the person I was harassing in the match I just played. You should know that a bot handed my ass to me moments after I kept you pinned down in that building. Damn, this game is going to threaten all of my free time.
