ARC Raiders Adds Rudimentary Duos Matchmaking, Cosmetics Becoming Cheaper on November 13th

Depending on how you feel about the use of AI voices, there’s not a whole lot to dislike about Embark Studios’ ARC Raiders. The lack of duo matchmaking and the exorbitant cosmetic prices, especially in a paid release, have been some of the more notable complaints, but the developer has followed up in record time.

In a new update, it revealed that Duo matchmaking was “silently tested” and enabled earlier this week. While the system ordinarily matches solo players and squads separately, it then attempts to match duos with each other before focusing on trios. As you’d probably expect, more testing is required.

“Please note that this is not a 100% guaranteed system, so you may at times run into differing constellations of players other than your own.” It could be further refined with subsequent updates, so keep an eye out.

Cosmetic prices are also being reduced starting November 13th at 10:30 AM CET. While Embark didn’t offer any “before and after” examples, it will compensate for the difference, so look out for any stray Raider Tokens in the meantime. However, this doesn’t really address the other elephant in the room, i.e. certain premium cosmetics featuring copy-pasted assets.

But on the bright side, the Raider Deck’s gameplay items will be unlocked early to help provide an early advantage for all players. It also reiterated that such items are only in the free Decks, of which more are in development. Additional premium Raider Decks are also coming, but they’ll remain focused on “cosmetics and convenience.”

With over four million units sold and more than 700,000 concurrent players this past weekend, Embark is clearly trying to ensure the first impression isn’t the last. Plus, any positive word of mouth this early in the game’s lifecycle can go a long way. As for currently addicted players, they can expect the Stella Montis map and two new ARC enemies later this month.