Embark has ideas. The game has a plan. Those two things are not always the same.

A developer on ARC Raiders says he would love to add a machine takedown feature inspired by the Hoth battle in Star Wars, but the studio’s designers do not think the idea belongs in the game just yet. In other words, the idea is there, the enthusiasm is real, and the schedule remains stubbornly uncooperative.

The comments came from Martin Singh-Blom, Embark Studios’ machine learning research lead, during a new interview with GamesRadar at GDC. Singh-Blom discussed the ways improved tools and physics tech could open the door to features the team could not realistically build before.

"Those of us who really work with the physics and make things happen with physics of course want more physics in the game at every turn," Singh-Blom said.

He then pointed to a very specific kind of chaos he would like to see in ARC Raiders.

"We want ropes to pull at legs and wires to trip them, like the Hoth invasion scene in Star Wars where they have the speeders and wrap up the legs. We could do that if we just had better rope physics, right?"

That is the kind of sentence that makes game developers sound either visionary or mildly dangerous, depending on the day.

Why it is not happening right now

Singh-Blom said the team keeps pushing for new features like this, but the designers believe it “doesn't fit [into ARC Raiders] right now.” He described the split pretty plainly: the design team is focused on what the game needs immediately, while the research team is always looking for new and more ambitious things to build with newer technology.

That tension makes sense given where ARC Raiders is in its life cycle. The game has already proven to be a major success for Embark Studios, and the studio has said it plans to support the shooter for the next 10 years. So yes, there is time for big ideas. Just not necessarily this second.

Singh-Blom also said he would like to revisit some cut concepts, including shock absorption for ARC legs. He noted that the goal would be to make the machines move more smoothly, but the physics system does not always cooperate.

"I think we could get much nicer, smoother gaits, but when we try that, the physics don't like it and things get wobbly and the simulation gets bad, and it's very hard for the robots to look good in those settings for some reason."

A technical explanation, sure. Also a polite way of saying the robots fight back.

The current roadmap is still moving forward

While the Hoth-style dream remains on the research table, ARC Raiders is still getting major updates on the near-term schedule.

Earlier this year, Embark revealed its official 2026 roadmap, which includes four major content updates from January through April. The third update, Flashpoint, arrived on March 31. It added a deadly new map condition, a new ARC threat, two new weapons, and more.

The final confirmed update in that roadmap is Riven Tides, which is expected to arrive in the coming weeks. Embark has said it will add a new large ARC enemy, likely in the same general tier as the Queen or Matriarch, plus a brand-new map. That would make it the first new map since Stella Montis was added late last year.

So while players should not expect rope-assisted robot leg takedowns any time soon, Embark is still clearly thinking about where the game could go next. With Flashpoint already live, Riven Tides on the way, and a 10-year support plan hanging over the whole thing, ARC Raiders is not short on ambition. It is just being a little selective about which kind of chaos it wants to ship first.