Embark Studios is following through on its commitment to address players who exploited duplication glitches and other bugs in Arc Raiders by implementing warnings and suspensions.
The developer of the hit survival shooter provided an update on its ongoing anti-cheat campaign through a blog post. While the crackdown on dishonest Raiders started last month, this announcement signals that the efforts are intensifying rather than winding down.
Embark had previously warned that those using exploits would face "further review and possible penalties" with last week's 1.15.0 update. Today's statement elaborates on why the team needed time to respond. Now that exploit reports have been verified and their effect on Arc Raiders' in-game economy assessed, the studio is prepared to take action.
"We aim to act decisively, intentionally, and with certainty that we're making the right call," Embark explained. "This marks our first time managing an incident of this magnitude in ARC Raiders. Instead of rushing, we dedicated the necessary time to fully grasp the situation and ensure our response aligns with our principles and standards."
Players who moderately abused glitches like the duplication exploit may receive account warnings starting today and throughout the coming week. At least one Reddit user has already posted such a notification, which cautions that "continued use of exploits could lead to a suspension."
Embark also noted that any Coins linked to duplication activities have been removed. In "severe cases," where exploit use significantly harmed other players' experiences, immediate bans may be issued. The exact number of warnings or suspensions Embark plans to issue this week, or their duration, remains unspecified. The Arc Raiders team encourages players to report new exploits and glitches via its official Discord.
"We hope this response establishes a foundation for future measures, and we've already enhanced our detection and tracking, internal review tools, and safeguards to minimize the impact of similar exploits," the message adds.
"We're treating this incident seriously, approaching it as both a corrective action and a learning experience to reinforce the systems that uphold fair play."
While Arc Raiders remains one of the year's most popular games, Embark has encountered a series of technical challenges. Some, as the studio acknowledged today, originate "from a design flaw," while others, like a late-January Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, are harder to predict.
One early exploit allowed players to hide behind walls in Stella Montis, and duplication exploits led to players amassing piles of ducks in Buried City. After a fix stopped duck duplication last week, some players were quickly affected by an issue that wiped their inventories.
In an interview earlier this month with Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund, we discovered that the studio has already banned "tens of thousands of players so far." We also learned how the studio's success will enable it to develop more games while keeping its current fanbase satisfied.
