Are ARC Raiders and The Finals Connected? The Lore Says More Than You Think

Embark Studios — the team built by former Battlefield folks — is almost ready to drop ARC Raiders, a PvPvE shooter set in the ruins of Italy with a whole society hiding underground. It is packed with mystery, salvage runs, and maybe even a sneaky crossover with the studio’s first game, The Finals. Here is what is actually going on and why fans are connecting the dots.

Italy, 2180: life in Speranza and the machine-haunted surface

ARC Raiders takes place in 2180. Humanity blew it (again), and the survivors now live below ground in a city called Speranza. Up top is the so-called Rust Belt — not the American region, but the in-world name for the battered surface — where giant machines called ARC roam. Where the ARC came from is deliberately left blank for now. That mystery is part of the hook.

Your job: you are one of the Raiders. You go topside, dodge or dismantle the ARC, and scavenge whatever you can to keep the community alive. The whole thing sits comfortably next to the likes of Fallout and Horizon Zero Dawn in the post-apocalypse-with-big-robots subgenre. Yes, we have been here before. If ARC Raiders nails the vibe and the loop, familiarity won’t be a problem.

What you actually do up there

ARC Raiders is built as PvPvE — squads clashing with other players and the world itself at the same time. Expect to juggle firefights, salvage objectives, and those towering ARC machines while trying to make it back to Speranza in one piece. It is a darker, higher-stakes direction than Embark’s first game.

The Finals connection fans keep circling

Embark’s debut, The Finals, launched in late 2023. It was a modest hit thanks to its wild, fully-destructible arenas — the kind of break-everything tech we have already seen mirrored in Battlefield 6. Lore-wise, The Finals is set around the year 2100 inside a flashy VR game show where avatars brawl for sponsor-funded prizes, all nested inside a larger virtual ecosystem that hides plenty of secrets of its own.

Here is why ARC Raiders might share that universe. During ARC Raiders tech test weekends, players spotted:

• A helmet on the ground stamped with Alfa Acta — a sponsor brand from The Finals
• A billboard for Jiangsu Romagna — another in-world sponsor from The Finals

Unless those are simple asset reuses, that is a big wink. The timeline would even line up: The Finals in 2100, ARC Raiders in 2180. Different genres, same world? Fans certainly think so.

"There is absolutely no chance ARC Raiders ISN'T in The Finals universe."

- a player reacting to the tech test easter eggs

We will know more soon, but the breadcrumbs are not subtle.

What is locked in right now

Here are the concrete pieces without the speculation:

• ARC Raiders releases October 30, 2025
• Developer: Embark Studios (founded by former Battlefield developers)
• Setting: post-apocalyptic Italy, with an underground city called Speranza and the surface nicknamed the Rust Belt
• Timeline: the story is set in 2180
• Threat: massive ARC machines; origin unknown (meant to be discovered in-game)
• Role: you play as a Raider, heading to the surface to salvage parts for the people of Speranza
• Mode: PvPvE, mixing squad-vs-squad combat with environmental threats and objectives
• Studio lore connection: The Finals (released late 2023) is set circa 2100 in a VR competition funded by sponsors inside a larger virtual world
• Easter eggs from ARC Raiders tech tests: an Alfa Acta helmet and a Jiangsu Romagna billboard — both brands seen as sponsors in The Finals
• Notable design note: The Finals’ standout destruction tech has already echoed in Battlefield 6

ARC Raiders is leaning hard on mystery — where the ARC came from, what Speranza is really sitting on, and whether Embark is building a shared universe across genres. If they stick the landing, the salvage runs and the puzzle-box lore could make this more than just another robots-ruined-everything story. We find out October 30.