Achievements should mean something, not just knowledge of a trick
In the ongoing negotiation between player ingenuity and developer intent, Embark Studios has closed a loophole that allowed Arc Raiders players to claim a demanding Xbox achievement without meeting its true conditions — a quiet assertion that earned rewards should carry the weight of genuine effort. The same patch that restored that integrity, however, fractured something players value just as deeply: the ability to cross platform boundaries and simply play together. It is a familiar paradox of the live-service era, where the act of fixing one thing so often means breaking another, and progress is measured not in finished states but in the distance between problems.
- A clever gap in achievement coding had given resourceful players an easier path to a coveted unlock — until Embark Studios decided that shortcuts undermine the meaning of the reward itself.
- Patch 1.26.0 sealed the exploit and launched the Riven Tides season, but in doing so it severed crossplay functionality across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
- For a squad-based shooter, the loss of crossplay is not a minor inconvenience — friends split across platforms now face a stark choice between compromising or simply not playing together.
- Embark has acknowledged the crossplay breakage and is actively working toward a fix, signaling a follow-up patch likely within days.
- The cycle is now familiar: new content arrives, something unravels, the community reacts, the studio responds — and Arc Raiders players wait to see which version of the game tomorrow's patch will deliver.
Arc Raiders' latest update arrived this week carrying the signature tension of live-service game development: one problem solved, another created. Embark Studios' patch 1.26.0 closed an unintended loophole that had allowed players to unlock one of the game's more demanding Xbox achievements without actually meeting its intended requirements. The workaround wasn't a traditional glitch — it was a gap in how the achievement was coded, quietly mapped and shared across forums and Discord until it became common knowledge. Embark decided it undermined the point of the achievement entirely, and patched it out. Completionists who had been counting on the easier path now face the full weight of the original design.
The same update also introduced the Riven Tides season, bringing new content and balance changes to the free-to-play shooter. But somewhere in that process, crossplay broke. Players on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC found themselves unable to queue into matches together — a significant fracture for a game built around squad-based play. Friends spread across platforms were suddenly forced to either consolidate onto one system or abandon the session entirely.
Embark has acknowledged the crossplay issue and says a fix is in progress, likely arriving within days. It is, in the end, the rhythm of games like this in 2026: updates push forward, something gives way, the studio responds, and the cycle continues. Arc Raiders players are left navigating the gap between the game's ambitions and the uneven ground of getting there.
Arc Raiders, the surprise hit that landed in 2025, rolled out its latest patch this week with a familiar trade-off: it fixed one problem and created another. Embark Studios closed off an unintended route players had discovered to unlock one of the game's more demanding Xbox achievements—a workaround that let them sidestep the actual challenge the developers had designed. The patch, version 1.26.0, also introduced what the studio calls the Riven Tides season, bringing new content and balance changes to the free-to-play shooter.
But the same update that tightened up achievement integrity broke something more fundamental: crossplay between platforms stopped working. Players who had been jumping between Xbox, PlayStation, and PC suddenly found themselves unable to queue into matches with friends on different systems. For a game built around squad-based gameplay, the fracture was immediate and noticeable.
The achievement in question had become something of a white whale for completionists. It was the kind of unlock that required specific conditions, precise execution, or simply a lot of grinding—the sort of thing that separates the dedicated from the casual. Players, being resourceful, had found a shortcut: a method that let them earn the achievement without meeting the intended requirements. It wasn't a glitch in the traditional sense, but rather a gap in how the achievement was coded, a loophole that existed in plain sight until someone mapped it out and shared it across forums and Discord servers.
Embark Studios caught wind of the workaround and decided it undermined what they were trying to accomplish. Achievements, in their view, should mean something. They should represent actual skill or commitment, not just knowledge of a trick. So they patched it out. Players who had been banking on that easier path now face the full difficulty of the original design—which is, presumably, why it exists.
The crossplay issue, though, is a different beast. It's not a design choice; it's a mistake. Embark has acknowledged the problem and says they're actively working on a fix. In the meantime, players are fragmenting back into their platform silos, which defeats one of the modern gaming world's more significant quality-of-life improvements. A squad of four friends split across systems can no longer simply load in together. They have to choose: play on one platform, or don't play together at all.
This is the rhythm of live-service games in 2026. A studio pushes an update with new content and balance tweaks. Something breaks in the process—sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident. The community notices immediately. The studio acknowledges it, commits to a fix, and the cycle continues. Embark has signaled they're on it, which suggests the crossplay functionality should return in a follow-up patch, likely within days or a week. Until then, Arc Raiders players are learning the hard way that not every update improves the experience, even when it's trying to.
Notable Quotes
Embark Studios acknowledged the crossplay problem and said they are actively working on a fix— Embark Studios
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why close off the achievement exploit at all? If players found a workaround, doesn't that just mean the achievement was poorly designed?
Fair question, but there's a philosophy at play. Achievements are meant to be proof of something—skill, persistence, knowledge of the game's systems. If there's an easy bypass, the achievement stops meaning anything. It becomes a checkbox, not an accomplishment.
But now you've broken crossplay. That seems like a bigger problem than players taking a shortcut on one achievement.
Absolutely. That's the frustration. The patch was trying to fix something relatively minor—one exploit—and in the process, it severed the connection between platforms. It's a reminder that even small changes in a live game can have ripple effects nobody anticipated.
How long do these fixes usually take?
Days to a week, typically. Embark has already acknowledged it and said they're working on it. They know crossplay is core to the game's appeal. It'll come back.
And the players who already unlocked the achievement the easy way?
That's the question nobody's asking out loud. Do they keep it, or does Embark revoke it? That's a delicate call that could anger people either way.