Arc Raiders players can now head Topside dressed like a Subway sandwich wrapper. That is an actual sentence describing an actual promotion, and it ranks among the odder crossovers gaming has served up in recent years.
Ahead of the Frozen Trail update, Embark Studios’ resolutely serious extraction shooter has struck a deal with the fast-food chain. That update drops October 8 and is intended to reinvigorate the game following last year’s record-breaking launch.
How the sandwich-to-loadout pipeline works
Between August 20 and October 26, any qualifying Subway meal built around a 6-inch sub, Footlong, salad or wrap comes with a unique code redeemable for exclusive Arc Raiders rewards.
Redeem a code and you get the original Subterranean outfit, plus one of three exclusive Subway-themed outfit variants and two bonus in-game items that rotate on a weekly basis for as long as the promotion runs. “Fuels the Raid” is the tagline attached to every qualifying meal.
In other words, this isn’t a one-and-done cosmetic handout. The rewards arrive as a rotating stream, so the players best positioned to collect everything are the ones ordering again and again. Cynical? Sure. Effective? Also probably.
The obligatory quotes from the people who signed off on this
“A Subway meal can do more than fuel your day. For Arc Raiders fans, it can now help fuel their next mission,” said Dave Skena, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at Subway. “With an original Subterranean outfit, additional exclusive looks, and rotating drops of useful in-game gear, we’ve created a rewards experience that gives players something new to discover throughout the campaign. Subway is giving Raiders more ways to gear up, stand out, and take on Frozen Trail.”
Embark, for its part, frames the tie-in around the game’s fiction rather than the footlong.
“At its core, Arc Raiders is about strategy, survival and getting equipped for whatever waits Topside,” said Ashley St. Germain, Marketing Director at Embark Studios. “Teaming up with Subway felt like a natural fit, giving Raiders a way to fuel up before their next drop while unlocking a great lineup of exclusive rewards. The Subterranean outfit, designed from the ground up for this collaboration, gives our community something special to take into the fight as we head into Frozen Trail, our biggest update yet.”
Notably, the Subterranean outfit was built specifically for this partnership rather than being a recolor pulled off the shelf.
The update the sandwiches are pointing at
Frozen Trail is what gives the whole thing weight. Embark has billed it as the biggest update since the game launched, and it lands as the studio pivots toward fewer, larger releases instead of a steady drip of small ones.
Designed around wider community requests, the update delivers a new map, a high-level challenge, fresh Arc threats, deeper progression systems and more.
That’s the real event. The outfits are the garnish.
Still, there’s a certain logic to an extraction shooter — a genre built around dropping in, grabbing loot and surviving the trip out — running a campaign where the loot sits behind a cash register and a receipt.