A newly emerged report narrowed down the release date of Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, suggesting that the next game from Soulslike veterans at FromSoftware will be hitting the market just ahead of the 2023 holiday season. This latest bit of unofficial insight into the highly anticipated project arrives shortly after the Japanese studio unveiled the first DLC expansion for Elden Ring called Shadow of the Erdtree.
FromSoftware announced Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon in late 2022, stating that the sequel to the long-dormant mech action franchise will be releasing sometime in 2023. The game's reveal took many by surprise as it spelled the end of a decade-long Soulslike run for the studio, not accounting for its minor projects like the 3DS port of Monster Hunter Diary (2015) and experimental PSVR adventure Deracine (2018).
And while FromSoftware has yet to elaborate on the release plans for its next AAA game, a new report from eXputer citing industry sources claims the game is currently slated to hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2023, ahead of the holiday season. More specifically, Armored Core 6 is now said to be likeliest to release in late September rather than early October. The report further clarifies the mech game is currently a priority for FromSoftware, who intends to launch it prior to releasing Elden Ring's potentially Miquella-focused Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
This info also dovetails with the fact that FromSoftware hasn't attached any availability details to its recent Elden Ring DLC announcement, which makes sense if the studio is prioritizing getting the next Armored Core game out of the door first. Either way, seeing how the holiday season is historically the most lucrative period of the year for game publishing, a Q4 2023 release window definitely makes sense for Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, as tentative as it might be.
Despite being the first title from the developer in which its star director Hidetaka Miyazaki isn't leading the charge since the 2014 Dark Souls 2, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon still promises a "stiff challenge" that the Japanese studio is known for. And while the project currently seems to be on course to hit its 2023 release target, the fact that the series fans waited nearly a decade for a new installment suggests few will despair even if Armored Core 6 ends up being delayed, so long as it ultimately delivers a level of quality worthy of the FromSoftware label.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is scheduled to release for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2023.
Source: eXputer