Elden Ring and Dark Souls developer FromSoftware announced the revival of its mech series Armored Core at The Game Awards 2022 on Thursday. The debut trailer revealed it will be called Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, and it’s coming in 2023 to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC via Steam.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is being jointly developed by FromSoftware and Bandai Namco, according to a news release from the game’s publisher. Bandai Namco made clear that the new Armored Core is action-focused, with “groundbreaking gameplay found in the developer’s recent action games.”
According to an official description of Armored Core 6, “players will be able to freely move through massive three-dimensional environments with rapid maneuverability while experiencing visceral vehicular combat.” Like the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring, FromSoftware says it will deliver “challenging and memorable battles along with a fulfilling progression system and deep gameplay, all of it now powered by assembling mechs and going into combat with massive bosses. Players will recognize the sense of satisfaction and achievement when they overcome a difficult situation and relish momentary victory, and perhaps a boost to their standing, before encountering the next challenge.”
Before FromSoftware made its name with Dark Souls, which spawned a genre, and the massively successful Elden Ring that followed, it was known for making the third-person mech/shooter series Armored Core. The series once saw multiple releases in a year; FromSoftware has not launched an Armored Core game since 2013, when Armored Core: Verdict Day hit PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The news of a possible Armored Core sequel leaked ahead of today’s announcement, way back in January from a member of the ResetEra forum. The user said they saw images and early gameplay video of an unannounced sequel as part of a consumer survey. The leak went into significant detail, and revealed details about Armored Core’s story and settings.
FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki confirmed in a 2017 interview with IGN that the developer was working on a new Armored Core game alongside two other titles, but we hadn’t heard much on the project since then.