Arc Raiders improves duo matchmaking and is reducing some cosmetic prices after backlash, with players to receive compensation if they already spent their hard-earned Raider Tokens

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has made some notable changes to duo matchmaking and is tweaking cosmetic prices, too, in a move fans are calling a "HUGE W" for the studio.

Outlined in a news post shared today, Embark confirms that "we have silently tested and enabled Duo prioritized matchmaking, beginning earlier this week." Going forward, the studio explains, it'll first "prioritize Solos and Squads to play separately," and "after that, we prioritize Duos to play with other Duos, and for Trios to play with Trios."

While this "is not a 100% guaranteed system," meaning players "may at times run into differing constellations of players other than your own," fans are still very pleased as they've been asking for this for a while. "So I wasn't just imagining things. Played with a friend yesterday and there were only duos in our rounds. Big and awesome news," one responds on Reddit.

"Wow, that's a HUGE W for Embark," another writes. "Playing in duos gonna get much better."

As for cosmetic prices, Embark says "we have heard your feedback," and it's already acting on it. "We've reviewed our prices and made adjustments to lower prices where applicable," the devs explain. "Revised prices will go live tomorrow, Thursday the 13th, at 10:30 CET. For any Raider who has already made a purchase on the old pricing, we'll compensate you for the difference. These Raider Tokens will be refunded back into your account automatically in the coming week."

It's not clear exactly how much cheaper cosmetics will be going forward, but any discount will undoubtedly be welcome. The game saw backlash over its old prices, with some skin bundles costing 2,400 Raider Tokens – $20 of in-game currency. Considering that Arc Raiders isn't a free-to-play game, players weren't happy.

Embark is, however, seemingly making up for a reduction on in-game spending on skins with an upcoming change to its Raider Decks – essentially, Arc Raiders' battle passes. "At the moment, we have one free Raider Deck available for all players. In the future you'll see both free and premium Raider Decks," the team writes.

With that said, the studio makes it clear that the upcoming premium battle passes won't offer any advantages. "Gameplay Items are only in free Raider Decks," it clarifies, and "there are no Pay to Win items in the premium Raider Decks," with the latter being focused on "cosmetics and convenience."

All in all, the changes here seem to be going down very well so far – we'll just have to wait and see how much cosmetic prices are altered tomorrow.

Arc Raiders hits 700,000 peak concurrent players on all platforms, proving console players are also very much into this massively successful extraction shooter.