Armored Core 6 gameplay trailer reveals August release date

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, the next game from Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, will be out on August 25. The launch date was revealed in a gameplay trailer dropped today that, to put it mildly, is pretty damn spectacular.

Armored Core 6 was announced at the 2022 Game Awards with a trailer that was also pretty damn spectacular. It may have been all CGI and didn't reveal much about the game beyond the fact that it existed, but for fans, that was enough.: A new Armored Core game had been rumored for ages, but the Game Awards reveal was the first confirmed action on that front in a decade.

The new video starts off with a similarly cinematic approach but then transitions to gameplay featuring huge, high-speed mechs doing battle on the not-very-pleasant looking planet of Rubicon. I generally prefer a more Battletech style of giant fighting robots—slow, lumbering, military—but I am undeniably impressed by the sheer scale of everything on display here. Some of those machines—I would assume bosses—are seriously big, but it's the promise of huge, open environments to roam around in (while under fire, which isn't really ideal, but such is the way of things) that really knocks my socks off. Elden Ring pulled me in that way, and maybe Armored Core 6 will too.

Courtesy of publisher Bandai Namco, here's what all the shooting is about:

A mysterious new substance called “Coral” was discovered on the remote planet Rubicon 3. As an energy source, this substance was expected to dramatically advance humanity’s technological and communications capabilities. Instead, it caused a catastrophe that engulfed the planet and the surrounding stars in flames and storms, forming a Burning Star System. Almost half a century later, Coral has resurfaced on Rubicon 3, a planet now contaminated and sealed off by the catastrophe. Extra-terrestrial corporations and resistance groups fight over control of the substance. The player infiltrates Rubicon as an independent mercenary and finds themselves in a struggle over the substance with the corporations and other factions.

Yeah, that sounds pretty much par for the course.

The Armored Core games have historically been console affairs—PlayStation-exclusive for a while, and then on Xbox 360 for the last couple games in the series—but Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is confirmed for PC as well, and is now available for pre-purchase on Steam. You can find out more at the updated armoredcore.net, and check out some new screens below.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon screenshot — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.