Arma Reforger announced for PC and Xbox, launching today

The Arma series is coming to consoles for the first time. During a live stream event, developer Bohemia Interactive unveiled a new game, Arma Reforger, which acts as a bridge to Arma 4 and is available on Xbox consoles in addition to PC. Yes, “is” as it comes out today.

Available on Steam and Xbox Game Preview for $30 (Arma Reforger hasn’t been announced for PS4 or PS5), Reforger is a new entry in the series bridging the gap to the upcoming Arma 4. Arma Reforger is described as a “creative platform”. this is to show what Bohemia’s new enfusion engine is capable of in terms of gameplay, modding, graphics and more. Notably, Reforger is the first Arma game ever released on console.

Reforger takes players back to the fictional island of Everon in the 1980s, the same setting and time period as Arma: Cold War Assault, the first game in the series. It’s the same map players remember, but now with better graphics and new environments and elements like lakes, ponds, and rivers.

There are two multiplayer modes, the first of which is Conflict. This is a team vs. team multiplayer battle where each side tries to capture and hold positions as American or Soviet factions.

The second mode is Game Master and a “real-time scenario editor” that allows players to create combat situations for anything they can think of. It aims to highlight what the new Enfusion engine can do in terms of modding support, which Bohemia says will be a big thing in Arma 4.

Bohemia is also launching a new in-game platform called Workshop where players can share their own custom content. In the Workshop, players can find and download mods for Reforger, and this applies to both console and PC. The software, called Workbench, will also be made available to users on PC, and Bohemia says anyone with “fair knowledge” of C# scripting can use the software to write things like custom AI behaviors or even brand new game mechanics if they have Familiarity with C# is good enough. Workbench also allows players to import their artistic creations for use in the game.

Reforger launches today, but Bohemia has no plan as to when it will reach version 1.0, only mentioning that it will leave Early Access/Game Preview “once it is deemed complete”. The studio also stressed that work on Reforger will continue even as Arma 4 development ramps up.