Studio Wildcard has announced that Ark 2 is facing a major delay, but on the bright side, it will give fans a next-gen version of the first game. The even better news is that the upgraded Ark: Survival Evolved is getting exciting new features this year.
Ark: Survival Evolved was officially released in 2017. The game has received mixed reviews, with many reviewers citing the punishing nature of the experience, but most still praising Ark: Survival Evolved’s engaging setting. However, even in early access, the game enjoyed high sales. ARK : Survival Evolved sold more than 1 million copies within a month of its Early Access release, a number that grew to 5.5 million between the PC and Xbox One versions by August 2016. The unexpected sales success led to DLC, and it also got Studio Wildcard thinking about the possibility of expanding on the storyline. As such, a sequel was announced in 2020 at The Game Awards starring Vin Diesel. It was developed with Grove Street Games and was originally planned for release in 2023.
In a new post on its community forums, Studio Wildcard told Ark fans that it unfortunately won’t be able to deliver Ark 2 this year, and has made the difficult decision to delay it until the end of 2024. The explanation speaks of wanting to use Unreal Engine 5 to create an “unprecedented scope,” which meant the team had to drastically adjust the pace of development. This would result in a major change from the original plans for Ark 2. Studio Wildcard lists elements that fans can look forward to, such as “spiritualized combat, primitive weapons, and strict third-person mechanics—and an overall very serious tone.” Since these elements may not appeal to fans of the original game, the studio It was decided to also provide players with a next-generation version of Ark : Survival Evolved.
The new version will be named Ark : Survival Ascension and is expected to be released in August 2023. The base game includes Islands, Survival of the Fittest, and all DLC maps, which will be added gradually. New features will include cross-platform multiplayer options, allowing players to progress through the game no matter which platform they use to access the game. Cross-platform mods will be available, meaning mods created on PC will be delivered “from a custom modding backend directly to the end user’s console.” All of this and more will be sold in different versions to Microsoft and PlayStation users. Players in the first group will be able to buy the Ark Reborn bundle for $49.99, which means owning the original game and the sequel on PC or Xbox, while those on PlayStation will get Ark as a standalone game for $39.99.
The project seems ambitious. But when it comes to differing access between platforms, there seem to be a lot of places where ARK fans could take criticism.
Ark: Survival Ascended will be released on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in August 2023. Ark 2 is expected to release on PC and Xbox Series X/S in late 2024.