Bad news for those who counted on being able to play ad ARK 2 within a few months. With a substantial statement, Studio Wildcard has formalized a significant postponement of the game’s release date. And there are also important news for the predecessor, ARK: Survival Evolved.
Let’s start with the related news ARK 2. The release of the new chapter of the successful prehistoric survival has been expected for a long time in an unspecified moment of this 2023, but unfortunately this will not be the case: the publication of the game has been postponed to the end of 2024, a decidedly important shift forward .
At the basis of this decision, the Studio’s choice to push the adoption of the Unreal Engine 5 engine to the maximum, with the need therefore to have more time to explore its use and review the Studio’s construction processes in this sense, without excessively aggravating expected workloads.
With this important commitment ahead of it, Studio Wildcard has also decided to make the transition to the latest version of Unreal Engine also of the previous ARK: Survival Evolved.
Thanks to this choice, the development team counts on having an important test bench immediately available to try their hand at UE5 (this remaster will make full use of the Engine, taking advantage of its Lumen, Nanite and RT modules).
For this new version of the game, named ARK: Survival Ascended, the wait will instead be relatively short, being scheduled for August 2023, and it is therefore clear that behind this strategy there is also the intention of offering its users something substantial with which to deceive the wait for the second episode. However, it is not “only” a port to UE5, given that ARK: Survival Ascended will offer new features (for example total support for cross-platform multiplayer) and will integrate the additional contents The Island, Scorched Earth and Survival Of The Fittest, the latter proposed in a widely revised and updated version, which will be edited and updated by a team dedicated also subsequently to the publication of the game.
The original version of will pay the price for this operation ARK: Survival Evolvedsupport for which will officially end with the release of ARK: Survival Ascended: This means that new updates will be limited to critical bug cases and especially that dedicated servers will cease to function to this version of the game to make room for those prepared for the new version (the final server saves will be made available to users and it will still be possible to continue playing in single-player),
The marketing methods proposed by Studio Wildcard are particular. Initially the only option will be to purchase the package ARK Respawned Bundlewhich comprises ARK: Survival Ascended and the pre-order of ARK 2, at the total price of $49.99: certainly convenient if you are interested in owning both titles (on PlayStation, where the release of ARK 2 is not currently scheduled, the only ARK: Survival Ascended will retail for $39.99), although we remind you that it still is confirmed the inclusion of ARK 2 in the Xbox Game Pass from the launch day of the game.
The two titles will then become purchasable separately during 2024, presumably on the occasion of the publication of the second episode.