Studio Wildcard has announced some major news regarding the future of ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK 2. The first thing the studio has confirmed is that ARK 2 will not be releasing this year, and has been pushed back to the end of 2024 as the studio gets used to Unreal Engine 5, and offer a proper next gen experience. However, there is some additional news that is likely not going to go down well.
In August, the official servers for ARK: Survival Evolved on PC, PlayStation and Xbox will be switched off. The reason for this is the release of ARK: Survival Ascended. ARK: Survival Ascended, an updated remaster for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, but this is not a free update for those who own ARK: Survival Evolved. ARK: Survival Ascended will cost Xbox and PC players $49.99, as it will be part of the ARK Respawned bundle that contains this remaster and ARK 2. PS5 owners will have to pay $39.99. The expansion passes, Explorer and Genesis, will cost $19.99 each. Those who choose to get ARK: Survival Ascended will get access to The Island, Scorched Earth, and the new revamped game mode, Survival of the Fittest. Studio Wildcard has already confirmed a new paid expansion pack that will be released by the end of the year for ARK: Survival Ascended.
There will be no crossplay between ARK: Survival Evolved, and ARK: Survival Ascended. In addition, official support for Primitive+, Split Screen, and Procedurally Generated Maps will end too. ARK: Survival Evolved’s final content update will be in June, which will add the Rhyniognatha. There will be cross platform play in ARK: Survival Ascended, cross platform modding, new structures, and improvements to things like the minimap.
The Switch version of the game, ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition, is receiving regular updates and a timeline of content releases has been given.
- April 2023 – Extinction
- May 2023 – Small Tribes servers
- June 2023 – Genesis Part 1
- October 2023 – Genesis Part 2
- Winter 2023 into 2024 – Remaining community maps
Studio Wildcard has also announced that ARK Mobile should have revamped relaunch by the end of the year. ARK: The Animated Series also had an update, with the studio confirming all 14 episodes have been animated and voice recorded and are in post production. However, no platform has yet picked up the series to stream it.
Source: ARK Official Forum
