ARK: Survival Ascended Gets Delayed to October Due to Unreal Engine 5.2

Studio Wildcard announced a delay for ARK: Survival Ascended, the remaster of ARK: Survival Evolved. Previously scheduled for August, the game will now be released in October.

The developers cited difficulties with the Unreal Engine 5.2 version, the latest released by Epic Games. While they said the technology is exciting, they need more time to get it right. Moreover, Studio Wildcard also elected to take more time in remastering some DLC packs like Scorched Earth (now targeting a December launch on ARK: Survival Ascended), Ragnarok and Aberration (both scheduled for Q1 2024), while The Island will be available at launch.

The developers also said the game will launch in Early Access at $44.99, with a launch discount of five dollars, bringing it down to $39.99. Given the delay, the scheduled shutdown of ARK: Survival Evolved servers has been delayed, too, and will now happen on September 30th. Here's some additional info from the new FAQ.

When will we be able to access our save files?

We’re currently working with Nitrado to make sure that the save files system works, and we’ll be providing instructions on how you can get them when they’re available.
Our intention is to take multiple saves at different times, so you can choose which is most relevant to you.With Scorched Earth being delayed, will there still be server transfers?

We won’t be supporting Server Transfers at the launch of ARK: Survival Ascended; this feature will become enabled when Scorched Earth releases in December.

How long should we expect the title to be in ‘Early Access’?

ARK: Survival Ascended will leave Early Access in late 2024 once all the content has finished its next-generation remastering.

Are there going to be any changes to the release order of certain content?

Generally, we will keep the canonical maps released in the same order.
We may make some adjustments with some of the non-cannon maps and release them sooner, but that honestly depends more on our pipeline, so we’ll announce them accordingly.

ARK: Survival Ascended caused controversy when Studio Wildcard backtracked on its offer of a free upgrade for existing owners of ARK: Survival Evolved. The developers said they hadn't realized the resources needed for a proper remaster.

The following features have been confirmed:

• Dynamic Water
• Interactive Foliage
• UE5 tweaks like instanced rendering, threaded server networking, and native physics engine
• Enhanced art assets
• Cross-platform multiplayer, modding (powered by Overwolf), and anti-cheat
• New third-person camera view
• Updated minimap
• Directional sprint and walk
• Ping system
• Queue system
• New buildings and quality of life improvements
• Survival of the Fittest integrated as a supported game mode with various improvements, such as matchmaking as well as creature and character customization

ARK 2 is still scheduled to launch at the end of 2024 (despite rumors of a further delay into 2025), starring Vin Diesel as one of the main characters.

Written by Alessio Palumbo