Ark: Survival Ascended, the next-generation remaster of Ark: Survival Evolved, is facing a release delay from its original August 2023 date to October 2023. The developers at Studio Wildcard have cited difficulties with Unreal Engine 5.2 as the leading cause for the postponement.
In light of the delay and reduction in content, the game will now launch at a discounted early access price of $39.99, cut from the original $59.99. Studio Wildcard has faced several hurdles with Unreal Engine 5.2 while working on upgrading Ark: Survival Ascended to a fully cross-platform-moddable game ecosystem for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. While the team expressed excitement at pushing the new technology to its limits, they conceded the project requires more time.
Plans for releasing additional game maps have also been adjusted. The Island and Scorched Earth are now set to release separately, with Scorched Earth expected in December 2023 and Ragnarok and Aberration due in Q1 2024.
Ark: Survival Ascended will move out of early access once all its content has completed the next-generation remastering process, projected to be in late 2024. Due to the delay in Ascended’s release, official servers for Survival Evolved, initially set to go offline in August, will shut down on September 30, 2023. This effectively discontinues the older game for those not upgrading to Ascended.
Initially announced in March alongside a delay for Ark 2, the Ark: Survival Ascended project faced backlash over its pricing model. The Ark Respawned Bundle initially offered to Xbox and PC players for $49.99, included the remastered game and Ark 2 but excluded any expansions. Following negative feedback, Studio Wildcard has now revised these plans.
While the developers continue to navigate these challenges, they assure fans that the gameplay will be revealed closer to the launch of Ascended when it can best represent the final product. Furthermore, they are working with Nitrado to ensure save file transfers, although server transfers will not be supported until the release of Scorched Earth.
