Ark 2 has been delayed, so they're switching off Survival Evolved and charging $50 for a remaster
ARK 2 has been delayed until the end of 2024. The dinosaur survival sequel currently best known for having Vin Diesel in it, for some reason, was originally aiming for a 2023 release, but developers Studio Wildcard say they need more time.
To compensate, they're going to instead release Ark: Survival Ascended in August, a remaster of the original Ark: Survival Evolved that moves it over to Unreal Engine 5. That's the good news. The bad news is you can only buy it in a $50 bundle with the sequel (which won't be finished for at least a year), and that the original Survival Evolved servers will be switched off when Ascended launches.
"After careful consideration, we have decided to delay the sequel's launch to the end of 2024, when it will still launch exclusively on Xbox, Game Pass, and Windows distribution platforms (Steam/PC)," says the announcement. "We’ve put much thought into delaying ARK 2 for the betterment of the final product and the team's well-being."
They pin the delay on several factors, including the development team being new to Unreal Engine 5. They also say that producing Survival Ascended will help them to further their "mastery of the new engine and ultimately battle-test some of our riskier technical advancements."
Ark 2 is also apparently shaping up to be substantially different from Survival Evolved, with "Souls-like combat, primitive-only weaponry, and strict third-person mechanics – and an overall 'very serious' tone." That's a surprise set of ideas for a sequel to the original Ark, which was janky, both third- and first-person, and had terrible grind redeemed only by the daft joy of eventually being able to build a mobile artillery platform on the back of an amphibious dinosaur.
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