Ark: Survival Ascended will be sold without Ark 2 after backlash, but will still cost $60

rockpapershotgun.com:

The developers of Ark have revised their plans for the release of Ark: Survival Ascended, an Unreal Engine 5 enhanced edition of their dinosaur survival sim. It will now cost $60 rather than the previously planned $50, is no longer bundled together with ARK 2, and will instead include the remasters of Ark: Survival Evolved's several expansions - although most won't be available at launch.

Studio Wildcard also went into more detail as to why this upgraded version is no longer a free update, and why they feel it's necessary to shut down Ark: Survival Evolved's official servers.

Last week Wildcard announced that Ark 2 would not release in 2023 as initially planned, but instead had slipped until late 2024. Instead, this autumn, they would release Ark: Survival Ascended, an Unreal Engine 5 remaster of Survival Evolved. This remaster had previously been expected as a free upgrade, but it would now cost $50, only be available in an "ARK Respawned Bundle" with the unreleased Ark 2, and it would cost $90 in total if you also wanted the upgraded Survival Evolved expansions.

Players were quick to criticise the cost of re-buying games and expansions they felt they already owned, as well as the requirement to purchase Ark 2, a game that won't get its first gameplay trailer until next year.

"First things first, we are scrapping the ARK Respawned Bundle," says today's response to the criticism. "Our bad; we recognize how combining ARK Survival Ascended with ARK 2 and requiring further DLC upgrades wasn’t optimal, especially since you wouldn’t be able to judge ARK 2 as no gameplay or content would be available yet."

Instead, Ark: Survival Ascended will now be available to purchase separately from Ark 2. However, it will cost $60 -