Ark: Survival Ascended's Highly Anticipated Release is Postponed - Find Out the New Launch Date!

The remastered version of the popular dinosaur survival game, Ark: Survival Evolved, called Ark: Survival Ascended, has experienced a slight delay from its original release date in August. Originally announced earlier this year, the goal of Ark: Survival Ascended is to combine all of the original game's DLC expansions into a more polished package before the release of its sequel, Ark 2.

Since its debut in 2015, Ark: Survival Evolved has quickly gained immense popularity in the world of survival games, thanks to its unique gameplay mechanics involving dinosaur fighting and taming. The highly anticipated Ark 2, featuring Hollywood actor Vin Diesel, was first unveiled at The Game Awards 2020 and will further propel the survival franchise using the newly developed Unreal Engine 5 by Epic. As release dates for some of the first Unreal 5 games, such as Lords of the Fallen and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, are starting to approach, Ark fans have been eagerly anticipating more information about Ark 2 and Survival Ascended. Unfortunately, fans will now have to exercise patience as they wait a little longer for the latter.

Developer Studio Wildcard has announced that the release of the Ark: Survival Ascended remaster has been postponed from August to October. The team is currently addressing some challenges with Unreal Engine 5, and as a result, no specific date has been provided for the launch. The DLC expansions from the first game that are supposed to be included in Survival Ascended will be released separately after the remaster's October debut. The Island DLC will be available on day one of Survival Ascended, while Scorched Earth will be made accessible in December. Furthermore, the Ragnarok and Aberration DLC expansions are expected to be integrated into the remaster by Q1 2024.

The price of Ark: Survival Ascended will undergo changes. Previously priced at $60, it will now be available for early access at $45 with a $5 discount at launch. Moreover, as Survival Ascended replaces the original Ark: Survival Evolved game, there will be a transition for the servers. The Survival Evolved servers will be closed on September 30 since Survival Ascended has been delayed to August. The Ark community has expressed their dissatisfaction with having to purchase the remaster to continue playing. Considering this is a live service survival game, it would be ideal for the remaster to be a free update for existing players, especially since Survival Evolved will be permanently offline. However, currently, this is not the case.

While awaiting the release of Ark 2, fans of the dino survival sandbox can anticipate an improved version of the original game this Fall. Given that October will be filled with major blockbusters such as Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and more, it will be interesting to see if Ark: Survival Ascended can attract and retain a larger audience of new fans before the arrival of Ark 2.

Ark: Survival Ascended is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in October.

Source: GameSpot