Ark: Survival Ascended delayed to October, remastered DLC no longer coming at launch
But there's $5 off to make up for it.
Studio Wildcard's less-than-elegant rollout of Ark: Survival Ascended, a full-price remaster of its 2015 dinosaur survival game Ark: Survival Evolved, continues with the news of a delay from August to October this year, and word it'll now launch without its first bit of remastered DLC.
Ark: Survival Ascended has already had a bumpy start to life; the remaster first surfaced when Studio Wildcard announced it'd be taking Ark: Survival Evolved's official servers offline later this year, and that the only way to continue using official servers would be to purchase its new Unreal Engine 5 remaster - exclusively available as part of a bundle with the now-delayed Ark 2. Following an outcry from players, Studio Wildcard eventually announced it would scrap the bundle, instead replacing it with a standalone version of Ark: Survival Ascended that was - amazingly - exactly the same price, despite featuring one less game.
It's in this context that Studio Wildcard has now announced a delay for Ascended, saying it has "found it challenging working with Unreal Engine 5.2".
"We're discovering new ways each day to push the technology to the next level," the developer continued. "Combined with the work needed to support a fully cross-platform-moddable game ecosystem on consoles and PC, it's clear that we'll need a bit more time."
In addition to shifting Ark: Survival Ascended's launch from August to October, Studio Wildcard says it's "also decided to separate the release date of The Island and Scorched Earth. With what we've learned about remastering The Island from the ground-up, it wouldn’t be feasible to complete Scorched Earth to a standard we're happy with."
Scorched Earth's desert map is now expected to launch in December, with remastered versions of Ark's Ragnarok and Aberration maps due in "Q1 2024". To account for the jettisoning of Scorched Earth at launch, Studio Wildcard is knocking $5 USD off Ascended's early access price, bringing it down from $49.99 to $44.99. It's also confirmed an additional launch discount, meaning players can pick up Ascended at $39.99 for a limited time.
And as to when Wildcard might finally be ready to show Ascended in action, so players can make an informed decision about whether or not the remaster is worth another $40+, the answer to that is "close to" launch. "That'll be when it's completely ready and best represent the final product", the developer insisted.
Ark: Survival Ascended will be available for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC when it launches in October 2023.