Ark: Survival Ascended's The Center map remaster delayed indefinitely
Just days before its planned release.
Ark: Survival Ascended developer Studio Wildcard has announced it's indefinitely delaying the release of the dinosaur survival remaster's enhanced The Center expansion, just days before its planned 28th February release.
Ark: Survival Ascended - the controversial full-price Unreal Engine 5 remaster of 2015's Ark: Survival Evolved - has been plagued with delays since its announcement last year. First, the remaster's launch was shifted from August to October - a release it eventually managed to hit on PC, albeit with the Xbox Series X/S version getting a last-minute delay to mid-November and the PS5 release arriving later still - while Ascended's various expansion remasters, originally due to launch alongside the base game, have now slipped a number of times.
In January, Wildcard announced its Scorched Earth expansion remaster, initially delayed to December 2023 and then moved to March 2024, would now be releasing in April, while its Aberration and Ragnarok map remasters - previously delayed to "Q1 2024" - were now on track to arrive in July and September 2024 respectively. Amid all this furious roadmap revision, there was a bright spot in that the enhanced version of Ark's The Center map would now be coming to Ascended a couple of months earlier than listed in December. The Center's release was later pinned down to 28th February, but once again it's all change.
"We've made the decision to postpone the Center as it wasn't on track to launch with the level of quality we require," Wildcard wrote in an community update shared this weekend. "Our dedicated partners – who have been working on the Center while we focus on Scorched Earth – need more time to make sure it meets our expectations, and yours."
"We're sorry for this change in plans," the studio continued, "but we know it will be well worth it when the Center launches". But while The Center's remaster has now fallen off the radar with no revised launch date being shared, Wildcard confirmed it will still be releasing the Gigantoraptor - a new dinosaur originally due to arrive alongside The Center's remaster - in an update this Wednesday, 28th February.
As for the Scorched Earth remaster - which, like all other world expansions released for the previous version of Ark, will be free to owners of Ascended - that still appears to be on track to launch this April. It's due to arrive alongside the new Frontier Adventure Pack paid DLC, which includes cowboy-inspired clothing, buildable trains, and the "floating fortress" Oasisaur.
Away from its release date woes, Ark: Survival Ascended is still grappling with complaints around performance, bugs, crashes, server issues, and cheating that have lingered since launch. But despite undoubtedly being a bit technical mess, I quite enjoyed my time with the remaster's spruced-up The Island map when I took it for a spin at the end of last year. Whether Wildcard - currently juggling an ever-lengthening expansion remaster roadmap and brand-new paid DLC - can give it the attention it deserves, however, remains to be seen.