Studio Wildcard has announced that Ark: Survival Ascended is slated for a launch in October for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, though players will see a slight discount to its price.
Ark: Survival Ascended, an Unreal Engine 5 remaster of Ark: Survival Evolved, is proving more problematic than originally thought. “We’re discovering new ways each day to push the technology to the next level; 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,” explained the team in a community update posted on Saturday (July 1).
Its early access price point will be $44.99, slashing the total from the previously published $59.99, and those purchasing the remaster at launch will benefit from another small discount to $39.99 — thougn regional pricing is yet to be shared. Furthermore, only The Island will be available as a playable map at the start with “Scorched Earth coming to ASA in December this year, Ragnarok and Aberration will follow in Q1 2024, and the rest of the maps beyond then.”
“We know you really want to get your hands on ASA, and we appreciate that support and enthusiasm. We’re going to do our best to work hard to make sure that we can deliver a tremendous next-gen ARK experience that meets both your expectations and our own,” continued Studio Wildcard.
The remaster weathered negativity on its announcement as it was revealed that official servers for Ark: Survival Evolved will shutter once Survival Ascended is out. And, the lead designer of the game had suggested Survival Ascended would be a free upgrade for fans, however, now players will need to buy Evolved‘s expansions again to play Ascended.
Regarding the sequel, that seems to still be on track for 2024, though the team’s increasing experience with Unreal Engine 5 might speed things up.