Studio Wildcard Announces Server Shutdown Ark: Survival Evolved In August, the game will be replaced with Ark: Survival Ascend.
Ark: Survival Ascended is a next gen remake Survival Evolved comes with new features, as well as numerous improvements and enhancements.
Some of the enhancements include an Unreal Engine 5 overhaul with Nanite, Lumen and RTXDI, Dynamic Water, Interactive Foliage, and performance improvements like instanced rendering, threaded server networking, and native physics engines.
The game features cross-platform anti-cheat, cross-platform multiplayer with cross-accounts and cross-progression, and cross-voice chat and friends. You can also look forward to cross-platform modding, where mods created on PC are delivered directly to end-user consoles from the custom modding backend. Modding features will include full blueprint support, stackable mods, and maps. Everything that’s currently on the Steam version of Survival Evolved and more will be available on the new system, and end users will be able to play the game on consoles in all modes.
You can also expect Overwolf and Wildcard to review premium mods for quality control and value. Mod authors have the option to specify a price point for their mod and receive 50% of the price point. This is required to pay for the custom infrastructure required by Overwolf to support, manage and deliver mods to consoles.
Studio Wildcard plans to simplify the process of upgrading legacy Survival Evolved mods to next-gen platforms, and plans to connect with current and formerly sponsored mod makers in preparation for Survival Ascended’s launch.
Survival of the Fittest will be integrated into the main Survival Ascened experience as a new fully supported game mode. It will have a dedicated team that will continue to work on more gameplay changes, mechanics improvements, quality of life, maps and balance tweaks. The initial mode will be improved with exclusive updates, including cross-platform and cross-mod support, a scorched-earth survival-of-the-fittest map, matchmaking queues, character and creature customization cosmetics, local lobbies, and more.
You can expect plenty of bug fixes as well as balance and functionality improvements. Art assets throughout the game are being upgraded, and there will be newly designed holiday events released as mods so they are always playable with new content, as well as QOL improvements.
Gameplay changes include, but are not limited to, updated mini-maps with pan, zoom, ping, and more. There are new structures, display cases, smaller TEK teleporters, and building QOL improvements such as quick fixes, added foundation supports, foundation height adjustments, and more.
Finally, a new queuing system, a new third-person view with an opt-out, directional sprinting and walking, a ping system, a gamepad cursor, a chibi slot, a skin tab, more mobs to breed, and more .
Ark: Survival Ascended will launch on PC via Steam, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S end of august. The base game will include The Island, Survival of the Fittest, and all non-Canon DLC maps that will be added over time.
if you play PC and Xbox Series X/S, you’ll only get the game through the Ultimate Value Bundle called the Ark: Rebirth Bundle. The bundle includes ownership of Ark: Survival Ascension and Ark 2 for $49.99.
The bundle will be available for purchase for up to a year starting in late August 2023, after which Survival Ascended and ARK 2 will be sold separately. Additionally, the bundle will offer an exclusive month-long closed beta of Ark 2 in 2024 before the rest of the public can play it.
game console 5 Users will be able to get Ark: Survival Ascended as a standalone next-gen game when it launches in August for $39.99.
All expansion packs will be sold separately on all platforms. You’ll pay $19.99 for the game’s Explorer Pass, which includes Scorched Earth, Aberration (Q4 2023), and Extinction (Q1 2024). Genesis Pass includes Genesis Part 1 (Q1 2024) and Genesis Part 2 (Q2 2024), priced at $19.99.
Ark Survival’s new classic story expansion is coming in Q4 2023, featuring four new creatures and more.
At launch, Survival Ascended players will have access to The Island, Scorched Earth, and a new and improved game mode, Survival of the Fittest.
The final content is updated to Ark: Survival Evolved Released in June to celebrate Ark’s 8th anniversary, it includes a fan-voted Rhyniognatha.
Survival Evolved and Survival Ascended will coexist; however, cross-play between games is not supported. Once the Ascended servers go live, the Survival Evolved servers for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox will be phased out.
At that time, the final archive data of the Survival Evolved official server will be uploaded for players to re-host to their own servers. You can still play the game on single-player, non-dedicated, player-only and unofficial servers.
With the retirement of Survival Evolved, Studio Wildcard will also cease official support for Primitive+, split-screen, and procedurally generated maps. These aspects of the game will not be ported over to the new UE5 release. That said, the team plans to release the source files for Primitive+ for those who wish to repurpose some aspects of it into mods.
Any future updates to Ark: Survival Evolved will be limited to crash and critical bug fixes.
