Developer Wildcard today presented the official roadmap for the ARK franchise and bad news for all those who are eagerly awaiting ARK 2. The release will be postponed by about 18 months to the end of 2024, but the UE5 update of ARK 1 will be available this year.
This is what's going on: In the current Community Crunch 355 by Wildcard, the developers talk about the future of the ARK franchise. On the one hand, there is good news, but also bad news for all fans. Although the Unreal Engine 5 update for ARK 1 is due this year, the release of ARK 2 has been postponed by around 18 months to the end of 2024. In this article we go into detail about the ARK 2 postponement and tell you the reasons that led to it.
As was revealed a few months ago, the developers at Wildcard are planning to update ARK: Survival Evolved to Unreal Engine 5. Many fans feared that the development of ARK 2 would suffer and that a postponement was very likely. Originally, ARK 2 was supposed to be released in 2022, but was then postponed to the first half of 2023. Now the disillusionment; ARK 2 will be postponed again to the end of 2024.
In Community Chrunch 355, Wildcard goes into detail about why they decided to postpone. They say:
"Our goal is to make ARK 2 the best game it can be and provide a truly exceptional and rewarding experience for players. Unreal Engine 5 is incredibly new technology to us (and all developers), and we aim to use this cutting-edge tech to its fullest potential while creating a game with never-before-achieved scope at Studio Wildcard. As we learn more about the engine and develop the sequel, we have adapted our workflows and adjusted our pipelines to accommodate this new next-generation paradigm, and because of everything that involves, we need more time for development."
Another reason is the Unreal Engine 5 update of ARK: Survival Evolved, which is scheduled for release later this year, at the end of August 2023. The new version will then be sold as a new game in the store called ARK: Survival Ascended. This is what the developers continue to say:
"We also recognize that ARK 2 has some pretty significant design changes from the original game, which may not make it as appealing to everyone (looking at you, Souls-like combat, primitive-only weaponry, and strict third-person mechanics – and an overall “very serious” tone), which is why we feel it is essential to provide players with a fully next-gen version of the original experience to ensure that fans can continue to enjoy the ARK they know for years to come."
So the developers need more time to develop ARK 2 and are probably focusing on completing ARK: Survival Ascended for now. We will tell you what to expect with Ascended, i.e. ARK 1.5, in another article.
ARK 2 will be released exclusively for Xbox and PC at the end of 2024, should Wildcard not want to postpone the title again. A PlayStation version will probably follow sometime in 2025 or early 2026.
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