Studio Wildcard, the developers behind the popular dinosaur survival game ARK: Survival Evolved, have changed tune on their plans for a remastered version, ARK: Survival Ascended. 

Originally last week, Studio Wildcard announced in a blog post that the sequel, ARK 2 is now officially delayed for 2024, no longer later this year as planned. Alongside that original update was the announcement of a ‘next-gen’ upgrade to Ark: Survival Evolved which is now titled ARK: Survival Ascended. What became confusing though is the way this all worked for purchase, as Studio Wildcard explained that for those on Xbox Series S|X and PC, both Ascended and ARK 2 would be available in one bundle at a price of $49.99. However PS5 users would only get ARK Ascended for $40. Furthermore, at the end of August 2023, the servers for ARK: Survival Evolved will be sunsetted for the release of the remastered ARK game, Ascended. However, the announcement that drew the most ire, the DLC for ARK: Survival Ascended would not be included in the bundle. Meaning those who own ARK: Survival Evolved already will have to pay full price again for a mere Unreal Engine 5 overhaul. 

From the start, it was all quite confusing, and fans were quite vocal about it, even review bombing the game. From not even letting players get a free upgrade, let alone to excluding DLC out of the bundle, fans were flummoxed and upset. Nothing was quite clear.

So, on Friday, April 7th, Studio Wildcard sent out another blog post clarifying and revising some of their original plans, though things were still lackluster. As they stated in the post: 

ARK: Survival Ascended will now be a standalone package released on every platform (PC Windows/Steam, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5) at $59.99. The package will include the following pieces of content built-in (not sold separately), with each remastered and altered for the next-generation.

They went on to list that each of the remastered DLC would be available without any cost. While Studio Wildcard helped clarify the rather confusing bundles and upgrades, they’ve now increased the price of the standalone remastered ARK: Survival Ascended a whole $10 to $60. While that price increase isn’t a lot, simply put, fans still have to pay a full $60 for a remastered Unreal Engine 5 game. The devs did explain to some extent why ARK Survival: Evolved had to be removed in place for Ascended, explaining, “So you’re probably asking, why don’t we make these upgrades to the original ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE)? Frankly, it would not be viable. Many of the changes we’re making in ARK: Survival Ascended will touch a lot of aspects of the game; it’ll invalidate save data, some mods may not be functional, some things may not play the same way as they did before, and we didn’t want to change that experience for those who prefer it or are unable to upgrade.”

It all remains to be seen come August if players are ready and willing to pay full price for the remastered ARK game.