Ark: Survival Ascended out today on PC, console release delayed to November
And there's finally some gameplay footage.
Ark: Survival Ascended - the Unreal Engine 5 remake of dino-survival hit Ark: Survival Evolved - is surprise-launching onto PC today, 25th October. However, developer Wildcard has announced a further delay for the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 versions, with both now due to arrive some time in November.
There has, of course, been a fair bit of controversy surrounding Ark: Survival Ascended since its announcement back in April this year; its reveal came with the news that Wildcard would be taking Ark: Survival Evolved's official servers offline when the remake arrived, forcing players to upgrade to the new version if they wanted to stay put.
It didn't help, either, that the remake was initially only available as part of a bundle with the now-delayed Ark 2, and while Wildcard eventually scrapped those plans, it instead decided to release a standalone version of Ark: Survival Ascended that was - amazingly - exactly the same price as the original bundle, despite featuring one less game. However, that price recently fell by $5 to $44.99 after Wildcard reversed plans to include a remake of Ark's Scorched Earth expansion alongside the base map, which it said would no longer be ready for launch.
Still, following a bit of a delay (the remake was originally due to launch in August on all platforms before getting pushed back to October), Ark: Survival Ascended launches today as an early access release on Steam, although it hasn't yet gone live. Perhaps surprisingly, its arrival is accompanied by our very first opportunity to see the remake in motion, with its launch trailer featuring a mix of gameplay and in-engine cinematics. It's all quite pretty too, and an absolute treat if you're a big fan of bloom.
Alongside its visual enhancements and revamped audio, Ascended promises an overhauled UI (after over 1,500 hours with Ark: Survival Evolved, I still get nightmares about that original interface), plus new character customisation options, split-screen multiplayer support, unique colour sets, new gameplay items and structures, changes to existing items and creatures, and more.
Ark: Survival Ascended was originally expected to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S alongside the PC release, but Wildcard has announced a further delay for these versions - which are now due to emerge sometime in November. As for Ark: Survival Ascended's upgraded Scorched Earth desert map, that's planned to launch this December, with remastered versions of Ark's Ragnarok and Aberration maps coming in "Q1 2024".