Publisher and developer Studio Wildcard has revealed Ark: Survival Evolved’s 2023 roadmap, highlighting the content and rather significant changes coming to its survival game.
Ark: Survival Evolved’s 2023 roadmap most important element is the upcoming next-generation remaster of the game called Ark: Survival Ascended, which is developed using Unreal Engine 5.
Ark: Survival Evolved 2023 Roadmap
Ark: Survival Ascended is scheduled to release on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 by the end of August 2023. Its base offering includes The Island, Survival of the Fittest, and the non-canon DLC maps, which will be added over time.
PC and Xbox Series S/X users will only be able to purchase the remaster via the ARK Respawned bundle, which costs $49.99 or your regional equivalent and includes both Ark: Survival Ascended and Ark 2, the highly anticipated sequel.
PS5 users will, instead, be able to acquire ARK: Survival Ascended as a standalone product, when it launches in August 2023, for the price of $39.99 or your regional equivalent.
Ark: Survival Ascended’s expansion packs will all be sold separately on all platforms, marking the next steps on Ark: Survival Evolved’s 2023 roadmap.
The Explorer’s Pass costs $19.99 or your regional equivalent, including the Scorched Earth, Aberration (Q4 2023), and Extinction (Q1 2024) expansions.
The Genesis Pass shares the same price, bringing with it the Genesis Part 1 (Q1 2024) and Genesis Part 2 (Q2 2024) expansions.
ARK: Survival Ascended is also getting a canonical story DLC pack in Q4 2023, which adds four new creatures.
Cross-platform modding is also planned for the remaster, in collaboration with Overwolf, including support for vetted premium mods whose optional price is determined by their authors.
Survival of the Fittest is also present on Ark: Survival Evolved’s 2023 roadmap, as it will be integrated as a separate fully-supported game mode into the remaster.
It will have its own dedicated team “that will continue to work on more gameplay changes, mechanical improvements, quality of life, maps, and balance adjustments.”
Its initial revamped version will see it shifting to Unreal Engine 5, getting a matchmaking queue, local lobbies, a variety of bug fixes, and more.
ARK: Survival Evolved’s final content update is scheduled for June, marking the game’s 8th anniversary. Official servers, Primitive+, Split Screen, and Procedurally Generated Maps will no longer be supported for the original game once Survival Ascended launches in August.
Before that happens, however, Conquest Season 5 is set to start on April 25th. Classic PvP servers will be wiped on the same day. Here are specific details pertaining to the new season.
- Experience gain, taming, gathering have been tripled compared to our standard Official Servers (3x)
- Breeding, hatching, and raising rates have been tripled compared to our standard Official Servers (3x)
- No tribe limit
- Tribe alliances are disabled, though informal alliances are allowed
- Servers have a maximum player count of 100
- No Aberration map
- All other maps excluding Gen1&2 and Extinction will be available.
You can read more about Ark: Survival Evolved’s 2023 roadmap in its dedicated Steam post.
In other Ark-related news, the second game in the series suffered a fairly significant delay, pushing its launch out of 2023.
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