Ark 2 delayed to ‘end of 2024,’ but there’s a remaster of the original Ark coming

Arch 2, the dinosaur survival adventure game starring Vin Diesel, has been delayed to “late 2024,” developer Studio Wildcard announced late Friday. In an attempt at consolation, the developer also announced a remaster of the original Ark: Survival Evolveda new version of the game with a big catch.

In Studio Wildcard’s announcement regarding the sequel’s delay, the developer said, “This extra time makes it possible Arch 2 to be the best game it can be and provide a truly exceptional and rewarding experience for players. [Unreal Engine 5] is incredibly new technology and with Arch 2this advanced technology will be fully exploited.”

Instead of sending Arch 2 this year Studio will release Wildcard instead, as planned Ark: Survival Ascendeddescribed as a next generation remaster of Ark: Survival Evolved, also runs on Unreal Engine 5. Ascended will be released in August on PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X and will include The Island, a “refresh” Survival of the Fittest game mode and all “non-canon” DLC maps for Survival evolved.

Ark: Survival Ascended does not appear to be an upgrade for existing owners of Survival evolved; Studio Wildcard will sell it in different ways depending on the platform. PC and Xbox players can purchase the remaster as part of the $49.99 Ark Respawned bundle, which includes Ark: Survival Ascended And Arch 2. Players on PS5 can get Ark: Survival Ascended at launch in August for $39.99 as a standalone game.

Studio Wildcard also pre-sells the game’s expansion packs Survive ascended individual. Here are the prices and estimated release date for each:

• $19.99 for Explorer’s Pass, inclusive Scorched earth, Aberration (Q4 2023), and Become extinct (Q1 2024)
• $19.99 for Genesis Pass, inclusive Genesis part 1 (Q1 2024) and Genesis part 2 (Q2 2024)

In addition, the developer says it will release the latest content update for Ark: Survival Evolved in June and in August all official servers on Xbox, PlayStation and PC will be shut down for Ark: Survival Evolved.

“[At] that time, the last save-data of the Ark: Survival Evolved Official servers are uploaded for players to rehost on their own servers or play in single player/non-[dedicated], as well as slightly earlier snapshots,” the studio said. “You can still play on single player, non-dedicated, player-dedicated and unofficial servers. Ark: Survival Ascended will have its own fully supported official network for all platforms.”

Unsurprisingly, many Ark fans aren’t happy with the turn of events Studio Wildcard has pulled off, especially since previously teased the developer a “full free upgrade/remaster of Ark survival evolved in Unreal Engine 5.”

While the original game still has a “very positive” overall user review rating (with over 470,000 reviews) on Steam, recent reviews of Survival evolved have mentioned Studio Wildcard’s plan for the original game.

“They’re going to kill this game and want us to buy the same game a second time?” says an incredibly negative review from a player with over 9,000 hours of play in the game.