Ark Developer Backpedals on Survival Ascended Bundle After Community Outcry
Studio Wildcard has announced that they are discontinuing the Ark: Survival Ascended bundle after backlash from fans.
The developer Community blog post Revealed on Steam last Friday, it recently backed off its decision to bundle Survival Ascended with Ark 2, which was delayed to 2024.
“Our intention behind this was to basically offer a package where you get two products for the price of one. In hindsight, it’s not the best bet,” the studio wrote. “Unfortunately, we recognize that combining Ark Survival Ascended with Ark 2 and requiring further DLC upgrades is not optimal, especially since Ark 2 has no gameplay or content yet available. This is because it is not possible to determine
Due to fan feedback Studio Wildcard received regarding that issue, they are now making Ark: Survival Ascended a standalone game. DLC content is being incorporated incrementally instead of being sold on the digital storefront for $59.99. Here are the contents and their release dates:
- island (Published at the same time as the release)
- Survival of the Fittest: Island and Scorched Earth map variants (Published at the same time as the release)
- scorched earth (Published at the same time as the release)
- aberration (Q4 2023)
- extinction (Q1 2024)
- genesis part 1 (Q1 2024)
- genesis part 2 (Q2 2024)
- All community created maps will also be released in 2024 (Fjord, Ragnarok, The Center, Lost Island, Valguero, Crystal Isles).
The studio also reiterated ending Ark: Survival Evolved on August 31st in preparation for the launch of Survival Ascended. However, we will be updating the game one last time on June’s eighth anniversary by introducing Rhyniognatha, a new creature that won a community election.
The initial announcement of the Ark Respawned Bundle caused confusion among fans as they were upset that Survival Evolved was shutting down and they had to pay for the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade. Teased as a free upgradeStudio Wildcard’s original plan was to port the Switch version of the game without a free upgrade, but came to the conclusion that such an upgrade “wasn’t good enough” and decided it would be an “evergreen classic arc.” He explained that he chose to create an “experience”. You can “continue to grow over time”. However, such drastic updates to the original arc could obviously invalidate save data, render some of his mods useless, and make the gameplay experience unbearable for some players. There is a nature.
However, the original Survival Evolved will still be available in unofficial/player-hosted sessions.
“ASE can still be played for whomever you choose. This includes multiplayer with unofficial/player-hosted sessions, myriad mods on the Steam Workshop, and all the game content we know today. We will remain, but after eight years of development, we have had to make the difficult decision to retire ASE and the official network in order to offer a truly long-term, evergreen version of the game through ARK: Survival Ascended. yeah.”
Ark: Survival Ascended releases on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in August 2023.
Christina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she has her love for Sonic the Hedgehog up her sleeve like a big deal – follow her on her Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
