Studio Wildcard announced late on March 31st — in a post that’s too long and detailed to (probably) be an April Fool’s Day gag? — that ARK: Survival Evolved will shut down on all platforms by the end of August to make way for ARK: Survival Ascended. What’s Ascended?
ARK: Survival Ascended is a next-generation remaster of our beloved ARK: Survival Evolved, harnessing the power of Unreal Engine 5. It will be released on Xbox Series S/X, PC (Windows/Steam), and PlayStation 5 by the end of August 2023. The base game will include The Island, SOTF, and all the “Non-Canon” DLC maps (which will be added to ASA over time).
Studio Wildcard Announcement – March 31, 2023
The news comes alongside a delay for the sequel, ARK 2, a year-end relaunch of ARK: Mobile, and more products around the ARK universe. Back to the current Survival Evolved release, the announcement lays out plans to let players take their final save game data into single-player and unofficial servers.
Official Servers: With the launch of ASA at the end of August, we will be taking down all Official Servers on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC for ARK: Survival Evolved – at that time, the final save-datas from the ARK: Survival Evolved Official Servers will be uploaded for players to re-host on their own servers or play in singleplayer/non-dedi, as well as slightly earlier snapshots. You will still be able to 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.
Feature Sunset: With the launch of ASA, we will be ending official support for Primitive+, Split Screen, and Procedurally Generated Maps. These aspects of the game will not be ported to the new Unreal Engine 5 version.
We will look into releasing the source files for Primitive+ for those that wish to repurpose aspects of it for mods.
Studio Wildcard Announcement – March 31, 2023
One sticking point among current owners is the upgrade path for Survival Ascended. Xbox Series X|S and PC players will only be able to get it in a $50 bundle that includes ARK 2 for the first year after release. PlayStation 5 players will only be able to pick up Ascended as a standalone release for $40.
Hopefully Studio Wildcard will provide more concrete dates soon for the August shutdown and Ascended‘s release. Though not confirmed, it seems likely that Survival Evolved will also be removed from sale at some point ahead of August. For now the affected releases of ARK: Survival Evolved remain available on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox One, and PlayStation platforms. A separate release on Nintendo Switch, as well as those on iOS and Android, will not be impacted by the upcoming server shutdown.
Thanks to everyone who pointed out the news. I’ve added a mid-August placeholder date on the Watch List calendar for now and we’ll have a page up on the site later.