Zukunft von ARK (Update from 8. April)

Today, just before April 1, Wildcard released the future and roadmap of their ARK Survival Evolved franchise.

Expected was a postponement of ARK2 to 2024, which has now been confirmed - end of 2024! And the announcement of an update of ARK to the new Unreal Engine 5.x. Wildcard founder Jeremy Steiglitz sent positive signals as late as January 2023 that an upgrade from ARK 1 to ARK 1.5 (Ascended) is quite possible (https://twitter.com/jeremystieg…). 

Unfortunately, the roadmap now clearly states that there will be no backwards compatibility and (exclusively?) paid mods (via https://www.overwolf.com/). This is necessary to cover the infrastructure costs for these cross-platform mods. So to put it simply, because of the "fucked up" consoles (or the money-grubbing manufacturers behind them) and the cross-platform mindset, the pleasant update to Unreal Engine 1.5 on April 1 will now be joke?

To be clear, the new UE5 update of ARK 1 is fantastic and the mentioned improvements are very good. But I would clearly like to see an upgrade path here from Wildcard, e.g. with a one-time conversion from format 1 to 1.5!

A negative aspect is that you have to buy the game and the DLC again at full price.  Evil tongues could claim that the wild card holder "Snail Games" is behind it!

UPDATE FROM 03.04.2023

After 1 to 2 days, you have digested all the news a bit. Still found the communication very poor or chosen at the wrong time. Had they shown a few UE5 trailers and made the price without ARK2, much would have been easier to digest. Also the statements of Jeremy on Twitter, that the savegames can be taken over (https://twitter.com/jeremystieg…) and now everything is a new beginning, was of course a shock. With a little distance, you can now see the advantages. I.e. the mods, which previously ran flawlessly, will also run in the future and you save the whole mess with the mod update (or no update). That you have to spend 90 CHF again here after 8 years (2015) is quite justified.

On the other hand, my suspicion has been confirmed that ARK2 will be an impressive game, but is too strongly focused on this "third-person perspective" and the feeling of immersion in another world from the first-person perspective could be lost.

UPDATE from 08.04.2023 (by Wildcard)

ARK Ascenend is now available for just under 60 CHF but separately and you do without the forced bundle with ARK 2. Very good Wildcard! In addition, they have explained something, why originally a pure update from UE4 to UE5 was planned as a free update and now a larger update is implemented, where unfortunately the backward compatibility is no longer possible.

ARK: Survival Ascended will now be a standalone package released on every platform (PC Windows/Steam, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5) at $59.99. The package will include the following pieces of content built-in (not sold separately), with each remastered and altered for the next-generation:
 

The Island (Released at Launch)

• Survival of the Fittest: The Island & Scorched Earth map variants (Released at Launch)
• Scorched Earth (Released at Launch)
• Aberration (Released by Q4 2023)
• Extinction (Released by Q1 2024)
• Genesis Part 1 (Released by Q1 2024)
• Genesis Part 2 (Released by Q2 2024)
• All the community-created maps are also to be released over time in 2024 (Fjordur, Ragnarok, The Center, Lost Island, Valguero, Crystal Isles)

https://survivetheark.com/index…

Community Crunch 355: ARK Roadmap, EVO Event, and More!

After careful consideration, we have decided to delay the sequel's launch to the end of 2024, when it will still launch exclusively on Xbox, Game Pass, and Windows distribution platforms (Steam/PC). We’ve put much thought into delaying ARK 2 for the betterment of the final product and the team's well-being. This news will be disappointing to many - we feel it too - but we’re confident this heavy decision is the right one.

So why the delay? Our goal is to make ARK 2 the best game it can be and provide a truly exceptional and rewarding experience for players. Unreal Engine 5 is incredibly new technology to us (and all developers), and we aim to use this cutting-edge tech to its fullest potential while creating a game with never-before-achieved scope at Studio Wildcard. As we learn more about the engine and develop the sequel, we have adapted our workflows and adjusted our pipelines to accommodate this new next-generation paradigm, and because of everything that involves, we need more time for development.

We sincerely apologize for this delay and genuinely appreciate your understanding. Your support and passion are vital to us, and we will continue to work intensively to deliver the ultimate next-gen dinosaur survival experience. With that in mind, we do not plan to showcase any gameplay/screenshots/videos of ARK 2 this year; however, we intend to keep you informed and engaged in the development process by regularly showcasing more ARK 2 assets in the months ahead, leading to our gameplay reveal next year.

But! Our desire to push the boundaries of what ARK 2 is on a next-generation platform has led us to the decision to create an intermediary Unreal Engine 5 ARK product utilizing some of the new technology we are building, allowing us to further our mastery of the new engine and ultimately battle-test some of our riskier technical advancements. We’ll gain a deep understanding of how well the rendering and lighting techniques work on console, what performance will be like, whether we can optimize and deliver interactive water and foliage on a widescale basis, and much more. We will deliver cross-platform modding, cross-platform multiplayer & a new account system, informing us about other changes we should consider for ARK 2. Due to the scope of all the technical and QOL changes required for such a next-gen experience, it is not feasible to make this new version of ARK backward compatible, which led us to conclude that this would need to be a separate product.

We also recognize that ARK 2 has some pretty significant design changes from the original game, which may not make it as appealing to everyone (looking at you, Souls-like combat, primitive-only weaponry, and strict third-person mechanics – and an overall “very serious” tone), which is why we feel it is essential to provide players with a fully next-gen version of the original experience to ensure that fans can continue to enjoy the ARK they know for years to come.

We’re thrilled to share this new ARK journey with you this year -- bringing players from PC, Xbox, and PlayStation together in a next-generation version of the game you love, topped off with revolutionary cross-platform modding.

https://survivetheark.com/index…