ARK: Survival Ascended – Unreal 5 Remaster will be delayed

Originally, the release of the Unreal 5 remaster ARK: Survival Ascended was planned for August 2023, a first content update should have followed in Q4 of this year.
The release has now been pushed back and the planned content has been reduced.

That alone seems to surprise few players, but other things do.

Reasons for the delay

Now it’s certain: the release will be pushed back significantly, to October 2023.
The included content will also be slimmed down and split.

In an announcement on the official ARK page, Studio Wildcard also expressed reasons for the delay:

We’ve found it challenging working with Unreal Engine 5.2, but at the same time, it is incredibly exciting. We’re discovering new ways each day to push the technology to the next level; combined with the work needed to support a fully cross-platform-moddable game ecosystem on consoles and PC, it’s clear that we’ll need a bit more time.

In addition to the delay, the Scorched Earth expansion will not be included in the release. Instead, only the original map The Island will be available for now.
The Scorched Earth expansion will follow in December, then Ragnarok and Aberration in early 2024 – and then the rest.

What was also unclear for many fans until now is that ARK: Survival Ascended will start in Early Access and will only leave it at the end of 2024.

The developers also don’t want to show first gameplay scenes yet.

When will we see gameplay?

We know you’re excited, curious, and skeptical; we understand. Our plan is to show gameplay close to the launch of ASA, as that’ll be when it’s completely ready and best represent the final product, so you’ll have to stay tuned until then.

The only positive point is that ARK: Survival Ascended will now only cost $45 and will be discounted to $40 at launch.
The reason for this is that there will be less content than announced at release.

What does this mean for ARK 2?

Of course, quite a few people are now asking themselves whether this wasn’t the plan from the very beginning. Because the successor ARK 2 was already postponed for a long time months ago, at least until the end of 2024.

But regardless of whether the whole thing was planned that way or not, the question naturally remains open as to how the delays in the remaster will affect the development of ARK 2.
After all, if you’re working on a remaster, you can’t work on the successor at full speed.

Studio Wildcard has not yet commented on this topic.