Survival Rescinded
Progress is never a straight line. Sometimes, there’s a lot of changing directions entirely. The path that Studio Wildcard is now on is fraught with that “progress”. A bundle containing Ark II and the remastered Ark: Survival Ascended has become extinct.
Late last month, Studio Wildcard released a fairly extensive roadmap of the next year or so. It included an announcement that Ark II had been delayed into 2024. In the same blog post, they outlined their plans to transition Ark: Survival Evolved to the upgraded Ark: Survival Ascended.
In a quick re-cap, Ark: SE servers will be going offline on August 31st. The game will effectively be replaced by Ark: SA, which players will have to purchase, even if they own Ark: SE. PlayStation players can by it standalone, but PC and Xbox players would have to get the Ark Respawned Bundle, which contained Ark: SA and Ark II.
This caused a bit of an uproar among players. Not only would they have to buy essentially the same game again, but players would also be getting a game that they could not verify that they would even want to get. If you were upset by that, the alternative and current solution is arguably worse.
Studio Wildcard walked back that bundle proposition to PC and Xbox players. Across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, Ark: Survival Ascended will be purchased as a standalone title, with all DLC included (and with staggered releases.
The original plan was to sell the base game for $39.99 (on PlayStation) and DLC separately. Now, the game will sell for $59.99, without Ark II. Ark: Survival Ascended is expected to launch in August for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Would you have rather had the Respawned Bundle? Let us know in the comments below.