It isn’t a good week to be an Ark: Survival Evolved fan. Not only have the developers announced that Ark 2 is once again delayed, but they’ve revealed that ARK servers will shut down in the not too distant future.
Studio Wildcard made the announcement at the weekend, citing the team’s mental welfare as a main contributing factor. “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.”
However, it isn’t just mental wellbeing that the dev’s mention, but also a need to experience and play around with Unreal Engine 5 to fully get used to what it can do. “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 utilising 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.”
The statement is quite the read, and while it offers light at the end of the tunnel with news of a ARK “remaster” called Ark: Survival Ascended, players will have to pay for the privilege. That’s right, it seems to go from bad to worse, with the original ARK servers shut down in favour of the newer, shinier version of the first game.
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Maybe the sting of losing the original servers wouldn’t be so bad if fans didn’t have to purchase a bundle in order to access the remaster. Apparently, Survival Ascended will only be available as a part of the Ark 2 preorder, coming in at $49.99. PlayStation 5 players will be able to buy Survival Ascended as a standalone game, but even that will set them back $39.99.
Although video games costing a lot of money isn’t anything new, it was implied that any upgrade would be free. Now this doesn’t seem to be the case – to say the fans are upset is an understatement. Even saying they’re “livid” doesn’t quite capture how colourful their responses have been…!
Right now, the developers are keeping quiet after their shocking announcement, but given how rowdy fans are getting, we doubt it'll be long before GAMINGbible is writing about a response to the backlash.