Survival games are all the rage at the moment, and while there have been plenty of notable newcomers, Ark’s futuristic dino action is still holding out strong. Players are still loving the original, and its enhanced remaster, Ark Survival Evolved, just received two sizable updates at the same time. While that’s excellent news for the game, it does make you wonder – what the heck is going on with its highly-anticipated, transformative sequel, Ark 2.
Before we get into the weeds with that, let’s take a look at what is arriving in Ark Survival Ascended today, September 5. First there’s a free new expansion, which remasters the original game’s popular Aberration map. This new environment on a damaged Ark features underground areas and 15 new creatures to defend yourself against and hunt. There is also a new “wall-climbing raptor” called Yi Ling that you can add to your dino ranks.
The survival game is also getting the next chapter in Bob’s journey with Bob’s Tall Tales: Steampunk Ascent. Unlike Aberration, this won’t be free to everyone, but it does come with a lot of new content. There’s airships, a new traversal mechanic that uses a silk-spinning companion to help you swing around like a prehistoric Spider-Man, and a new narrative companion called SIR-5RM8 – as the name likely suggests, he is indeed a robot.
Ark Survival Ascended’s big double update releases today, Thursday September 5, at 12PM PT/ 3PM ET/ 8PM BST/ 9PM CEST. While both of these updates were meant to go live on September 4, technical hiccups saw Studio Wild Card delay them.
However, while all of this new content in Ark Survival Ascended is great, it does make me think about what’s happening with Ark 2 right now.
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that Ark 2 is meant to come out this year. The last anyone heard, the survival game sequel was given a “late 2024” window, yet all we’ve seen of it is two cinematic trailers with Vin Diesel cameos. While the survival elements and dinosaurs remain, it’ll be transforming the Ark formula with some massive overhauls, a third-person perspective, and combat inspired by the best soulslike games.
However, with just four months left in the year and most of the big opportunities to reveal new information (Summer Game Fest, Gamescom, etc.) now behind us, it seems to me like another delay to the Ark 2 release date is inevitable. My suspicion is that with both the original game, Survival Evolved, and Survival Ascended both attracting healthy, consistent player counts, there’s maybe not too much of a hurry to actually get Ark 2 out the door. Over recent weeks, the two games combined have been achieving anywhere between 40,000 and 60,000 concurrent players.
For more experiences like Ark, check out the best dinosaur games around. Alternatively, here are some excellent co-op games you can play with friends.
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