Studio Wildcard has announced ARK II is delayed into next year to focus on polishing the MMO sequel further.
The 2020-announced sandbox survival MMO sequel will forgo its previously planned 2023 release for one sometime in late 2024.
When ARK II does release, it’ll be available for Windows PC (via Steam) and Xbox Series X|S, and will be on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
Here’s the word from Studio Wildcard on the delay:
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.
