ARK: Survival Ascended Release Window, Platforms, Price, and New Features

Studio Wildcard first revealed ARK: Survival Ascended in Community Crunch 355, positioning it as the next version of ARK: Survival Evolved for PC and current-generation consoles. The big technical shift was Unreal Engine 5, which gave the remaster a much newer visual foundation.

What Is ARK: Survival Ascended?

ARK: Survival Ascended is a remastered version of ARK: Survival Evolved rather than a fully separate sequel. The core survival, taming, crafting, and dinosaur chaos remain familiar, but the game adds upgraded graphics and a set of modern features built for newer hardware.

The release also introduced revised pricing, a changed content roadmap, and several launch-window delays.

Release Window and Delay

Survival Ascended was originally expected in August 2023, but the launch window moved to October 2023. Studio Wildcard did not provide a specific October date in the referenced update, only the broader month-long window.

That timing placed Survival Ascended ahead of ARK 2, which was expected sometime in 2024. For players waiting on the sequel, Survival Ascended was designed to keep the original ARK experience active with newer tech and feature support.

Platforms and Price

Studio Wildcard planned ARK: Survival Ascended for PC through Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.

The standalone game price was set at $40 for launch, with a later increase to $45. That was lower than the earlier proposed $59.99 price mentioned in Community Crunch 356.

Expansion content was sold separately through passes:

• Explorer's Pass: $19.99, including Scorched Earth, Aberration in Q4 2023, and Extinction in Q1 2024
• Genesis Pass: $19.99, including Genesis Part 1 in Q1 2024 and Genesis Part 2 in Q2 2024

Maps and Content Roadmap

At launch, the roadmap listed The Island, Scorched Earth, and Survival of the Fittest versions of those maps for ARK: Survival Ascended. Aberration was planned as the next major map update in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The rest of the stated roadmap included:

• Extinction by Q1 2024
• Genesis Part 1 by Q1 2024
• Genesis Part 2 by Q2 2024

Community-created maps were also planned for 2024, including Fjordur, Ragnarok, The Center, Lost Island, Valguero, and Crystal Isles.

New Features

Unreal Engine 5 was the headline upgrade, but Survival Ascended also included Nvidia DLSS support for improved visual performance on supported hardware.

Other planned features included:

• Cross-platform multiplayer, modding, and anti-cheat support
• New structures and improved building tools
• Quality-of-life upgrades such as a gamepad cursor, multiplayer pinging, a Chibi slot, and a dedicated Skins tab