Community Crunch 368: ASA Roadmap Update, ASA Comparison, and More!

Survivors,

After much deliberation, we’ve decided to delay the launch of ARK: Survival Ascended to later this year and ship the title on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC in October 2023.

We’ve found it challenging working with Unreal Engine 5.2, but at the same time, it is incredibly exciting. We’re discovering new ways each day to push the technology to the next level; combined with the work needed to support a fully cross-platform-moddable game ecosystem on consoles and PC, it’s clear that we’ll need a bit more time.

We’ve also decided to separate the release date of The Island and Scorched Earth. With what we’ve learned about remastering The Island from the ground-up, it wouldn’t be feasible to complete Scorched Earth to a standard we’re happy with. So for now, we’re going to plan that Scorched Earth will be coming to ASA in December this year, Ragnarok and Aberration will follow in Q1 2024, and the rest of the maps beyond then.

Given the news:

ARK: Survival Ascended will now be launching at an Early Access price point of $44.99
with a launch-discount bringing it to $39.99.

We had initially planned to ship with more content on Day One, but that won’t be happening, so we’re adjusting the launch price accordingly.

We know you really want to get your hands on ASA, and we appreciate that support and enthusiasm. We’re going to do our best to work hard to make sure that we can deliver a tremendous next-gen ARK experience that meets both your expectations and our own.

That covers the big news; we know there’s still a fair bit of time between now and the launch, so hang in there; it’ll be worth the wait! In the meantime, here are some answers to questions we’ve seen come up over the last few weeks as well as address some new points.

When will we see gameplay?

We know you’re excited, curious, and skeptical; we understand. Our plan is to show gameplay close to the launch of ASA, as that’ll be when it’s completely ready and best represent the final product, so you’ll have to stay tuned until then.

Is there going to be a change to the date when ARK:SE’s Official Network comes offline?

We’re now planning on shutting down the Official Network on September 30th, given the slight delay in the launch of the game.

When will we be able to access our save files?

We’re currently working with Nitrado to make sure that the save files system works, and we’ll be providing instructions on how you can get them when they’re available.
Our intention is to take multiple saves at different times, so you can choose which is most relevant to you.

With Scorched Earth being delayed, will there still be server transfers?

We won’t be supporting Server Transfers at the launch of ARK: Survival Ascended; this feature will become enabled when Scorched Earth releases in December.

How long should we expect the title to be in ‘Early Access’?

ARK: Survival Ascended will leave Early Access in late 2024 once all the content has finished its next-generation remastering.

Are there going to be any changes to the release order of certain content?

Generally, we will keep the canonical maps released in the same order.
We may make some adjustments with some of the non-cannon maps and release them sooner, but that honestly depends more on our pipeline, so we’ll announce them accordingly.

Will we be seeing more ASA concepts?

Yep! We intend to keep showing you guys progress on the visual changes between ARK:SE and ASA in the lead-up to the game’s launch.

What about creature votes?

They’ll be continuing to run! In fact, the team has been working on the design for the Gigantoraptor from a conceptual point of view, as well as the actual gameplay mechanics, and we can’t wait to show that to you in the weeks ahead!

As always, we’re incredibly grateful for your ongoing support and passion for the franchise.

Thank you, Survivors

Studio Wildcard

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At 3:30 PM UTC today, we took down some of our servers for maintenance. After being restored, the affected servers will no longer show as Favorites, so make sure you search the main server list and re-add these servers to your Favorites!

If you would like to see which servers were affected, check the list here.

With the partnership of Grove Street Games, ARK: Genesis Part 1 is now available on Nintendo Switch! With a strangely familiar companion, you must overcome the simulation’s rigorous tests. Only by fighting, building, taming, and exploring will you uncover the secrets behind this forbidding place.

Summer can officially begin with the start of the upcoming Summer Bash event! Get ready to soak in some sun and have some fun with a community-favorite ARK event. From June 30th to July 24th the annual Summer Bash event will be underway. Relax by the beach with your tribemates or go on the hunt for newly released chibi pets! However you choose to spend your summer in ARK, Summer Bash is bound to cook up a lot of entertainment.

Head over to the forum post to get the full details of the event!

Survivors on all platforms will be receiving an EVO Event! It will be active until Wednesday, July 5th.
All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

*Note that these bonuses are multiplicative of the game’s standard 1x rates.

Official Servers: 2x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon
Small Tribe Servers: 4.5x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon
ARKPocalypse: 5x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon
Conquest: 5x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon

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When Rhyniognatha impregnates, she flies away. This makes it tricky to get multiple impregnations. But don’t worry, captain fatdog solved that problem.