Studio Wildcard, creator of the poop-collecting dinosaur trainer Ark: Survival Evolved, has responded to players who were upset that Ark: Survival Evolved's upgrades were not free, saying that the Unreal Engine 5 remaster After an announcement that it would release the star bundled with Ark 2 for $50 and sell the remastered DLC separately, which drew players' ire, the studio now says it has "digested the feedback and consulted with our partners to revise our plans going forward."

In a community update (opens in new tab), Studio Wildcard explains these plans: instead of releasing Ark: Survival Evolved as a standalone package, with some DLC upgrades included at launch When ready, more upgrades (including community-created maps) will be offered at no additional cost. The price will also be $60. I'm no mathematician, but that certainly seems $10 more.

In explaining how they came to this decision, Studio Wildcard said, "When we first considered upgrading Unreal 5, our only plan was to port the Switch version of the game and remove the 'graphics' limitations required for that hardware. We did not intend to exploit the full potential of the new technology, introduce any new gameplay changes, or make any significant design changes that would affect existing save data."

Ark: Survival Ascended appears to have new creatures, items, structures, and other content and additional features that were not in the original game, and Studio Wildcard cites some of them:

UE5 remaster is free Regarding the original statement that the game was "free," Studio Wildcard said, "We were not trying to mislead you with our previous comments, but our plans and overall intentions have changed. So you may be asking why we are not making these upgrades to the original ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE). Frankly, it would not be feasible. It might invalidate save data, some mods might not work, it might not play the same way as before, and we didn't want to change the experience for those who would prefer it or who couldn't upgrade"

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That's also why the studio decided to shut down the official servers for Ark: Survival Evolved on August 31, "a little before" the launch of Ark: Survival Ascended." We know it's not the same," he said, "but we hope to mitigate the loss by making saves available unofficially as well. The reason behind this decision is that these servers are essentially based on older technology and require significant development resources and time for our team to operate and maintain. In some cases, problems cannot be easily resolved without an overall upgrade. Furthermore, we know that leveraging these resources into radically new technologies will further improve the overall gaming experience for all players. [2024 It is difficult to see how charging $60 instead of $50 for a remaster will reassure players who were upset at the prospect of free, even if it comes with $40 worth of DLC rather than a pre-order for a sequel that will be delayed until the end of the year and will be available on Game Pass anyway.

Ark: Survival Evolved will receive its final update in June, which will add a new creature, a large flying insect called the Ryugakusei; Ark: Survival Ascended is scheduled for release at the end of August. Below is Studio Wildcard's list of DLC: