Ark: Survival Ascended Surprises Fans With Stealth-Release on PC

Ark: Survival Ascended, the ground-up remake of Ark: Survival Evolved, is seemingly releasing today on PC without any previous warning. Earlier this year, Studio Wildcard announced that it was working on a revamp of Survival Evolved with plans to release the remake in October 2023. Since that time, little else has been said about Survival Ascended, which has led to fans wondering if the game would still launch on time. Fortunately, as we've now learned, the game should be playable in mere hours. 

Shown off during Xbox's Partner Preview broadcast today, a first look at Ark: Survival Ascended was shown off to fans. As expected, the shift to Unreal Engine 5 has allowed Studio Wildcard to take a drastic leap when it comes to the visual fidelity seen in the ever-popular survival title. Outside of these graphical improvements, Ark: Survival Ascended will contain all of the same content that was seen in Survival Evolved, including its various DLC and expansions that have released over time. 

Best of all, Ark: Survival Ascended has been confirmed to be launching on PC later today. At the time of this writing, the game's Steam page happens to still say that it will be "Coming Soon." Those within Studio Wildcard have already confirmed that Ark: Survival Ascended will go live on October 25 in early access. The only downside to this surprise release, though, is that the same cannot be said for those on consoles. Instead, Studio Wildcard has announced that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S editions of Ark: Survival Ascended will roll out on an unknown date in November. 

Why Is Ark: Survival Ascended Releasing in Early Access?

As mentioned, one potential oddity about Ark: Survival Ascended is that it's releasing in early access. This isn't that strange given the roots of Survival Evolved, but since this is merely a remake, it's a bit unusual. That being said, Studio Wildcard says it wants to pace itself as it builds out Ark: Survival Ascended, and to that end, it wants to take into account fan feedback to build the best game that it can. 

"We've decided to use the Early Access model for multiple reasons. The most valuable reason is that we found it very constructive to develop our studio's original title, Ark: Survival Evolved, in tandem with the community's continual feedback, and seeing as Ark: Survival Ascended will have its own set of gameplay features, we wanted to have the opportunity to do the same with the wisdom of the many," says the explanation on the game's Steam page. "ASA is also being developed on the latest version of Unreal Engine 5; much like Ark: SE at the time of its development early in its engine's lifecycle, there's a lot of new tech and systems being explored in innovative ways, and we'll need to ensure that we've worked through all the kinks."

When it comes to the official 1.0 release of Ark: Survival Ascended, Studio Wildcard doesn't have an exact date pinned down just yet and it likely won't for quite some time. That being said, Ark: Survival Ascended is currently expected to remain in early access throughout the entirety of this coming year, which means that a proper 1.0 launch likely won't transpire until 2025.