ARK: Survival Ascended will finally be sold separately with add-ons

Studio Wildcard is revisiting its pricing strategy for ARK: Survival Ascended.

After expressing their dissatisfaction with Studio Wildcard’s pricing strategy for ARK: Survival Ascended en masse, ARK license fans won the case as they won’t need to go back to the box office to get ARK: Survival Evolved with Unreal Engine 5 remastered expansions. What’s more, Xbox Series X players, Xbox Series S and PC will not be forced to pick up the ARK Respawned Bundle, which contains ARK: Survival Ascended as well as ARK 2 (Microsoft’s temporary console exclusivity).

We appreciate your patience as we review feedback and consult with our partners to review our plans for the future. As always, we are very grateful that we have such a passionate player base and we hear and understand your concerns.

Price increase for ARK: Survival Ascended, but all placed in the same boat

Originally scheduled for August 31st (once the ARK: Survival Evolved servers close) for $49.99/€50 on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC via the ARK Respawned Bundle or $39.99/€40 on PS5 as a separate versions. ARK: Survival Ascended still retains the same release date, but is now being sold as a standalone game on consoles and PC at the full price of $59.99/€60 considering the expansion pack will now be available directly in that version.

Studio Wildcard also states:

When we first thought about updating Unreal Engine 5, our plan was to simply port the Switch version of the game and remove the “graphics”limitations that this hardware requires. We weren’t going to maximize the potential of new technologies, we weren’t going to introduce new gameplay changes, and we weren’t going to make breaking design changes that would affect existing save data. After carefully considering what would be the best outcome for those who love the ARK SE and want to keep enjoying it for years to come, we decided that our original plan would not be enough. We want to give you a classic ARK experience that can continue to evolve over time on a cleaned up codebase, leveraging new technological advances not just in the industry, but in what we’re working on with ARK 2. We didn’t try to mislead you with our previous reviews; our plans and general intentions have changed. You’re probably wondering why we’re not making these improvements to ARK SE… To be honest, it wouldn’t make sense. Most of the changes we make to ARK SA will affect many aspects of the game; they will invalidate save data, some mods may not work, some things may not play as they used to,

All content in ARK: Survival Ascended

• Island – available at launch
• Survival of the Fittest (Island and Scorched Earth map variants) – Available at launch.
• Scorched Earth – available at launch
• Deviation – Available Q4 2023
• Extinction – Available Q1 2024
• Genesis Part 1 – Available Q1 2024.
• Genesis Part 2 – Available Q2 2024.
• All community-created maps will also be available in 2024 (Fjordur, Ragnarok, Center, Lost Isle, Valguero, Crystal Isles).