After teasing a free Unreal Engine 5-powered improve to the six-year-old Ark: Survival Advanced in January, developer Studio Wildcard mentioned on Friday that gamers will really must pay for it (opens in new tab) if they need it—and followers, as you would possibly count on, will not be joyful.
“The UE5 tease a pair weeks again is referring to in-the-works full free improve/remaster of Ark Survival Advanced in Unreal Engine 5,” Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz tweeted (opens in new tab) in January. “Not a cinematic. We’ve not formally introduced the Ark UE5 improve but ‘trigger there’s different main issues we wanna present then as nicely.”
The official announcement of Ark: Survival Ascended, because the UE5 remaster is understood, arrived final week (opens in new tab), however notably with out the “free” half. As a substitute, Studio Wildcard mentioned “gamers will solely be capable of get it by way of an ultimate-value bundle referred to as the ARK Respawned Bundle,” which incorporates Ark: Survival Ascended and the just lately delayed Ark 2 for $50. The bundle can be out there for buy “for as much as one yr,” starting on the finish of August. After that, Ark 2 and Survival Ascended can be out there for buy individually.
The announcement has not gone over universally nicely with followers. Some gamers are irritated by the prospect of getting to re-purchase the sport at full worth to get the UE5 improve, whereas gamers on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles are being unnoticed within the chilly utterly. It is also sparked debate over whether or not Studio Wildcard is struggling to pay for the event of Ark 2. A number of the posters on this Reddit thread (opens in new tab) defend the transfer, saying the associated fee is admittedly for an Ark 2 preorder, however that protection is not actually flying: Ark 2 is not anticipated to reach till the very obscure “finish of 2024,” and within the meantime there’s merely no different strategy to lay arms on Ark: Survival Ascended.
Making issues even worse, the official servers for Ark: Survival Advanced can be taken offline when Survival Ascended launches, which means that gamers who’d fairly keep away from the expense and proceed enjoying the unique sport can be very restricted in how they will achieve this.
“At the moment, the ultimate save-datas from the Ark: Survival Advanced Official Servers can be uploaded for gamers to re-host on their very own servers or play in singleplayer/non-dedi, in addition to barely earlier snapshots,” Studio Wildcard mentioned. “You’ll nonetheless be capable of play on single-player, non-dedicated, player-dedicated, and unofficial servers. Ark: Survival Ascended can have its personal totally supported Official Community for all platforms.”
And naturally there’s the straightforward incontrovertible fact that the UE5 improve was promised as free—and Stieglitz’ tweet to that impact remains to be up—however is definitely going to value as a lot as a full sport. Redditor 4ar0n, as an example, mentioned getting the Ark remaster and Ark 2 for $50 “is an distinctive deal,” however added, “Jeremy by no means ought to have mentioned that Ark was gonna get the improve without cost as he clearly did not know what he was speaking about.”
“Forcing folks to purchase Ark2, and promoting the DLCs individually on a remaster (normally they’re bundled), and deleting the unique official servers… that is scummy,” redditor KevinFlantier wrote.
A number of messages to this impact have been additionally posted in response to the announcement on Twitter:
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Studio Wildcard mentioned Ark: Survival Advanced and Survival Ascended is not going to help crossplay as a result of the remaster can have undergone “profound useful modifications” that stop compatibility, which is okay, however taking down the official Survival Advanced servers the day Ascended goes stay does come off as a bit of coercive. There’s been nothing additional mentioned by Studio Wildcard or Stieglitz about his “free improve” tweet from January—I’ve reached out to the studio for remark and can replace if I obtain a reply.
