Studio Wildcard has partially walked back its plans to sell its Unreal Engine 5 remake of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ark: Survival Evolved but has confirmed that it just wasn't "viable" to give it away as a free update.
Last week, Studio Wildcard announced its controversial plan to update Ark: Survival Evolved using Unreal Engine 5, only it intended to bundle it t♛ogether with Ark 2 and charge ♛players $50. Widlcard said its "intention" was "to provide a package where🐼 you essentially got two products for the price of one," but players revolted at the idea ofඣ buying the same game (and all of its expansions) twice.
After several days of intense backlash, Studio Wildcard has . Instead of bundling Ark 2 and the Unreal update of the original Ark, Wildcard will release Ark: Survival Enhanced on its own on all platforms. It's still charging $59.99, but it's at least bundling the DLC along with it. This reduces the overall price, although fans are still upset at the idea of paying for what is essentially a current-gen remaster.
Wildcard also addressed fans directly on why Ark: Survival Enhanced couldn't be given away as a free upgrade--168澳洲幸运5开奖网:espe♓cially after the studio said it would be. Initially, the studio was planning on r🐲eleasing Ark for the Nintendo Switch alongside an engine update but without the quality-of-life changes. However, plans changed 🥃as Wildcard opted for an "evergreen" version of Ark that would evolve for years to come.
"We weren’t trying to mislead you with earlier comments; our plans and overall intentions changed," Wildcard wrote in i꧋ts recent blog update. "Frankly, it would not be viable. Many of the cha﷽nges we’re making in Ark: Survival Ascended will touch a lot of aspects of the game; it’ll invalidate save data, some mods may not be functional, some things may not play the same way as they did before, and we didn’t want to change that experience for those who prefer it or are unable to upgrade."
Besides being remade in Unreal Engine 5 with all its potential graphical enhancements, Ark: Survival Ascended will overhaul Ark's creature pathfinding, add a photo mode, support Nvidia DLSS, cross-platform multiplayer, and offer QOL improvements for baby management, base building, and character customization.
Fans were also upset to hear that Ark: Survival Ascended's launch in August will signal the end of official server support for the original Ark. Wildcard addressed this as well, writing it was only a "minority of players" using the official servers and that it was similarly not viable to keep these servers running due to the time and resources required. "While we know it’s not the same," wrote Wildcard, "we hope making the saves available for unofficial use helps diminish the loss."
Ark: Survival Asc🧔ended arrives sometime in August, while Ark 2 has been delayed into 2024.