‘Ark: Survival Evolved’ Dev Explains 3-Week Delay Of Dinosaur Survival Game

The developer behind “Ark: Survival Evolved” has announced that the game will be delayed by three weeks. Find out more below.

Studio Wildcard brought an unpleasant news to fans of its Early Access dinosaur survival game, entitled “Ark: Survival Evolved.” Apparently, the development of the game has encountered a setback that ultimately made the developer decide to just push back its release date by three weeks.

New Release Date

Instead of its previously announced Aug. 8 full release, gamers can now expect the Unreal Engine 4-running title to hit the market on Aug. 29. Studio Wildcard announced and explained the delay in a blog post it published on the Ark Community Forums last weekend.

“We've got some critical news to share with you all today; it's going to be a roller coaster of emotions as there's a bit of disappointing news, but worry not as you've got a lot to look forward to as well,” the developer wrote. “As of today, ARK has completed its Gold Master and certification for release. This process took a little longer than expected and as a result, our release date has been pushed back to Aug. 29.”

Studio Wildcard then apologized and justified why the announcement of the delay wasn’t made sooner. “We’re deeply apologetic for those who were negatively affected by the delay; it sucks, it wasn’t what we had wanted, nor planned but where we currently stand. We wanted to address this sooner but did not want to make any statements until we were completely sure of what was going to happen.”

Advantages Of The Game’s Delay

To console disappointed fans, the developer explained the positive side of the 3-week delay. The most noteworthy benefit from this setback is the fact that the Ragnarok DLC will arrive at the same time as the full game on Aug. 29. This is for both the console and PC versions of the game. Another upside here refers to the additional time that Studio Wildcard will have in further developing the DLC.

The developer also teased that the upcoming map is going to be gigantic. “On the date of release, the overground of the world will increase by approximately one quarter, which is near-enough a ‘The Island-sized’ expansion.” Moreover, the update will come with new biomes, new engrams, an epic boss encounter, a coastal Wyvern canyon and a big surprise that the studio is still working on.

In addition, Studio Wildcard has decided to add custom creatures to the main game. This means players will have the ability to transfer these creatures to the main game using the CrossARK system. As such, players can bring Ice Wyverns to The Island as well as to The Center and Scorched Earth.

The developing studio also mentioned that it will be prioritizing the PC and multiplayer versions of the game in the following weeks. The plans for said versions include immediate patches to address community concerns and some mid-month goals. There’s also an upcoming major version update that will make very important changes to the game.

“Thank you so much for your patience the past few months and all the support! We will make sure that ARKs launch is a successful one and the game is in a healthy state. It's going to be a hectic few weeks ahead, and we're very excited! We still have a lot more planned for ARK, and even after release, the journey will continue,” the developer finally said.

Previous Issue With The Game

Studio Wildcard previously encountered a different issue with the game. The developer announced early last month that “Ark: Survival Evolved” would be out of Early Access on Steam for double its initial price. At the time, the studio’s co-founder and lead designer of the game, Jeremy Stieglitz, clarified to angry fans that it was the retailers who had forced them to increase the price of the game to the same cost of games that physically hit shops.

“It has to do with one thing, and one thing only: seeing your game in a jewel case on store shelves,” Stieglitz told Eurogamer at the time. “That’s very important to us. We really really at the outset wanted to have this be a retail launch, have this game reach retail consumers. Not everybody downloads digital titles.”