The sequel to ARK: Survival Evolved has had an interesting development. First announced all the way back in 2020, ARK 2 was stated to be coming in 2023. While this has clearly not been the case for a while now, a new report from support studio Digital Domain claimed it to be arriving in 2025. Fortunately, according to Studio Wildcard themselves, this is not the case.
As reported by the ARK-focused fan account ‘ARK2News’ on Twitter, ARK 2 support studio Digital Domain claimed as part of their most recent annual report that the illusive upcoming survival game is internally planned for release in Spring of 2025.
Following this, the game’s primary developer – Studio Wildcard – released a statement to GamesRadar+ refuting these claims, saying that they have “no idea where that came from” and suggesting that the listed release date was most likely “just a typo.”
Regardless of whether ARK 2 does release as late as 2025, it is clear that development has not been the smoothest. As mentioned, the game was initially announced to be coming in 2023. This was then pushed to late 2024 just a few months ago, with the team claiming the reason behind it as being “for the betterment of the final product and the team's well-being.”
Those waiting for ARK 2 may be satiated by the upcoming Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the game. Unfortunately, those who own the original game will need to pay a rather hefty fee in order to receive the upgrade, with the UE5 version (alongside its DLC) coming to a total of $80.
The development of ARK: Survival Evolved itself was not the smoothest, and so even if ARK 2 does end up releasing prior to 2025, the game will likely continue to be worked on well into the future – especially as the sequel is planned first to launch in Early Access. It will be interesting to see the state of ARK 2 when it does finally come out at some point in the future.
KitGuru says: What do you think of ARK 2 so far? Are you excited? When do you think it will launch in Early Access and how long after that do you believe the game will take to hit 1.0? Let us know down below.