The developers of the survival game ARK: Survival Evolved have explained in a statement why the remaster is not a free update.
What kind of update is it? The survival game ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE) announced a “Unreal Engine 5” update in January. It is now known that this update will be a remaster that costs €60 and is set to be released in August 2023.
The remaster is called ARK Survival Ascended (ASA) and aims to give the original ARK experience a new coat of paint with UE5 and bring some QOL improvements.
“We did not try to deceive you”
Why is the switch to a paid remaster for your protection? In a statement from April 8, Studio Wildcard explained why the remaster will not be a free update. The developers stated: “We did not try to deceive you with previous comments; our plans and general intentions have changed.”
The studio explained that it initially wanted to utilize the Nintendo Switch version and lift the graphical limitations of the console. However, the team then realized that the “original plan would not be sufficient”.
Instead, the team now wants to deliver an ARK experience based on a refined code that utilizes the technological advancements of ARK 2. However, these changes would not have been feasible with ARK: Survival Evolved, as save data would become invalid and some mods might not work anymore.
Such an update would therefore mean that the player experience would change for all players – including those who do not want or cannot perform an upgrade.
We did not want to change the [player] experience for those who prefer it or are unable to perform an upgrade.
Studio Wildcard via survivetheark.com
Remaster received criticism for price and content
What was the criticism? When Wildcard showed on March 31 how ARK will continue in the future, there were three major announcements that all caused dissatisfaction among players.
- The release of ARK 2 has been postponed to late 2024
- The UE5 update will not be a free upgrade for ASE, but a standalone, paid remaster
- The official servers of ASE will be shut down with the release of the remaster
Particularly, the shutdown of the official ASE servers for the remaster, which was originally announced as a free upgrade, provoked quite a bit of criticism.
But the price was also a point of contention. Players would have had to purchase ARK 2 on PC and Xbox along with the remaster for an additional €10, despite the fact that there is no gameplay available for the successor to the survival hit.
Additionally, the DLCs were not included in the package and would have cost up to €40 extra. This would mean the potential total price of ASA with all DLCs that players may have already purchased in ARK: Survival Evolved would be around €90.
However, Wildcard responded to the criticism and changed the purchase price to the current €60 and added the DLCs to the package.
ARK changes price and content of the remaster because players were loud and angry
