ARK divides the community with a free update that costs €40

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The survival hit ARK community currently only knows two topics: the upgrade from ARK 1 to Unreal Engine 5 and the postponement of the successor ARK 2 to the end of 2024. The upgrade in particular is currently causing a lot of discussion.

ARK: Survival Evolved can be told as a romantic gaming story. A small indie developer brings one of the biggest survival games ever onto the market, fights through all the problems, still belongs to the top on Steam even after almost 8 years.

But then there is also the other side. The ones with the problems. ARK has errors and bugs that haven’t been fixed for years. In addition, developer Wildcard’s communication strategy did not always ensure that players felt they were in good hands.

A current example shows the problems with communication. A senior official announced the new upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 as “free”. Now Wildcard presented the roadmap and shows: The upgrade costs at least €40 and the DLCs have to be bought again.

The community is actively discussing the topic and we have taken a look at some voices.

In a long trailer with a guest appearance by Hollywood star Vin Diesel, Wildcard announced ARK 2 at the time:

ARK 2: Check out the 4-minute survival sequel announcement trailer here

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How should the upgrade actually work? Jeremy Stieglitz is one of the founders of Studio Wildcard. He already commented on Twitter in January 2023 about the upgrade to the new engine:

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Stieglitz wrote on Twitter: “To be clear, the UE5 teaser a few weeks ago refers to a full and free upgrade/remaster of ARK: Survival Evolved in Unreal Engine 5, which is currently in the works.”

The comments on the tweet already contain initial assessments of how poorly this statement has aged.

What has been announced now? The details of the remaster and the pricing modalities can be found here. In short:

  • The remaster costs €40 on PS5
  • Around €50 for Xbox and PC because ARK 2 is included in the bundle
  • There are 2 new Season Passes with the old DLCs, each also costing around €20
  • The remaster is scheduled to come in August 2023 and all public servers are moving to “the new ARK”.
  • Private servers and solo games are still possible in the old ARK
  • ARC 2 won’t come until the end of 2042

    • What are the reactions? Surprisingly split. There are currently a few threads on Reddit that deal with the topic (via reddit.com / via reddit.com).

    The discussions are quite factual, sometimes permeated by memes, but hardly anyone is really angry about the announcement. In the two threads with a total of almost 300 comments, the most diverse views are collected.

    Some frustration can be felt in places, for example with user Taolan13: “That kind of took away my interest in ARK 2, to be honest”. Or also from user CorbinDallas78: “My wife and I each have 5,000 hours and we will not pay for this rip-off”.

    But there are also many players who think the price for the upgrade is absolutely fine. For example, user Ace_Wynter, who has conditions: “If they fix it – and I mean if they really fix it – then I’ll buy it again”.

    Despite the chaotic announcement circumstances, ARK has managed not to alienate its entire player base. Taking back a free upgrade with a sudden price tag of €40 is a real gem.

    We also find your opinion on the topic exciting, write us your thoughts in the comments.

    If you still want to find out more about ARK 2, then have a look here: ARK 2: Release, Trailer, Gameplay – What we know so far

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