Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Ark: Survival Evolved takes on the survival genre with a unique blend of emergent multiplayer cooperation and competition. Players awake naked and starving on the beach of a mysterious island among a herd of other confused humans. On ARK, they must then hunt, harvest, craft, research technology, and build shelters to protect against scorching days, freezing nights, volatile weather systems, dangerous wildlife, and potential enemies.

Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground. Build your character’s strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems. Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover the ARK’s true purpose.

The “Survival of the Fittest” mode introduces a brand new last man standing, fight-to-the-permadeath contest, designed to create a completely new dynamic in the world of ARK.

In this new mode specifically balanced for tournament competition, contestants begin in a neutral staging area where they can communicate pre-game, strategize, or talk trash. After a count-down, they dramatically descend from the sky onto the ARK in a circular formation via beams of light. There is a cache of valuable items in the center – do survivors dash for the goods and fight it out, do they run into the forest and hide, or do they freeze up from the sheer terror of death? A continually shrinking “ring of death” forces contestants ever closer together over time. The game is on!

Starting at 12 pm PST, Saturday, August 1, 2015, Studio Wildcard’s Kayd Hendricks and Twitch’s Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez will host a live five-hour tournament to debut ‘Survival of the Fittest’ from Twitch headquarters in San Francisco, CA. Thirty-five teams will step into the ARK arena to compete in this PvP ‘Hunger Games’-style deathmatch where the last tribe standing will receive a Grand Prize of $20,000 along with killer gaming gear from Logitech and Gunnar Optiks. During the event, the Twitch audience can vote on Evolution Events – powerful world-altering sequences that will occur every 30 minutes (Freak Weather, Dino Assault, Supply Drop, etc.). Alex and Kayd will deliver play-by-play and color commentary of the action from a roaming spectator point-of-view, with both pre- and post-interviews from fallen warriors as they exit the battle.

Tame and ride one of 70-plus amazing dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, including gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games! Fly a Pterodactyl squadron over snow-capped mountains, race through the deep jungle with your pack of trained Raptors, tromp through a fortified enemy base along a convoy of gigantic Brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex. Players will quickly learn that dinosaurs aren’t the only dangerous creatures on the island. Other players are organizing rebel tribes to accumulate resources, experience, re-spawn points, and to construct sprawling villages and cities, with technology spanning the primitive stone-age to the modern electric-powered era and beyond. And they will fight to destroy anything they see as a threat.

Ark: Survival Evolved will include Oculus Rift VR/Morpheus support and a thorough integration of Steam community features such as Steam Economy and Steam Workshop for custom maps and mods. Players will also be able to host private/LAN servers, and have access to a custom-built version of the Unreal 4 Editor for creating mods. The world of ARK is designed to be player-oriented and ever-expanding!