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.

Headlined by three new creatures and peppered with fun items like Beer Barrels and Electric Prods, ARK offers split-screen multiplayer functionality on Xbox One. Now Survivors can sit side-by-side on a couch or jump online with their fellow survivor, craft a few in-game beers, and then rampage into the fields to fight the scaley hordes!

New dinosaurs and creature featured in this update:

• Gallimimus (with Three-Seater Passenger Saddle): While the Gallimimus in real life might have been a large, chicken-like omnivore belonging to the clade Ornithomimosauria (similar to today’s ostrich family and closely related to raptors and modern birds), in ARK: Survival Evolved it’s an herbivore with no natural means to defend itself except for running away. Luckily for the Gallimimus, it may very well be the fastest dinosaur on ARK, and is capable of ferrying up to three Survivors in a specially-designed Saddle!
• Dimetrodon: Known as everyone’s favorite adaptable carnivore, the Dimetrodon offers players shade during excessive heat and shelter from extreme cold by way of its massive insulating sail running down its back. It is reasonably friendly to Survivors and its favorite place to roam is the swamplands plentiful with small prey.
• Dung Beetle: The Dung Beetle is a wondrous organic biofactory that eats excrement and other useless waste and then metabolizes it to produce burnable oil that can power generators and fertilize crops. It is the perfect pet for cleaning up around the tribe’s dirty living quarters!

Today’s Xbox One version update also includes a battery of items and optimizations that bring content parity with the PC version through v234, including:

• New Armor: SWAT-style Assault Armor tier
• New Weapon: Electric Prod stunner weapon capable of rendering even the strongest survivor unconscious  
• New Structures: Greenhouse/Glass structure tileset to aid survivors in growing plants
• Deep-Sea Loot Crates: Just what it sounds like. Cool stuff underwater.
• Beer Barrel: These craftable Beer kegs can make tasty brews, with various status enhancing effects, however the subsequent ‘hangover’ effects are not so pleasant!
• Loads of bug fixes, serious performance update (~15%), fixed memory leak
• Non-dedicated servers now support up to Eight survivors and 33% larger tether distance

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!