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.

Studio Wildcard announced an official mod program for ARK: Survival Evolved that will see the best community mods and maps considered to become official content and added to the main game on Xbox One and PC. Next month will see the first new map, The Center, arrive in-game which will more than double the content within the dinosaur survival adventure, The popular Primitive Plus mod was also chosen for inclusion later this summer. While ARK players on Steam may already have played these popular community mods, this is a first for Xbox One gamers.

“ARK’s success has increased our content goals and Early Access players have helped us raise our ambitions with their invaluable feedback,” said Jesse Rapczak, co-founder, co-creative director, Studio Wildcard. “When we first announced, we said 70 dinos, now we’ll have over 100. We never anticipated adding modding, local multiplayer, split screen, or numerous other upcoming features. The game at launch will be far more robust than originally conceived, but it takes a little extra time to wrap it all up.”

Designed by community member Ben Burkart, The Center adds an over-the-top, fantasy-themed map that doubles the size of the current game and is more varied than the original ARK map, with tons of new biomes, dungeons, floating islands, end-of-the-world waterfalls, massive ancient ruins, along with other wonders to explore and secrets to find. Drawn completely by hand without any auto-generated content, The Center is a massive increase in the game's official playable content and is free to both PC and Xbox One players.

In the case of Primitive Plus, players are challenged to use only wood and stone without the benefit of advanced metals to create weapons such as guns. A whole new set of items and detailed new mechanics focus the player on 'primitive' survival, which fits snugly in the world of ARK. Primitive Plus will be playable as a functionality mod on all official ARK maps.

Tame and ride one of 100-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!