In the game survivors wake up stranded, naked, freezing, and starving on a mysterious island where they must hunt, harvest, craft items, grow crops, and build shelters to survive in every biome. Survivors will tame, train, and ride more than 100 stunning dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, including gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games! In every available biome -- Jungle, Snow, Swamp, Redwood, and Desert -- you’ll be able to fly an armed Pteranodon squadron over the snow-capped mountains, race through a thick jungle with your pack of trained Raptors, tromp through a fortified enemy base with a convoy of gigantic Brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex.

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 base game will include The Island, a revamped Survival of the Fittest, and all the “Non-Canon” DLC maps (which will be added over time).

At ARK: Survival Ascended’s launch, players will have access to The Island, Scorched Earth, and the new revamped game mode, Survival of the Fittest.

Xbox Series X/S and Windows:

We’re on track for a November 14th (Tuesday) launch day!

As we get closer to the launch, we’ll share more information on precisely when it should be available for you to download. The Xbox version will be up-to-spec with the latest PC functionality as of Nov 14, and will launch directly into crossplay with the PC version (along with new servers, including Xbox-only servers).

Playstation:

We’re hoping to have a more precise date to share with you soon as we’re currently finalizing this with Sony, but it is slated for the end of November. We know this isn’t ideal, but we’re optimistic we’ll be able to share a date very soon!

Following the PC launch and the information and data we’ve gathered, we’ve decided to make some changes to our plans for the console launch. Here’s how everything is going to shake up:

Xbox Launch

• Cross-platform with Steam will be enabled Day One. 
• We’ll be onlining a new set of Official Servers for the respective game modes (PVP, PVE, and Small Tribes). These servers will be running boosted rates for a period of time to allow players starting on them to catch up. Our hope is to synchronize the rates by mid-December.
• We’ll also be onlining our first set of console-specific servers at this moment so that players who do not want to play on crossplay can play on those

PlayStation Launch

• Cross-platform with Steam and Xbox will be enabled Day One
• We’ll be onlining another new set of Official Servers for the respective game modes (PVP, PVE, and Small Tribes). These servers will be running with even higher boosted rates for a period of time to allow players starting on them to catch up. Our hope is to synchronize the rates by mid-December.
• We’ll also be onlining an additional set of console-specific servers with higher rates that will get synchronized by mid-December

Of course, there have been a few bumps along the way, and we're working hard to address any issues that players are reporting.  We’ve put out a record number of patches this week, but the patches can be summarized as

• Bug fixes: We've fixed a number of bugs, including server crashes, dino spawn issues, and mesh exploits.
• Performance improvements: We've made a number of performance improvements, including optimizing the dynamic navmesh system, server code (80%+ reduction in out-of-memory issues), and foliage.  We're also pleased to announce that we've significantly reduced server RAM usage. This should improve the player experience and help make servers more accessible for everyone
• Security improvements: We've added client-side protections to prevent players from listing unofficial servers as fake officials, and we've fixed a number of exploits.

For detailed patch notes visit this page.

ARK: Survival Ascended will also feature the following improvements and enhancements:

• Unreal Engine 5 Overhaul with Nanite, Lumen, and RTXDI
• Dynamic Water and Interactive Foliage
• Cross-platform Multiplayer
  • This includes cross-platform accounts and cross-progression, cross-voice chat & friends, etc. No matter what platform ASA is started on, access is available to each account, character, dinos, and items on a different platform.
• Cross-platform Modding
  • Studio Wildcard has chosen to partner with Overwolf, the modding platform leader, to introduce an industry-first cross-platform modding experience where mods created on PC are delivered directly to end-users’ consoles from a custom modding backend.
  • Premium Modding Market: Mod creators will optionally be able to specify price points for their Mods (with 50% of the price point going to the Mod author). All mods will be reviewed by Overwolf and Studio Wildcard for quality control and value. The remainder pays for the custom infrastructure required for Overwolf to support, administrate, and deliver Mods to the console.
• Survival of the Fittest
  • SOTF will be integrated into ASA as a new fully-supported game mode. It will have a dedicated development team that will continue to work on gameplay changes, mechanical improvements, quality of life, maps, and balance adjustments. The mode will be revamped with an exclusive ARK: Survival Ascended update, including:
    • Upgraded to UE5 with complete cross-platform and cross-modding support
    • Scorched Earth SOTF map
    • Matchmaking queue
    • Character and creature customization with cosmetics
    • Lots of bug-fixes and balance and functionality improvements
• Upgraded art assets throughout the entire game.
• Newly-designed holiday events released as mods so they’re always available to play!
• New content, QoL improvements, balance, and gameplay changes.

In addition, a new canonical-story expansion pack for ARK: Survival Ascended that will be available in Q4 2023. This DLC will feature four new creatures with more details to be revealed later this year.

Currently available for PC (Steam), ARK: Survival Ascended is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 14, 2023.