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 includes The Island, a revamped Survival of the Fittest, and all the “Non-Canon” DLC maps (which will be added over time).
Originally planned for Nov. 2025, Studio Wildcard released the above new trailer revealing story elements coming in the ARK: Lost Colony expansion update in December 2025.
Both Ragnarok Ascended and the Lost Colony Expansion Pass are scheduled for launch in ARK: Survival Ascended this evening, June 19th pacific time for all platforms.
Immediately gain access to these exclusive bonuses:
- Fantastic Tames: Drakelings – Adorable seasonal shoulder dragons that each offer unique passive buffs, controlled descents, and can be wielded for tactical breath attacks and ally support. Collect all four to unlock their full potential.
- Veilwyn Companion – A mystical creature with aura-based buffs for defense, offense, and speed. It will evolve into one of two powerful forms at full launch.
- Lost Skill Tree System – Gain early access to a new progression system with three distinct paths to specialize your Survivor: master of creatures, resourceful survivor, or seasoned explorer.
- Template Hammer – A revolutionary building tool that lets you save and replicate your structures as reusable templates.
- TEK Bunker – Expand your base underground with a fully deployable TEK environment.
- DarkTek Cosmetics – Don this striking fusion of gothic elegance and sci-fi technology, including armor component skins, sword skin, and Dark Drakeling skin.
- ARK: Lost Colony (December 2025) - Confront the demons of Arat Prime -- birthplace of the ARKs -- in this full expansion that will directly connect the storylines of ARK Extinction and Genesis, leading into the events of ARK 2.
Stay tuned for the Ragnarok Ascended Trailer coming very soon!
Confront the demons of Arat Prime -- birthplace of the ARKs -- in ASA’s first massive canonical expansion pack, ARK: Lost Colony! Tthe epic new story of Lost Colony bridges the gap from ARK Extinction to ARK Genesis and directly into the world of ARK 2.
In this new frozen world, players follow in the footsteps of legendary ARK survivor Mei Yin, on a soul-searching quest deep into the chilling heart of darkness to find answers to long-buried secrets of ARK’s past.
Starring the voice talents of Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) reprising her ARK: The Animated Series role as Mei Yin, Madeleine Madden (Wheel of Time) as Helena Walker, Auli'i Cravalho (Moana) as Meeka, along with yet-to-be-revealed, fan-favorite characters voiced and depicted for the first time in-game.
The expansion will feature numerous cinema-grade anime story sequences, created by legendary Japanese animation studio MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man).
ARK: Lost Colony will present survivors with thrilling new challenges as they become the hunted in a vast occupied city, and gain access to powerful new kinds of character abilities, unique gear, building systems, and phenomenally exotic tames. Will Survivors be able to face down the demons lurking in Arat Prime, and connect ARK's past and future?
ARK: Lost Colony is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC in December 2025 at $29.99.
Key Features:
- 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
- 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 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.
ARK: Survival Ascended is available for PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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