6 months later, open-world survival RPG Ark finally gives players a peak at the 'free' remaster that now costs around $40: one screenshot

Six months after confirming that the once-thought-free upgrade to Ark: Survival Evolved would eventually cost $39.99 with a launch discount and $44.99 without, Studio Wildcard has finally given players a peep at what’s to come – through a simple screenshot that’s already being gently teased by the community.

The developer tweeted the rather high-resolution image below with the additional text of: “Smile! ASA certification builds have been submitted. Hang in there! We can't wait for you guys to get your hands on Ark: Survival Ascended!” 

For a quick bit of context, Survival Ascended – the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade of Evolved – is due to release this month, though we haven’t heard much about it over the months, until this one screenshot.

As ever, the survival game’s community is making the best of the situation.

We Don't Ask For a Lot from r/ARK

This needs to go here from r/ARK

Aside from that, most fans are joking about the effect a game with that much graphical gravitas will have on their rigs.

“My ass [about to] get ate by a raptor in 4k HD ultra max,” one player says. Another adds: “Now the game will take 2TB of hard drive space - Wildcard probably.”

The community’s mood toward the eventual Survival Evolved spruce-up hasn’t been grand over the past year. Alongside the news that Ark 2 would face another delay, fans found out that playing Ark: Survival Ascended would likely mean putting $50 down on an Ark 2 pre-order bundle, rather than being the free upgrade once heavily implied. Oh, and then they found out that Ark: Survival Evolved’s official servers were marked for extinction, further pushing the community towards buying the upgrade. 

Studio Wildcard has since made Survival Ascended a standalone purchase on PC and Xbox, not just PlayStation – though frustrations over cost and servers still linger. But hey, that screenshot do be packing the polygons.

Ark 2 studio says the sequel's reported spring 2025 release date was "just a typo."