ARK Survival Ascended surprise launch on PC today, to get console release in November

After a long wait, information about ARK Survival Ascended has finally been revealed. While not ARK 2, it is a remake of the original game on Unreal Engine 5. The title's launch trailer was showcased at the Xbox Partner Preview, along with information that it will be available on PC today. The game is set to come to consoles in November.

It's interesting to see Wildcard release the remake of the game now, considering that ARK 2, starring Vin Diesel, is scheduled for a 2024 release. That said, here's everything that players need to know about ARK Survival Ascended.

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ARK Survival Ascended system requirements and other details

For PC, ARK Survival Ascended will be available via Steam. It's currently unclear if the game will come to the Xbox Game Pass at a later date, considering Survival Evolved is already available.

Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements:

	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Windows 10/11	Windows 10/11
RAM	16 GB	32 GB
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
GPU	AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080	AMD Radeon RX 6800, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
DirectX	Version 12	Version 12
Storage	70 GB SSD	70 GB SSD

As for the DLCs, it's believed that everything released as a part of Survival Evolved will be included in Survival Ascended. Moreover, the developers have mentioned there are plans for additional DLCs unique to ARK Survival Ascended, scheduled to go live at a later date.

Furthermore, the developers have also hinted at crossovers that will be available in the game moving forward. However, the nature of those crossovers is unknown at this point. Studio Wildcard has further mentioned they have planned on releasing 11 new creatures to the game over a period of time. The ETA for these releases, however, is currently unknown.

But the most interesting bit about ARK Survival Ascended is the presence of the CurseForge mod browser. Now, mods have always been one of the major highlights of Survival Evolved.

With the Curse Forge browser, players will be able to browse and install community-created mods in Survival Ascended. These range from improved lighting and dinosaur trackers to increased difficulty modes.

The game is yet to go live on PC, but a launch is expected sometime later tonight. While Survival Evolved had its fair share of bugs and issues, it's believed that they will be addressed in Survival Ascended. It will be interesting to see how fans of the franchise will react to the game once it goes live.

The launch does raise many questions about ARK 2. Considering there's a lot that the developers have planned with respect to Survival Ascended, does this mean that ARK 2 will be delayed once again? This is something that only time will tell.