While Studio Wildcard had originally announced its sequel to Ark: Survival Evolved all the way back in 2020, after delaying the game quite a few times, the studio has since been quiet about it. In an interview with PCGamesN, studio co-founders Jesse Rapczak and Jeremy Stieglitz spoke about what has been going on with the Vin Diesel-starring sequel behind the scenes.
In the interview, Stieglitz revealed that Studio Wildcard had made a vertical slice for Ark 2 that would showcase how its various gameplay systems would work together, the studio had since been busy with working on Ark: Survival Ascended. According to Stieglitz, “we felt that as a team, it would be very difficult to follow that all the way through to a complete game with both our experience level and [our scope] as a company.”
“We put the vertical slice on hold a couple of years ago to make [Ark: Survival Ascended], and we’ve been only nibbling at it since then,” Stieglitz explained. “A small portion of our team continues to refine the mechanics of [Ark 2‘s] combat… It’s very difficult to do soulslike combat in a multiplayer PvP context. You could probably count the number of games on one hand that have even attempted that in an actual PvP context.”
While the studio hasn’t yet been able to get back to work on the vertical slice, Stieglitz noted that it would take the team “18 months of hardcore team focus to [turn] that vertical slice into an early access game, when we get to put the vast majority of our team back on it.” Once the studio is able to break away from working on Survival Ascended, however, he noted that an Early Access release of Ark 2 might possibly come out over the next two years.
“We need to figure out how we kind of optimize all those resources to continue to generate the revenue to get all the way to the finish line with Ark 2, but also free up enough development resources to make Ark 2 at the exact same time,” he said.
Studio Wildcard has also been facing issues thanks to the constant forward march of technology, with new techniques and tools being created all the time. Stieglitz noted that, due to this, it can be easy for a game to come out that is otherwise decent, but feels outdated in some ways.
“Occasionally you’ll see a game come out where it’s actually quite solid, but it feels like it’s two or three years behind the curve,” he said. “You just feel like ‘man, if this had been released four years ago, it would have been a huge hit.’ You don’t want to be that game.”
In the interview, Stieglitz also revealed a few new details about the game, including the fact that it will feature “NPC antagonists” that were shown off in the trailer. He said that, while PvP will still be a focus of the game, more environmental threats could lead to more interesting experiences.
“Ark 2 has to have NPC antagonists, because that’s been implied by the trailer and has been part of our design for quite some time as an opposing force, so to speak,” Stieglitz explained. “We feel that could add a lot more threat level to the environment and the feeling of being able to enjoy a PvP-like experience, even without [fighting against other players].”
The last time we heard about Ark 2 was all the back in 2023 when the studio was aiming for a Spring 2025 launch window for the game. Since then, however, not many details have been revealed. In the meantime, check out details about how Ark 2 will be launching on Game Pass. Also check out details about Ark: Survial Ascended’s Scorched Earth update from last year.
