‘ARK’ Official Launch Trailer Reveals Phoenix And Otter, Xbox One/Win 10 Cross-Play Delayed Slightly
After two years in Early Access, the official launch of ARK: Survival Evolved is just five days away. Studio Wildcard shared a new trailer from Gamescom Thursday along with revealing the addition of two new creatures, a new weapon, and a tease of the end-game content. Meanwhile, the promised Windows 10 version to allow PC crossplay with the Xbox One will have to wait a little longer.
ARK: Survival Evolved‘s official launch is set for Tuesday, August 29. The open-world survival game will exit Steam Early Access and the Xbox One Game Program at that time, plus the disk-based retail version will also hit store shelves.
The official release includes a $170 Collector’s Edition packed with various physical goodies, such as a cloth map, Explorer’s Notebook, and more. It also includes the Season Pass that comes with all three expansion packs, the current one plus two future expansions.
Launch Day
The ARK: Survival Evolved official launch will also bring new content to the title. This includes two new tamable creatures, the otter and the Phoenix.
The otter is a companion creature that can be tamed and sent into the water to collect silica pearls. The Phoenix can be tamed and ridden, despite what the dossier states, but will require a special saddle to handle the flames.
Studio Wildcard continues to add new Tek items to ARK: Survival Evolved. The launch day release will make the Tek Sword and Tek Shield available for Survivors to craft.
The end-game content will also be fully available with ARK: Survival Evolved‘s official release. Survivors can enter the Tek Cave and ascend today but aren’t given the full experience. The rest of the mystery of the ARK will be revealed at launch and this will set up the future expansions, according to a Studio Wildcard comment to PCGamesN.
Ragnarok servers for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are also planned for launch day. This free ARK: Survival Evolved mod map is still being worked on and has been available for PC owners for a couple of months now.
Xbox One and Windows 10 Crossplay
Studio Wildcard has promised a Windows 10 version of ARK: Survival Evolved that will allow crossplay between the Xbox One and PC since late 2016. It was never a high development priority, however, and it has slipped again from the official launch.
The Windows 10 version of ARK: Survival Evolved has been pushed back to mid-September, according to an official announcement on the game’s website. Studio Wildcard did confirm players will be able to host their own servers with the new Windows 10 version and will need to have purchased only one copy of the game to do so.
Meanwhile, PS4 owners can rent PC servers today to host ARK: Survival Evolved matches. That is also expected to be available at the same time as the Windows 10 version.
[Featured Image by Studio Wildcard]
