A new Community Crunch 355 is the latest newsletter updating us on the goings on at Studio Wildcard. This includes the news that ARK 2 is delayed, and the Diesel fuelled dinosaur hunting sequel is now expected at the end of 2024. Word is extra time is needed to figure out the whole game development thing: "Unreal Engine 5 is incredibly new technology to us (and all developers), and we aim to use this cutting-edge tech to its fullest potential while creating a game with never-before-achieved scope at Studio Wildcard. As we learn more about the engine and develop the sequel, we have adapted our workflows and adjusted our pipelines to accommodate this new next-generation paradigm, and because of everything that involves, we need more time for development." This is apparently what led to the decision to embark on another project in the interim. The team has worked through some of its processes on an ARK remake called ARK: Survival Ascended. This will come to Steam and consoles in August, and will require the purchase of a bundle of ARK: Survival Ascended and ARK 2. There's nothing particularly comedic about the plan, but it seems so needlessly complicated it feels like this is for April Fools' gag. There is a list of LIVE OPERATIONS laying out a roadmap that summarizes the plan:

We understand there will be questions regarding LiveOps for the product, so we’ll review some key areas now.

• Final Content Update: In June for ARK’s 8th Anniversary, we’ll release ARK: Survival Evolved’s final content update, which includes the fan-voted Rhyniognatha!
• Cross-platform: It’s important to note that ARK: Survival Evolved (ARK:SE) and ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) will coexist but will not support crossplay between the two games. ASA will have undergone profound functional changes which prevent it from being compatible with the previous game.
• Holiday Events: We plan to develop and release ASA-exclusive holiday content that takes advantage of the next-gen pipeline released in mods, so they’re always available to play!
• Official Servers: With the launch of ASA at the end of August, we will be taking down all Official Servers on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC for ARK: Survival Evolved – at that time, the final save-datas from the ARK: Survival Evolved Official Servers will be uploaded for players to re-host on their own servers or play in singleplayer/non-dedi, as well as slightly earlier snapshots. You will still be able to play on single-player, non-dedicated, player-dedicated, and unofficial servers. ARK: Survival Ascended will have its own fully supported Official Network for all platforms.
• Feature Sunset: With the launch of ASA, we will be ending official support for Primitive+, Split Screen, and Procedurally Generated Maps. These aspects of the game will not be ported to the new Unreal Engine 5 version.
• We will look into releasing the source files for Primitive+ for those that wish to repurpose aspects of it for mods.
• ARK: Survival Ascended Updates: The remaster will have regular updates to resolve bugs, introduce new content, balance changes, and quality-of-life improvements for years to come.
• ARK: Survival Evolved Updates: will be limited to crashes and critical bug fixes.