So, erm, where the heck is Ark 2?

From Once Human, to Palworld, to Enshrouded, it’s been a pretty awesome year for new survival games. While existing juggernauts of the genre also remain popular, the class of 2024 is a strong one but there seems to be one student that’s flunking. Still technically billed to be launching by the end of this year, Ark 2 is not just a sequel to one of the biggest survival games around, but a transformational sequel at that – so where the heck is it?

First revealed all the way back in 2020, there was fervent excitement that one of the best survival games ever would be getting a sequel. However, in the time since, we’ve received two cinematic trailers starring Vin Diesel, a 2022 blog post laying out an ambitious gameplay vision, and an announcement that the Ark 2 release date would be delayed until “late 2024,” largely due to its switch to Unreal Engine 5. Well, I’m looking at my calendar right now, and it’s looking pretty late in 2024 to me. In fact, Ark 2‘s got just eight weeks to appear before it’s officially overdue.

The optimists out there may hope for some kind of surprise shadow drop of Ark 2, but I just want to hone in on that aforementioned blog post for a moment, because its contents suggest to me that probably won’t be the case. It’s a lengthy post on Xbox Wire that goes over some of the radical gameplay changes being made in Ark 2. And when I say radical, I mean it.

A switch from first-person to third-person. Combat that “draws heavily from Soulslike action for its human-scale combat.” Traversal inspired by Assassin’s Creed’s seamless parkour. “World events” involving stampeding herds of dinosaurs or scenarios where you can save injured creatures. Massive overhauls to key systems like crafting. All of this, plus much more I’m sure, is going to make Ark 2 a massively different and more ambitious game than its predecessor. The co-founders of Studio Wildcard who wrote the blog post even describe it as “the future of survival games” – this isn’t the type of project you just shadow drop. This needs gameplay trailers, deep dives, and more to sell both existing Ark fans and newcomers on its massive transformation.

Given we’ve heard no more details since that blog over two years ago, and we’ve seen no gameplay footage at all, it seems almost inevitable to me that Ark 2 is going to get pushed back and miss its late 2024 window. That’s not really an issue – disappointing, sure, but it’s unsurprising to see projects of this size getting delayed. What is peculiar is that Snail Games and Studio Wildcard have made no announcements about its progress and have left it super late to confirm a delay.

There’s a slim chance I’m totally wrong and that the optimists win this time around. Maybe there’s a world where Vin Diesel struts out at The Game Awards, tells Geoff Keighley he’s got something cool to show him, and the words ‘Ark 2, out now’ appear on a screen behind him. I’d eat all the hats I own if it did happen.

Instead, the likelihood is we’ll be waiting a little longer. A quick glance at the Steam stats show that there’s still well over 30,000 people playing Ark Survival Evolved and Survival Ascended collectively right now, so it’s not like there’s a dire need for Ark 2. Like I said, a delay isn’t a problem – the bizarre radio silence definitely is though.

Be sure to check out even more great dinosaur games while you wait for Ark 2, or dive into our list of the best co-op games to see what else you could be playing with your pals.

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