After two years of silence, the developers finally talk about ARK 2. But it’s not the news fans were hoping for
We all waited for ARK 2 release date, but got this instead. Lost Colony and Aquatica trailers dropped, and no one’s happy.
It's tough to stay optimistic about anything ARK-related these days. ARK 2 keeps getting delayed for three years now, Survival Ascended is still a mess in Early Access, and let’s not even get started on the whole drama about not offering a discount for Survival Evolved owners and shutting down official servers. Just when you think things couldn’t get worse, we get some new updates – and honestly, they’re even more frustrating than expected.
What’s been going on with ARK 2
ARK 2 was announced back in December 2020, three years after Survival Evolved had its full release. It was originally supposed to launch in 2022, but kept getting delayed – mostly because Studio Wildcard was busy working on the remaster of the first game to get more familiar with Unreal Engine 5. According to their last official update about ARK 2 on March 31, 2023, they pushed the release to late 2024.
Original and updated roadmap of ARK development.Source: Studio Wildcard
In the meantime, ARK: Survival Ascended has received some DLCs (which are remastered versions of the original expansions), with plenty more on the way. But if you compare the 2023 roadmap to the one revealed in January 2025, things look pretty different – almost everything has been delayed, and ARK 2 still without a release date.
Lost Colony and Aquatica trailers revealed
Just yesterday, we got a teaser for Lost Colony, the first original expansion for Survival Ascended, set to launch in November 2025.
Lost Colony is supposed to connect the story between the previous expansions and ARK 2, but instead of getting excited, players were mostly frustrated over the price. The Lost Colony Steam page listed it at $30, making it the most expensive DLC yet. And for just one map, a lot of people feel like that’s just way too much. So, the price was quickly removed.
But that’s not the only Survival Ascended DLC trailer we got. On the same day the ARK: Lost Colony teaser dropped, we also got the official trailer for ARK: Aquatica. And yeah, if it looks a little sketchy to you, you're not alone. The one-minute video is mostly AI-generated visuals, with what seems like just a few seconds of actual gameplay at the start. It doesn’t reveal much about the expansion at all.
Source: X @survivetheark
Studio Wildcard took to X to clarify that ARK: Aquatica is being developed by Snail Games, while they’re staying focused on Survival Ascended and ARK 2. However, they still haven’t shared any new info, not even an estimated release window for the sequel.
That $30 price tag for Lost Colony could be a sign that development is dragging on way too long and they’re in desperate need of money. If we were already worried about ARK’s future and ARK 2’s release before, now it’s looking even worse.
