Last week at The Game Awards, Studio Wildcard took their next dinosaur-sized step with the Ark franchise and thrilled the world by announcing Ark II. The reveal trailer (above) was fully captured in-engine and showcases some of the features and gameplay fans can expect when it arrives as an Xbox Series X|S console launch exclusive in 2022.
The Ark franchise has a long-storied history with the Xbox community. Ark: Survival Evolved was a console launch exclusive in the Xbox Game Preview program in December 2015, gaining valuable feedback from Xbox One players along the way before launching in August 2017. When Xbox One X launched in November 2017, it was one of the first Xbox One X Enhanced titles. Then in January 2019, Xbox Game Pass members joined the Ark community then gained access to the Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction DLC. Ark: Survival Evolved is also one of the first titles to be optimized for Xbox Series X|S.
Now with Ark II, players will be thrust into a brutal new world of primitive survival against both beast and man, facing down the ever-present threats of hyper-realistic intelligent dinosaurs, aggressive alien fauna, and the exotic environments of an unearthly planet. Survivors will continue Ark’s dramatic eons-spanning story of humankind’s evolution, in this next-generation sandbox survival experience.
Ark II will also feature Vin Diesel as a hero character, Santiago, who will also be a crossover character in the upcoming “Ark: The Animated Series.” While Vin Diesel will lend his acting talents to Ark II, he is also a massive fan of the franchise, now serving as an executive producer on the game’s sequel and having logged over 1,000 hours in Ark: Survival Evolved.
We’ll have more news to share in the near future about Ark II here on Xbox Wire. We look forward to seeing you in the Ark!
P.S. Don’t forget to grab your free Santiago weapon skins and the Animated Series Raptor costume in Ark: Survival Evolved now, before they’re gone!