ARK: Survival Evolved Is Headed to Xbox Game Preview

Studio Wildcard’s ARK: Survival Evolved made a huge splash on Windows PC when it hit Steam Early Access this past June. It’s a hardcore, kill-or-be-killed, persistent-world survival-shooter that challenges you to tame the wild – literally, tame giant dinosaurs – in order to make your way in its harsh, deadly world. And we’re excited to announce that on December 16, ARK is headed to Xbox One’s Game Preview program.

Studio Wildcard co-founder Jesse Rapczak is rather excited about ARK’s journey to Xbox One – and what it means for the game and its fans.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find another game anywhere that has a huge and persistent open world, tens of thousands of unique A.I. characters, 70+ players per server, and exciting lore and endgame content – as well as single-player, non-dedicated and dedicated server modes,” said Rapczak.

And now it’s coming to the generation’s greatest console platform – with plenty of Xbox-exclusive Founder’s content in tow, including a bionic “Tek” T-Rex skin, ARK Founder’s Hat skin, and ARK Founder’s Trophy. For Rapczak, the Xbox platform presented a huge opportunity to expand ARK’s player base in a meaningful and unique way.

“Xbox Live provides a fair, secure, and robust multiplayer experience that minimizes cheating and reduces the barriers to playing with your friends,” Rapczak told us. “You can also host your own 50+ player ARK server on a second Xbox One – which is something that would normally require an expensive PC server and a lot of management headaches. The gamepad control scheme is also much improved over the PC version. ARK on Xbox One will be the smoothest gameplay experience for the majority of gamers… especially for the price!”

And while ARK is the kind of game where you’ll spend your first few hours generally trying not to get eaten, it presents a pretty varied experience, for lots of different player types. As you progress in ARK’s dinosaur-eat-man world, you’ll (eventually) reach the limits of human biomechanics – and you’ll need to employ some dinosaurs and other creatures to help you advance and keep you safe. Thousands of wild animals (each with unique talents, once tamed) are out there, interacting with each other and creating emergent experiences in the wild. For more pacifist players, farming is an option: You can grow your food with a variety of seeds, crop plots, and irrigation systems, and live a completely vegetarian lifestyle.

One of the game’s most interesting features is its persistent world, which (much like the real thing) will keep right on going regardless of how advanced your survivor may or may not be. “When you respawn you can choose to continue advancing your current survivor, or scrap it and start a new one,” says Rapczak. “Either way the world goes on whether you are there or not!”

Best of all – you’ll be able to get your hands on it soon. We can’t wait to see more of ARK: Survival Evolved when it hits the Xbox One Game Preview program on December 16.