Studio Wildcard Pushes Ark Sequel Into 2028 After Years Of Delays

Ark 2 is now officially planned for a 2028 release window, extending the wait for Studio Wildcard’s long-running survival franchise sequel to at least eight years since its announcement. The revised timing places Ark 2 several years beyond its previously stated targets and confirms that the project will not arrive during the current console cycle’s early life.

The game was first revealed in 2020 with a cinematic trailer featuring Vin Diesel, a surprise casting choice that quickly became central to the sequel’s identity. Five years later, Ark 2 still has no firm launch date beyond the broad 2028 window. Earlier plans had placed the game in 2023, later shifted to the end of 2024, before disappearing entirely from Studio Wildcard’s public timelines. Its absence from the franchise’s content roadmap earlier this year led to speculation that the sequel had slipped past 2026, a conclusion now confirmed.

The updated target was reiterated during publisher Snail Games’ Investor Day in New York, where Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz outlined a two-year plan for Ark: Survival Ascended that deliberately runs up to the doorstep of Ark 2. Rather than treating the sequel as a clean break, the studio is using expansions and systems updates in its current live game to trial mechanics intended for the follow-up.

“That’s our intention,” Stieglitz said of the 2028 release window. “One of the things about doing Ark 2 was that we felt we had to learn a lot more about how to make the kind of game we wanted to do, and to do it kind of in phases.”— Jeremy Stieglitz

According to Stieglitz, the upcoming Legacy of Santiago expansion, scheduled for late 2027, will act as a narrative prequel and a technical proving ground. It is designed to introduce combat and progression systems planned for Ark 2, including a shift toward third-person, Soulslike-inspired melee combat, while allowing the studio to iterate based on live player feedback rather than post-launch fixes.

“So with this expansion called Legacy of Santiago, we’re going to be introducing a lot of the mechanics and features that we wanted to kind of test out in Ark 2 as an expansion for Ark: Survival Ascended,” he said.— Jeremy Stieglitz

This cautious approach is shaped by earlier transitions in the franchise. Ark: Survival Evolved launched in early access in 2015, evolved over nearly a decade, and was effectively remastered into Ark: Survival Ascended using Unreal Engine 5. That newer version has sold more than four million copies and supports cross-platform modding, with more than 5,000 mods created and hundreds of millions of downloads. Stieglitz acknowledged that the studio mishandled the end of active support for the original game.

“One thing we learned is to not say goodbye until your players want you to,” he said.— Jeremy Stieglitz

Ark 2 is being developed alongside this extended support strategy rather than replacing it outright. Studio Wildcard plans to continue releasing paid content for Survival Ascended as long as players remain engaged, avoiding another abrupt cutoff while gradually steering the audience toward the sequel.

Vin Diesel remains a defining but uncertain factor in Ark 2’s development. Beyond starring in the game, Diesel is also listed as an executive producer and has previously claimed to have logged more than 1,000 hours in the original Ark. His actual level of involvement in the sequel’s production, however, remains unresolved.

“The question is: How much performance are we going to get from him?” Stieglitz said. “Are we going to get one day, five days, eight hours? You don’t know.”— Jeremy Stieglitz

The scope of Ark 2’s narrative is tied directly to that availability. Studio Wildcard has reportedly prepared multiple versions of the story depending on how much performance capture and voice work Diesel can commit to. While the team describes the sequel as having a far more ambitious narrative than any prior Ark release, those plans remain flexible.

“We have a much more ambitious narrative built out for Ark 2,” Stieglitz said. “But I’m going to be blunt, it’s really going to be highly dependent on just how involved Vin Diesel is actually going to be.”— Jeremy Stieglitz

Ark 2’s official description has remained unchanged since its reveal. “Survive the past. Tame the future,” the blurb reads, describing a primal world where humans and dinosaurs compete for dominance. Beyond that framing, concrete gameplay details have been scarce, reinforcing the sense that the sequel is still in a formative stage despite its long gestation.

The 2028 window positions Ark 2 as a late-generation release for current hardware or a potential cross-generation title, depending on platform strategy. For now, Studio Wildcard’s priority appears to be stabilizing its live ecosystem, refining mechanics in public view, and avoiding another rushed transition. After years of shifting targets, Ark 2 is no longer being sold on imminence, but on patience.

Source: Epic Games