The ARK devs just did a massive info dump, and the Switch 2 port is hanging by a thread. Studio Wildcard’s Jeremy Stieglitz spilled everything in a giant interview, covering the rocky launch of ARK Survival Ascended, a huge new expansion, and a desperate scramble for better performance. The developer admitted the game’s release was rough, with complaints about content, performance, and a lack of new material. Over two years, they tried to fix it by upgrading old maps like Ragnarok and Valguero, and by adding new stuff like the Lost Colony expansion and the Bob’s Tall Tales mini-updates.
Performance remains a big headache. The game runs about fifty percent better now than at launch, but it is still not great. Their big hope is an upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.7, expected around March. This update could give another thirty to forty percent performance boost thanks to better foliage rendering and multi-threading. This is so important that a Nintendo Switch 2 version literally depends on it. The port is internally playable but only gets about twenty frames per second, needing a stable thirty to be viable. The engine update helps, but they might also need frame generation tech, which is not yet confirmed for the Switch 2 hardware.
The new Lost Colony expansion is a major story addition set a thousand years after the Genesis story. It features an icy Antarctic map and new gameplay, like a skill tree for Red Element powers. The team used different storytelling methods, including CGI cutscenes with MetaHuman characters, anime sequences made by Studio Mappa, and illustrated storybooks. The voice cast includes big names like Michelle Yeoh, David Tennant, Keith David, and Karl Urban, who also lent his likeness for the character Bob.
Looking ahead, the studio plans a mix of canonical and non-canonical content. A project called Legacy of Santiago will serve as a prequel to ARK 2 and a testbed for its new mechanics, like revised combat. They also teased non-story expansions like Dragontopia, a dragon-taming themed map, and ARK Atlantis, a water world. Future updates will also remaster Genesis 1 with a pirate theme and Genesis 2 with space combat.
As for ARK 2 itself, the wait continues. The goal is a reset towards more primitive, squad-based survival gameplay, moving away from the high-tech craziness of the later original game. They are using Legacy of Santiago to prototype these ideas safely before committing to the full sequel. The Switch 2 version of Ascended, if it happens, would support cross-play and use DLSS upscaling, aiming to look closer to the PlayStation 5 version than the scaled-down Xbox Series S build.
Performance remains a big headache. The game runs about fifty percent better now than at launch, but it is still not great. Their big hope is an upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.7, expected around March. This update could give another thirty to forty percent performance boost thanks to better foliage rendering and multi-threading. This is so important that a Nintendo Switch 2 version literally depends on it. The port is internally playable but only gets about twenty frames per second, needing a stable thirty to be viable. The engine update helps, but they might also need frame generation tech, which is not yet confirmed for the Switch 2 hardware.
The new Lost Colony expansion is a major story addition set a thousand years after the Genesis story. It features an icy Antarctic map and new gameplay, like a skill tree for Red Element powers. The team used different storytelling methods, including CGI cutscenes with MetaHuman characters, anime sequences made by Studio Mappa, and illustrated storybooks. The voice cast includes big names like Michelle Yeoh, David Tennant, Keith David, and Karl Urban, who also lent his likeness for the character Bob.
Looking ahead, the studio plans a mix of canonical and non-canonical content. A project called Legacy of Santiago will serve as a prequel to ARK 2 and a testbed for its new mechanics, like revised combat. They also teased non-story expansions like Dragontopia, a dragon-taming themed map, and ARK Atlantis, a water world. Future updates will also remaster Genesis 1 with a pirate theme and Genesis 2 with space combat.
As for ARK 2 itself, the wait continues. The goal is a reset towards more primitive, squad-based survival gameplay, moving away from the high-tech craziness of the later original game. They are using Legacy of Santiago to prototype these ideas safely before committing to the full sequel. The Switch 2 version of Ascended, if it happens, would support cross-play and use DLSS upscaling, aiming to look closer to the PlayStation 5 version than the scaled-down Xbox Series S build.
