ARK 2 was supposed to be a landmark moment for survival games when it was revealed at The Game Awards in December 2020. The announcement trailer featured Vin Diesel battling dinosaurs and tribal enemies in stunning CGI, while Studio Wildcard named him President of Creative Convergence and executive producer on the project. Fast forward five years, and the game is nowhere near release. Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz confirmed at publisher Snail Games’ Investor Day on December 16, 2025, that ARK 2 now targets a 2028 launch, making it eight years from announcement to release if everything goes according to plan.
The delay marks the latest setback for a project that has missed every release window it’s been given. Originally planned for 2023, then pushed to late 2024, with hopes briefly raised for 2027, ARK 2 has become one of gaming’s most notorious development sagas. What makes the situation more peculiar is the uncertainty surrounding Vin Diesel’s actual involvement in the game, despite his prominent role in the original announcement. Stieglitz admitted they still don’t know how much performance capture they’ll get from Diesel, forcing the team to prepare multiple narrative paths depending on whether they get “one day, five days, eight hours” of his time.
The Delay Timeline Nobody Expected
When ARK 2 was announced in December 2020, Studio Wildcard positioned it as the ambitious follow-up to ARK: Survival Evolved, which had launched in 2017 after two years in Early Access. The sequel promised cutting-edge technology, Souls-like combat mechanics, and Vin Diesel as both a creative force and the face of the game. The initial 2023 release window seemed aggressive but achievable for a studio that had shipped the original game and multiple expansion packs.
That optimism didn’t last long. In March 2023, Studio Wildcard announced the first major delay, pushing ARK 2 to the end of 2024. The official explanation cited challenges working with Unreal Engine 5, which Stieglitz described as “incredibly new technology” requiring the team to adapt workflows and adjust pipelines. To fill the gap, Wildcard announced ARK: Survival Ascended, a next-gen remaster of the original game built in Unreal Engine 5, which launched in October 2023.
The year 2024 came and went without ARK 2 materializing or any official update explaining the continued silence. By mid-2025, Stieglitz finally broke his silence in an interview, admitting the team had “put the vertical slice on hold a couple of years ago to make ASA” and had only been “nibbling at it since then.” He expressed hope for an Early Access launch within two years, suggesting 2027 as the new target. Less than six months later, that timeline has been pushed back another full year to 2028.
Why ARK 2 Keeps Getting Pushed Back
Stieglitz offered two primary explanations for the extended development cycle. The first centers on lessons learned from how Studio Wildcard ended support for the original ARK: Survival Evolved. The studio essentially “hard-stopped” updating the game to focus on the sequel, which upset players who felt they weren’t ready to move on and wanted more content. The commercial and critical success of ARK: Survival Ascended convinced Wildcard that rushing to replace it with ARK 2 would repeat that mistake.
The second reason involves using Survival Ascended as a testing ground for mechanics and systems planned for ARK 2. Rather than launching the sequel and discovering fundamental problems after release, Wildcard intends to introduce ARK 2’s innovations through Survival Ascended content over the next two years. This approach allows them to gather player feedback, identify what works and what doesn’t, and refine systems before committing them to the sequel. It’s a sensible strategy that reduces risk, but it also means ARK 2 remains on hold while Survival Ascended serves as the franchise’s primary development focus.
The technical challenges of working with Unreal Engine 5 remain a factor as well. While the engine offers cutting-edge capabilities for graphics, physics, and world simulation, it’s relatively new technology that requires developers to learn new workflows. Studio Wildcard’s ambitions for ARK 2 include Souls-like combat with advanced character traversal including mantling, free-climbing, parkour, sliding, and swinging. Implementing these systems in a multiplayer PvP survival context presents unique challenges that don’t exist in single-player action games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring.
The Vin Diesel Question Mark
Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of ARK 2’s ongoing saga is the uncertainty surrounding Vin Diesel’s involvement. When he was announced as the star, executive producer, and President of Creative Convergence for Studio Wildcard in 2020, it seemed like a major coup for the studio. Diesel is a legitimate gaming enthusiast with a history of involvement in game projects, and his Fast & Furious franchise star power brought mainstream attention to ARK 2 that indie survival games rarely receive.
Five years later, Stieglitz revealed in his Epic Games interview that they still don’t know how much performance they’ll actually get from Diesel. He explained they’ve prepared multiple narrative paths depending on whether they secure extensive performance capture or minimal involvement. The question of “how much performance are we going to get from him” remains unanswered, with possibilities ranging from one day to eight hours to five days of capture work.
This admission raises uncomfortable questions about the original announcement. If Diesel’s involvement was substantial enough to justify making him an executive producer and giving him a creative leadership title, why is his actual participation now uncertain? The most charitable interpretation is that scheduling conflicts with his film career have made it difficult to pin down concrete commitments. A more cynical reading suggests his involvement may have been more promotional than substantive from the beginning, designed to generate buzz for a game that Studio Wildcard hoped to ship years ago when his schedule was more flexible.
Either way, it creates an awkward situation where one of the game’s most heavily promoted features might not materialize in any meaningful way. Stieglitz’s comment that they have narratives prepared for both scenarios suggests the team is hedging their bets, which doesn’t inspire confidence that Diesel will deliver the performance that was teased in the 2020 announcement trailer.
What’s Coming Before ARK 2
While ARK 2 remains years away, Studio Wildcard has unveiled an ambitious roadmap for ARK: Survival Ascended that extends through the end of 2027. This content pipeline ensures the franchise maintains momentum and keeps players engaged while the sequel remains in development. The roadmap includes seven major content drops that introduce new expansions, gameplay features, and narrative elements.
The ARK: Lost Colony expansion launched on December 18, 2025, as the first original, full-size expansion for Survival Ascended. Unlike previous DLC that remastered content from the original game, Lost Colony presents entirely new environments, creatures, and story elements designed to tease ARK 2’s direction. Following Lost Colony, 2026 will bring a reimagined version of Survival of the Fittest handled by Studio Sirens, a pirate-themed Bob’s Tall Tales DLC, the ARK World Creator UGC tool similar to Fortnite Creative, and the Dragontopia expansion.
The 2027 slate includes the Atlantis expansion exploring underwater environments, another Bob’s Tall Tales DLC called Galaxy Wars focused on spaceship battles, and the Legacy of Santiago expansion in Q4. That final expansion is particularly significant because it’s designed to introduce more of ARK 2’s gameplay innovations and narrative setup, essentially serving as a playable preview of what the sequel will offer. By releasing these systems in Survival Ascended first, Studio Wildcard can test player reception and make adjustments before committing them to ARK 2’s foundation.
A Pattern of Overpromising
ARK 2’s repeated delays fit into a broader pattern of Studio Wildcard’s relationship with its community. The original ARK: Survival Evolved launched in Early Access in June 2015 and didn’t reach full release until August 2017, despite initially targeting a June 2016 launch. During that extended Early Access period, the studio released paid DLC expansions before the base game was officially finished, a decision that generated significant controversy among players who felt they were being asked to pay extra for a game they’d already purchased.
The studio’s decision to essentially abandon Survival Evolved to focus on ARK 2 upset players who weren’t ready to move on, according to Stieglitz’s own admission. Now, the studio has announced an eight-year development cycle for the sequel, with multiple missed release windows and an uncertain relationship with its most prominent celebrity endorser. The pattern suggests a studio that struggles with realistic project scoping and transparent communication about development timelines.
This doesn’t mean ARK 2 will be bad when it eventually releases. The original game, despite its technical issues and controversial development practices, built a passionate community and sold millions of copies. Studio Wildcard clearly knows how to create compelling survival gameplay loops that keep players engaged for hundreds of hours. But the gap between what they promise and what they deliver on schedule has consistently been wide enough to frustrate fans and damage trust.
Will 2028 Actually Happen
The obvious question hanging over ARK 2’s latest 2028 target is whether that date will stick or if we’re simply watching another chapter in an ongoing saga of delays. Stieglitz framed 2028 as the studio’s “intention” rather than a firm commitment, which leaves room for further slippage if development doesn’t proceed as planned. Given that Studio Wildcard has missed every previous release window by increasingly wide margins, skepticism is warranted.
Several factors could push the date back yet again. The ambitious two-year Survival Ascended roadmap represents a massive workload for the studio, and Stieglitz has acknowledged that only a small portion of the team is currently working on ARK 2. If Survival Ascended’s content drops take longer than expected or require additional resources to execute properly, ARK 2 development could slow even further. The uncertainty around Vin Diesel’s involvement could also create complications if scheduling his performance capture proves difficult.
On the other hand, the 2028 target does provide meaningful buffer time that previous release windows lacked. By planning for seven more years of development from the original 2020 announcement, Studio Wildcard has given itself room to actually complete the game rather than rushing to hit an arbitrary deadline. The strategy of using Survival Ascended to test ARK 2 systems before implementation should, in theory, reduce the risk of fundamental design problems requiring major rework late in development.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was ARK 2 originally announced?
ARK 2 was announced at The Game Awards on December 10, 2020, with a cinematic trailer starring Vin Diesel. The announcement positioned Diesel as the game’s star, executive producer, and Studio Wildcard’s President of Creative Convergence. The original release window targeted 2023.
How many times has ARK 2 been delayed?
ARK 2 has been delayed at least three times. It was initially planned for 2023, then pushed to late 2024 in March 2023, with informal targets of 2027 mentioned in mid-2025. The latest delay announced in December 2025 pushes the release to 2028, making it eight years from announcement to expected launch.
Why does ARK 2 keep getting delayed?
Studio Wildcard cites two main reasons: learning from their mistake of abandoning the original ARK too quickly, and using ARK: Survival Ascended as a testing ground for ARK 2 mechanics before committing them to the sequel. Technical challenges with Unreal Engine 5 and the complexity of implementing Souls-like combat in a multiplayer survival context also contribute to the extended timeline.
Is Vin Diesel still involved with ARK 2?
Uncertain. Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz revealed they don’t know how much performance capture they’ll get from Vin Diesel, with possibilities ranging from one day to eight hours to five days of work. The studio has prepared multiple narrative paths depending on his level of involvement, suggesting his participation is not guaranteed to match the prominent role he was given in the 2020 announcement.
What is ARK: Survival Ascended?
ARK: Survival Ascended is a next-gen remaster of ARK: Survival Evolved built in Unreal Engine 5. It launched in October 2023 to fill the gap while ARK 2 remains in development. Studio Wildcard has announced an extensive roadmap through 2027 with original expansions and content that will test gameplay systems planned for ARK 2.
What gameplay changes is ARK 2 introducing?
ARK 2 will feature Souls-like combat with skill-based melee action, third-person perspective instead of first-person, and advanced character traversal including mantling, free-climbing, parkour, sliding, and swinging. The game is set on an alien planet called Arat with dynamic world events and a more ambitious narrative than previous ARK games.
Will ARK 2 launch in Early Access?
Unknown. Earlier statements from Studio Wildcard suggested an Early Access launch was possible, but the most recent announcements haven’t specified whether the 2028 release will be Early Access or a full launch. Given the studio’s history with the original game’s extended Early Access period, it seems likely ARK 2 could follow a similar path.
Should fans trust the 2028 release date?
Studio Wildcard has missed every previous release window for ARK 2, so healthy skepticism is warranted. However, the 2028 target provides significantly more development time than previous windows and aligns with the studio’s strategy of supporting ARK: Survival Ascended through 2027 before fully transitioning resources to the sequel. The date is presented as an intention rather than a firm commitment, leaving room for further delays if needed.
Conclusion
ARK 2’s journey from exciting 2020 announcement to perpetually delayed project has become one of gaming’s most drawn-out development sagas. Eight years from reveal to expected release is an eternity in an industry where most games announce with launch dates 12 to 18 months away. Studio Wildcard’s pattern of overpromising and missing deadlines has eroded trust with fans who’ve been waiting half a decade for a sequel that keeps receding further into the future. The uncertainty around Vin Diesel’s involvement adds an element of absurdity to a situation that was supposed to represent the franchise’s ambitious evolution. Whether the 2028 target actually holds or becomes yet another missed deadline remains to be seen, but at this point, ARK fans have learned to temper their expectations and focus on the steady stream of Survival Ascended content that’s actually releasing. If ARK 2 does eventually launch in 2028 and delivers on its Souls-like survival vision, the wait might prove worthwhile. But that’s a big if for a project that’s spent more time being delayed than actively developed.