Studio Wildcard’s January 2025 roadmap forecast a year of ARK: Survival Ascended updates, maps and expansions. Later announcements confirmed some milestones, including the June Unreal Engine 5.5 upgrade and the December release of ARK: Lost Colony. The roadmap was a dated forecast, not a guarantee or a current schedule—and the reviewed announcements do not establish a release date for ARK 2.
What Studio Wildcard forecast for 2025
In its January 11, 2025 roadmap, Studio Wildcard outlined the following planned releases for ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA). These were projections made on that date, not confirmation that each item arrived as scheduled.
| Planned timing | Roadmap item | Type noted in the roadmap |
|---|---|---|
| March 2025 | Unreal Engine 5.5 update | Game update |
| April 2025 | Ragnarok Ascended, a Bison creature and a Fantastic Tame | Free content |
| June 2025 | A new premium map | Premium content |
| August 2025 | Valguero Ascended, a community-voted creature and a Fantastic Tame | Free content |
| November 2025 | ARK: Lost Colony | Expansion |
The roadmap also looked beyond 2025: Genesis Ascended Part 1 and Bob’s True Tales Part 1 were projected for April 2026; Genesis Ascended Part 2 and Bob’s True Tales Part 2 for August 2026; and Fjordur Ascended for December 2026. Those dates were also forecasts, not a confirmed current calendar. Studio Wildcard’s January 2025 roadmap gives the original plan.
Which 2025 milestones were later reported?
Unreal Engine 5.5 arrived in June
On June 5, Studio Wildcard announced that ASA’s Unreal Engine 5.5 upgrade had arrived. The publisher said it brought performance improvements, bug fixes and quality-of-life changes, and also highlighted an Astraeos map update and the game’s tenth-anniversary event. Those benefits are Studio Wildcard’s description; the announcement is not an independent performance test. Read the June 5 announcement.
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- ARK: Survival Ascended has completely recreated and redesigned the artwork and worlds of ARK to take advantage of the latest in videogame technology, Unreal Engine 5, using high-end graphics features such as fully dynamic Global Illumination (“Lumen”), so that light bounces realistically of off surfaces and provides realistic reflections, and advanced mesh streaming (“Nanite”) of hundreds of millions of triangles for extreme detail.
- Advanced new physics systems such as dynamic water so that every creature creates waves, ripples, splashes, and bubbles as they move through fluids, and fully interactive physical foliage where every blade of grass, bush, and tree reacts to characters, explosions, projectiles, and physics objects.
- ARK: Survival Ascended includes access to all of ARK’s worlds, including Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, ARK Genesis Part 1, ARK Genesis Part 2, and more. The Island is released now, with the subsequent expansion worlds to be added at no additional cost on a regular basis.
- Thorough Quality of Life revamps in every area: redesigned User Interfaces, dynamic navigation for intelligent creature pathfinding, Wild Babies, Photo Mode, new Camera systems, new Map system, Tracking System, new Structures and Items, new Creatures, and much more.
- Cross-Platform Modding: Download & play new custom content created by players, including new maps, creatures, items, and game modes, through a dedicated new Mod-bowser directly within the game! Enjoy an endless stream of new ARK content as the creativity and talent of the community is fully unleashed for the first time ever across gaming platforms!
Ragnarok Ascended and Lost Colony plans changed from forecast to announcement
On June 20, Studio Wildcard described Ragnarok Ascended as live and the Lost Colony Expansion Pass as available. At the time, it described Lost Colony as a December 2025 expansion connecting ARK: Extinction and Genesis to the events of ARK 2. The announcement’s description of the expansion and its pass is distinct from the January roadmap’s earlier November target. See Studio Wildcard’s June 20 update.
Lost Colony was later described as released on December 19
Studio Wildcard’s year-in-review described ARK: Lost Colony as released on December 19, 2025, and characterized it as a bridge between Extinction and ARK 2. That later account establishes the publisher’s reported release date; it does not confirm that every other January roadmap milestone landed on its projected date. Read the 2025 year-in-review.
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What Studio Wildcard’s 2026–2027 outlook says
In Community Crunch 490, Studio Wildcard presented a high-level outlook spanning 2026 and 2027, including upcoming expansion content such as Bob’s True Tales: Tides of Fortune. It is a forward-looking plan, not proof that each named milestone has shipped on schedule. For the latest status of a specific release, check a newer official announcement rather than relying on a roadmap date.
The same 2026 update said ASA runs roughly 40–50% better on the same hardware than at its October 2023 launch. This is Studio Wildcard’s comparison, not an independently verified benchmark. Read Community Crunch 490.
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When is ARK 2 coming out?
The reviewed Studio Wildcard announcements do not state a current ARK 2 release date. Lost Colony is described as leading into or bridging toward ARK 2, but that narrative connection does not establish a launch window. Treat any older target date as outdated unless Studio Wildcard confirms it in a newer announcement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read the roadmap against later news
For each item, distinguish what was planned from what the publisher later reported, and note whether it was described as free content, premium content or an expansion. A roadmap entry is not the same as a release announcement; a later status report is stronger evidence of what the publisher says happened. The announcements covered here do not establish current platform availability or prices, so check the relevant storefront for those details.
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