Ark: Survival Ascended Is a Hit on Steam, but Performance Complaints Dampen Launch

The hotly anticipated Ark: Survival Ascended released on PC overnight and quickly shot to the top of Steam’s best-selling games list, but players are running into performance issues that have marred the launch.

Ark: Survival Ascended is Studio Wildcard’s Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original dinosaur-filled survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. It’s out now on Steam alongside the original game. On Valve’s platform, both Survival Ascended and Survival Evolved are in Steam’s top 100 played games by concurrent players, with Survival Ascended in particular climbing rapidly.

But the remake currently has a ‘mixed’ user review rating of 42%, with most of the negative reviews complaining about performance issues. One Steam review read: “Have a decent computer that can run all top graphic games on high settings. Games like Cyberpunk, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more. Literally cannot run the game without multiple crashes, stutters, and fps issues on the lowest graphical settings. We shouldn’t be allowing game studios to release games to the public like this, especially not a remaster. Who puts out a remaster that doesn’t run correctly? Isn’t that the point of a remaster, for it to run better and look better? Awful product.”

Here are the Ark: Survival Ascended PC system requirements (of note, the game requires an SSD):

MINIMUM:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, Nvidia GeForce 1080
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 70 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Required

RECOMMENDED:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 70 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Required

While Ark: Survival Ascended is out now on PC, its console launch is delayed to November. Studio Wildcard said it encountered “some critical issues” in the multiplayer version of the game that would have had “major implications” for the console versions of the game, so it delayed the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S launch to next month.

“We understand that this news is disappointing, and trust us, we’re disappointed too,” Studio Wildcard said. “The team really did aim to get everything out for all platforms in October, but we fell short just at the finish line. We’re sorry about that, as we know a lot of you have been very excited about this launch and made plans around it.”

The developer plans to keep crossplay between Steam and consoles disabled until it has entered a quicker certification process, but that decision may change. “The added benefit of this change is that it also enables us to ensure a smoother console launch as we’ll have fought many of the initial fires with PC and have a more content-rich and stable modding experience that has been battle-tested when the game becomes available on consoles,” Studio Wildcard added.

“We know that this news is far from ideal, however we’ll be doing our best to make the game as good as it can be when it launches in November. We are really grateful for the support and cannot wait to get ASA with cross-platform mods into your hands!”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.