Studio Wildcard, the team that never sleeps, delivers today its second jam-packed Xbox One update for the definitive online dinosaur experience, ARK: Survival Evolved. Headlined by three new creatures and peppered with fun items like Beer Barrels and Electric Prods, ARK offers gamers the highly anticipated, exclusive Xbox One split-screen multiplayer functionality. Now Survivors can sit side-by-side on a couch or jump online with their fellow survivor, craft a few in-game beers, and then rampage into the fields to fight the scaley hordes!
Exclusive to the Xbox for extended period of time, the split-screen multiplayer functionality is available for both local offline play and Non-Dedicated online play as well.
New dinosaurs and creature featured in this update:
•Gallimimus (with Three-Seater Passenger Saddle): While the Gallimimus in real life might have been a large, chicken-like omnivore belonging to the clade Ornithomimosauria (similar to today’s ostrich family and closely related to raptors and modern birds), in ARK: Survival Evolved it’s an herbivore with no natural means to defend itself except for running away. Luckily for the Gallimimus, it may very well be the fastest dinosaur on ARK, and is capable of ferrying up to three Survivors in a specially-designed Saddle!
•Dimetrodon: Known as everyone’s favorite adaptable carnivore, the Dimetrodon offers players shade during excessive heat and shelter from extreme cold by way of its massive insulating sail running down its back. It is reasonably friendly to Survivors and its favorite place to roam is the swamplands plentiful with small prey.
•Dung Beetle: The Dung Beetle is a wondrous organic biofactory that eats excrement and other useless waste and then metabolizes it to produce burnable oil that can power generators and fertilize crops. It is the perfect pet for cleaning up around the tribe’s dirty living quarters!
Today’s Xbox One version update also includes a battery of items and optimizations that bring content parity with the PC version through v234, including:
•New Armor: SWAT-style Assault Armor tier
•New Weapon: Electric Prod stunner weapon capable of rendering even the strongest survivor unconscious
•New Structures: Greenhouse/Glass structure tileset to aid survivors in growing plants
•Deep-Sea Loot Crates: Just what it sounds like. Cool stuff underwater.
•Beer Barrel: These craftable Beer kegs can make tasty brews, with various status enhancing effects, however the subsequent ‘hangover’ effects are not so pleasant!
•Loads of bug fixes, serious performance update (~15%), fixed memory leak
•Non-dedicated servers now support up to Eight survivors and 33% larger tether distance
The world of ARK is constantly evolving and thousands of players are already providing feedback, suggestions and bug reports to the development team. Players are invited to join the ARK discussion now by visiting the Xbox One forums on survivetheark.com/forums/.
ARK: Survival Evolved is available now for download on Xbox Game Preview for $34.99. Xbox One players will receive exclusive content including a bionic “Tek” T-Rex, Safari Hat, and Survivor’s Trophy, free access to Xbox-specific ARK official servers (up to 70 can play on a server simultaneously), and a steady delivery of exclusive Xbox One content prior to full game launch.