Jesse Rapczak (Co-Founder of Studio Wildcard) revealed the first details of ARK Xbox One, which will release in Game Preview mode (Xbox One's equivalent to Early Access) next week.
First of all, he mentioned that ARK Xbox One currently runs at 30-45 FPS, which isn't bad at all considering that even high-end GPUs on PC struggle to maintain a higher frame rate at times.
@3xpertGamin @jatstweeter @arkjesse @survivetheark @Xbox Depends on lots of things but usually between 30-45 FPS at launch.
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
That's mainly because of Xbox One specific optimizations which will be applied to the PC version soon, apparently.
@survivetheark Lotta questions about optimization on @Xbox - runs and looks great, lots of XB1-specific optimizations - more than PC atm!
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
@CommanderPanda2 @arkjesse @survivetheark XB1 optimizations coming back to PC soon. We'll keep you posted!
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
ARK: Survival Evolved for Xbox One will be priced at $34.99 during the Game Preview phase.
@xboxfan246 @arkjesse $34.99 USD.
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
Jesse Rapczak also clarified some details about the server structure for this version of the game.
You'll be able to use the official dedicated servers just like PC gamers or you can host a dedicated server on another Xbox One, though in that case you'll need two copies of the game and two Xbox Live Gold accounts.
@questionforARK @arkjesse @Sykesee @survivetheark Official Dedicated servers just like PC, or you can host a dedicated server on another XB1
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
@9000cody @arkjesse @questionforARK @arkjesse @Sykesee @survivetheark Currently req 2 copies of the game and 2 XBL acct for private server.
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
There is a third option apparently, which is to host a private non-dedicated server for up to four players.
@corps_sinestro @Nova_BOO @majornelson @arkjesse @survivetheark This is only for dedicated serv. Can also host non-dedicated for 4 players.
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
There won't be any splitscreen for ARK Xbox One's Game Preview launch, but it may be added later.
@Jp82260100 @arkjesse Not at launch, although we'd like to support it. We'll find out what we can do during Game Preview!
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 9, 2015
Finally, here's the controller layout.
It's not even winter yet! @survivetheark @xbox pic.twitter.com/DHg4RhCTFU
— Jesse (@arkjesse) December 8, 2015
ARK: Survival Evolved has been consistently at the top positions of Early Access game sales since its launch in June, and two months ago Studio Wildcard proudly announced to have surpassed 2 million units.
In the same story, we reported that the planned DX12 update for the game had been more difficult than anticipated for the developer. However, Rapczak had already mentioned that console optimizations would help with PC performance and after today's update, PC gamers can expect them soon.
Let's just hope that Studio Wildcard is still working on the DirectX 12 update too, for those of us who'd like to see the game running smoothly at maximum settings. ARK: Survival Evolved is expected to fully release in June 2016 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.