ARK: Survival Evolved is now free to claim on the Epic Games store. You'll be able to permanently add it to your library as long as you claim it by June 18th at 5 PM. At that point, two games will take its place - Pathway from Robotality/Chucklefish and The Escapists 2 from Team 17.
The dinosaur themed sandbox survival game developed by Studio Wildcard was somewhat of a sensation during the survival craze of a few years ago. ARK: Survival Evolved sold several million units between PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and it later appeared on mobile platforms as well.
Today is a special day for ARK: Survival Evolved, as the community is celebrating the fifth anniversary since its release. The developers have shared the following statement on the Epic Games store giveaway:
We’re hyped to welcome more Survivors to the ARK: Survival Evolved via our upcoming launch in the Epic Games store. For one week, players will be able to download a FREE copy of ARK for their personal library from the Epic Games launcher. Unlike “free weekends” the game will remain in your library for as long as you choose! Begin your journey on the island and see where the mysteries of ARK take you.
Other than modding, the Epic Store version of the game will operate like the Steam PC version and will be updated in full parity with our Steam updates. Both platforms will support crossplay, which will be enabled on our Official Servers between Steam and Epic Games and Unofficial Servers can choose to opt-into enabling crossplay or not.
Modding will not be supported at launch but we fully intend to have modding support enabled when the Epic Games Store supports it. For now, any servers that are set up to use mods will not display in the EGS version of ARK: Survival Evolved. Now is the time to dive into the expansive world of ARK and begin an epic journey!
For those of you running dedicated servers, here's some info you need to know:
When running a Crossplay or Epic Game Store server, the VOIP software will be default to use the Vivox, an alternative VOIP plugin. For those using Steam only, you can continue to use Steam VOIP (default) or alternatively opt into Vivox.
Necessary Server Args:
-crossplay (enables Crossplay on Dedicated Server)
-epiconly (enables Epic Game Store only players to connect to the Dedicated Server)
-UseVivox (enables Vivox on Steam only servers)Running a server with mods or without -epiconly or -crossplay will mean that the server will only accept player connections from Steam and not EGS.
ARK: Survival Evolved also has its expansions and Season Pass at 50% off on the Epic Games store, in case you want to get those too after trying the base game.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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