Independent developer Studio Wildcard secretly has been working away on a holiday surprise! Starting Wednesday, December 16, the world of ARK: Survival Evolved will open to Xbox One players who have been clamoring for the game ever since its record-breaking launch on Steam for PC. Xbox One gamers immediately can jump into the open-world action-adventure survival game and start hunting, taming, and training their dinosaur army.

More than 2.5 million gamers have battled the harsh elements in ARK: Survival Evolved since the game’s debut on June 2, 2015 on Steam’s Early Access program. ARK for Xbox One, available via the ID@Xbox self-publishing program,will launch with all game content currently in the PC build — nearly 3X the amount of gameplay available at its original launch on Steam PC. ARK: Survival Evolved will be $34.99 with Xbox Game Preview on Xbox One and will include an exclusive bionic “Tek” T-Rex, Safari Hat, and Survivor’s Trophy, free access to Xbox-specific ARK official servers, and a steady delivery of exclusive Xbox One content prior to full game launch expected in June 2016.

“ARK is running beautifully on Xbox One, we’re really proud to deliver the first open-world online survival experience on console, a genre that is typically found only in PC games,” said Jesse Rapczak, co-creative director and co-founder, Studio Wildcard.  “Steam’s Early Access has given us a strong method to quickly iterate on player feedback, creating a strong relationship with our fans that constantly makes the game more fun. With Microsoft implementing a similar program, we’re able to form a direct connection between console players and our team, the likes of which has never before been possible.”

Built on Unreal Engine 4, ARK: Survival Evolved is the first to deliver the popular-on-PC online survival genre to consoles, with a unique footprint of adventure, multiplayer online cooperation and competition, focused on the basic survival skills of crafting, harvesting, building, and exploration.

Stranded naked, freezing, and starving on a mysterious island, you must hunt, harvest, craft items, grow crops, and build shelters to survive. Tame one of 100 amazing dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, including gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games! Fly a Pterodactyl squadron over the snow-capped mountains, race through the deep jungle with your pack of trained Raptors, tromp through a fortified enemy base with a convoy of gigantic Brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex.

Key Features include:

XBOX ONE EXCLUSIVES:

• All game content currently in the PC build — nearly 3X the amount of gameplay available at its original Steam launch
• Exclusive bionic “Tek” T-Rex, Safari Hat, andSurvivor’s Trophy
• Free access to Xbox-specific ARK official servers
• Steady delivery of exclusive Xbox One content prior to full game launch in June 2016
• Tailored for Xbox One gamepad controls

• TAME, TRAIN, RIDE and BREED DINOSAURS: Command the most amazing creatures from throughout Earth’s biological history, launching into Xbox Game Preview with more than 50 creatures and 100+ planned at full launch. Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground.
• CRAFT AND BUILD: Using any means necessary to survive, players will craft weapons, clothes, and items, and build shelters. Plant, harvest, build, level-up, and customize everything visually and functionally, including procedurally-generated RPG statistics for creatures, characters, resources, clothing, gear, and weapons both primitive and modern.
• DISCOVER: Explore a massive living ecosystem and find the means to survive, thrive, and maybe escape ARK island.
• TEAM UP TO SURVIVE: Start a tribe with hundreds of other players in a large-scale multiplayer online first person environment to survive and dominate competing tribes…and to ultimately discover ARK’s true purpose.
• JOIN A TRIBE: The ‘Tribe’ system encourages cooperation, by supporting dynamic parties to share resources, XP, and re-spawn points. Other players are organizing rebel tribes to accumulate resources, experience, re-spawn points, and to construct sprawling villages and cities, with technology spanning the primitive stone-age to the modern electric-powered era and beyond. And they will fight to destroy anything they see as a threat.

ARK: Survival Evolved is expected to officially launch in June 2016 on Xbox One via the ID@Xbox program, Steam PC and on PlayStation 4 with Project Morpheus support.