Due to the addition of numerous features and dinosaurs, Studio Wildcard states that the upcoming ARK: Survival Evolved will be delayed into the 2016 holiday season.

It's been a bit of a wild couple of weeks for Studio Wildcard's highly anticipated ARK: Survival Evolved. After initial fears that the game could be pulled from sale due to a lawsuit from Trendy Entertainment - which has since been thankfully settled - fans will now have to wait a bit longer for the full version release of the game.

Studio Wildcard co-founder Jesse Rapczak has stated that the full release of ARK will miss the initial June 2016 launch date, and is now scheduled for the 2016 holiday season. Due to the success of ARK's Early Access program, the development team ended up adding far more content than originally planned, which has resulted in this delay.

With additional features like split screen, local multiplayer, new creatures, and a modding mechanic being added to the game, Rapczak stated that the development team needed the extra few months in order to have everything polished before ARK's full release.

"ARK's success has increased our content goals and Early Access players have helped us raise our ambitions with their invaluable feedback.

When we first announced, we said 70 dinos, now we'll have over 100. We never anticipated adding modding, local multiplayer, split screen, or numerous other upcoming features. The game at launch will be far more robust than originally conceived, but it takes a little extra time to wrap it all up."

On the subject of modding, Studio Wildcard is also doing something new with ARK's modding mechanic. Revealed alongside the news about ARK's delay, a new video - which can be seen below - reveals that a new mod program has been launched for the upcoming dinosaur game. Users can submit mods, which will then be considered by the development team, and could potentially be added to the final Xbox One and PC versions of ARK. 

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The video reveals two upcoming ARK mods: a map called The Center, which will come out in May, and the Primitive Plus mod, which will come out in the Summer. PC users would have already had a sample of these two mods through Steam's Early Access program, but this will be the first time Xbox One players will receive them.

ARK's delay isn't exactly what gamers would want to hear after all the recent lawsuit drama, but given that the game has expanded considerably since its Early Access release nearly a year ago, and taking into account ARK's various frame rate and performance issues, the extra few months will be invaluable in ensuring that the final game is up to scratch.

Gamers may have to wait longer for the final version of ARK, but players will at least have the upcoming free-to-play spin-off ARK: Survival of the Fittest, which should hold fans over until the 2016 holidays.

ARK: Survival Evolved is expected to have its full release in the 2016 holiday season for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Source: GameSpot