While many eyes were stuck solidly on the E3 2017 press conferences, a rather significant announcement was made with regards to ARK: Survival Evolved. Developer Studio Wildcard has finally been able to set a full release date for the hugely popular early access survival game, and now ARK: Survival Evolved has a confirmed release date of August 8, 2018.

The news of the release date was confirmed via an official announcement from Studio Wildcard itself, stating that "ARK: Survival Evolved has entered its final phase of core production, and will hit worldwide retail and digital release" on August 8, 2017. The game will see this full release for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Mac, and Linux.

It's certainly been a long journey for ARK: Survival Evolved, with the game both being announced and initially entering an early access model two years ago. Now, Studio Wildcard has finally been able to put a finite date on the game's release, as well as confirming a number of pre-order editions for the full retail version of the game. These special editions can be seen in the video below:

Alongside the standard release of ARK: Survival Evolved, which comes in at $59.99, there are also two special editions: the Explorer's Edition and the Limited Collector's Edition. The Explorer's Edition retails at $99.99, and includes the game's Season Pass which grants access to all current and future expansion packs. Meanwhile, the Limited Collector's Edition includes a handcrafted notebook containing dossiers of every in-game creature, a necklace, a map of the island, a Studio Wildcard team poster, and a copy of the ARK: Survival Evolved soundtrack. This edition comes in a fake wooden chest box, and is available at $159.99.

Any new purchasers of the game are likely to be met with a very strong established user base. After all, ARK Survival Evolved hit 1 million early access PC sales within an extremely small amount of time, and the console versions of the title quickly followed. After all, the PS4 version also refused to dawdle when it came to the 1 million PS4 sales mark - albeit at a little bit of a slower pace than the PC version.

For Studio Wildcard, however, the difficulty will be maintaining the success of the early access title into the full release market. Although the game has been tremendously successful through early access buyers, those coming into the title expecting a polished, complete experience could have very different expectations. Hopefully, the full retail release of the game will not disappoint.

ARK: Survival Evolved will see its full release on August 8, 2017, for PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux.

Source: ARK: Survival Evolved