Studio Wildcard has announced that its open world dinosaur survival game, ARK: Survival Evolved, will leave Steam Early Access and will be fully released on August 8th. ARK: Survival Evolved has been on Steam Early Access for two years, and its latest build includes the first supported mod via its ARK Sponsored Mods Program.

As Studio Wildcard stated:

“The past two years have been one heck of a journey! Millions of ARK players worldwide have built gigantic bases, captured and trained armies of dinosaurs, crafted armories full of weapons and eaten billion of pounds of berries. With your help, we’re now about to reach the completion of core content for ARK: Survival Evolved and release the full game to the world! That was just the beginning; now we’ll be entering the next phase of our journey. Players who have been with us throughout this early access program and were excited with the launch of each update, have even more reason to be excited! ARK is going to become even more fun with surprise new content at launch and beyond, as we continue to have a massive amount of additional gameplay, creatures, and story elements in the works.”

ARK: Survival Evolved’s first official mod is called Ragnarok and is being released today for Steam players as a free DLC Official Expansion ARK.

This mod features a new 144 sq kilometer map designed to be explored by land, sea or air, beautiful vistas and base locations as far as the eye can see, a vast ocean with its own ecosystem, as well as distinct variations on former ARK creatures and a special brand-new creature unique to Ragnarok.