One of the most frequent questions I am asked is, “What’s next for Ark?” Approaching five years in development, Ark has grown far more than we had ever imagined, and it is clear the appeal of big, crazy new worlds filled with dinosaurs and fantastical creatures to tame and ride with your friends never really dies.

Thanks to Ark’s passionate community and a love for new content that fits its mold, what were once straightforward plans have become so much more. Through in-game events, free DLC maps, and continued game updates, we’re also polishing, addressing player feedback and fixing issues to make it a better game for everyone.

Ark: Extinction was supposed to be the end of premium content for a while, but we underestimated the community’s Jurassic appetite. Shortly after Extinction’s launch, it became clear that the original three-part Season Pass was cutting into the stories and adventures we wanted to do.

Ark: Genesis is a whole new chapter in the saga that fits in nicely with the other expansions and builds on all the lore we have already established (make sure to brush up on your lore recap threads). Genesis introduces more story and lore-based gameplay moments than ever before, such as all-new multiplayer mission-based game mechanics and Ark’s first interactive story-based character, your ever-helpful and perky AI companion named HLN-A.

Available today for Genesis Season Pass owners, HLN-A is a little buddy bot that actually follows you throughout the current world of Ark, speaking and reacting to your actions, maybe even revealing some enticing Genesis-related info leading up to the launch of part one later this year! HLN-A will eventually have a full voiceover and will help guide and motivate you to accomplish goals and missions in Genesis Part 1 and Part 2.

With every Ark expansion, we aimed to push the boundaries of what we had done before from both a technical and design perspective, and you can be excited that Genesis will be no different. Part 1 and Part 2 will both include entirely new maps to explore with biomes players have really been looking forward to seeing, all made in-house by the Studio Wildcard development team.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Ark expansion without more creatures! We’ll be adding in shapeshifters, fire-shooting lava lizards, and island-sized turtles just to name a few! New items and structures across all gameplay tiers will also help to mix things up from what we’ve seen in the past, including some quality-of-life items players will love.

We’re forever grateful for our community which help us grow, shape, and push the Ark franchise to new heights! So, what’s next? Today I’m excited to finally be able to say it’s more of all the awesome stuff that drew you in and convinced you to ride a T-rex naked in the rain on this crazy journey with us. More maps to explore, memories to create, structures to build, creatures to master, and mysteries to unravel.

Oh, and not Ark 2. Yet.