ARK Survival Ascended Aberration release time gets last-minute delay (again)

Modified Sep 07, 2024 14:33 IST

Explore the release time for ARK Survival Ascended Aberration — ARK Survival Ascended Aberration is very close (Image via Studio Wildcard)

With ARK Survival Ascended Aberration releasing soon, gamers are eager to know its launch time. It was arguably the most interesting map in ARK Survival Evolved, featuring a massive underground world with semi-fantastic ecosystems. The hype for its UE5 remake is bringing many players back to ARK Survival Ascended.

The update was originally expected to go live on the evening of September 4, 2024 (PST), but it got delayed at the last minute. However, the developers have also announced a precise start time now so that players can plan their day accordingly.

Update: Studio Wildcard has now resolved the "platform submission errors," and the finalized launch time has been pushed back even further.

ARK Aberration Ascended release time is hung in the publishing process for a console

At approximately 12:45 pm PST today (September 5, 2024), Studio Wildcard explained that the console release is stuck in the publication process. They had the following to say in a post on the official ARK Discord:

"Hey Survivors, quick LiveOps update: a console build is currently hung (stuck) in the publishing process. We're working closely with our partners to move it along and expect to have an update within the next hour. Thank you for your patience."

This could be the prophesized "cert issues," but the developers haven't specified that officially. The developers "expect to have an update within the next hour," but this does not ascertain a new release window. This essentially means consoles and/or Game Pass owners of ARK Survival Ascended might need to wait an hour or more.

The current situation, per the official server (Image via ARK Discord)

Reportedly, the update is live on the Steam client of ASA. However, we could not update it on our end, so it's likely not available for all users yet at the time of writing (1 pm PST).

ARK Survival Ascended Aberration release time for September 5 PST

The ARK Survival Ascended Aberration update was expected to go live at 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST on September 5, 2024. This is when the release was supposed to happen:

United States: 12 pm PST / 2 pm CST / 3 pm EST (September 5)
Europe: 7 pm GMT / 9 pm CEST (September 5)
Asia: 12:30 am IST / 3 am Beijing time / 3 am PHT / 4 am JST/KST (September 6)
Australia: 5 am AEST / 7 am NZST (September 6)

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This was the launch window after a last-minute postponement by the developers from the originally planned September 4 release. But why did this first delay happen yesterday?

Why was the ARK Aberration Ascended release delayed?

Yesterday, in a post on the official ARK Discord server, a developer correspondent said that it would come "in the evening Pacific time":

"To temper expectations and set you all free to get some rest, we expect to launch Ab in the evening Pacific time. Hoping we can share a more precise time really soon."

Fresh from the ARK Discord (Image via Discord)

With the lack of confirmation on a concrete release window, many fans were speculating that the release might get pushed even later into midnight PST territory. This would effectively push the release date into September 5, which is exactly what has come to pass.

Many had predicted that this would be due to certification issues, where console or game pass releases would get delayed. While this might not be the case, the actual reason for this roughly 12-hour delay is related to consoles. Specifically, the developers have cited "cross-platform parity at launch."

Afterwards, the delay was prolonged even further by another five hours. For what it's worth, Ark expansion releases have a notorious track record for delays and technical setbacks. The current noon PST release of ARK Aberration Ascended and Bob's Tall Tales: Steampunk Ascent, hopefully, is the final one.

While the release was originally "pushed back in order to hit cross-platform parity at launch," this is what's holding back the release past the "finalized" release time. At any rate, this is not Studio Widlcard's first rodeo with console publication woes, so we estimate it will be sorted out in a few hours, tops.

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Edited by Dinesh Renthlei