Ark: Survival Ascended devs switch off cross-platform PVP to combat widespread cheating
“We feel this is the best course of action for the health of the game”
Ark: Survival Evolved remake Ark: Survival Ascended has seen its cross-platform PVP multiplayer temporarily turned off for Windows 10 users in an effort to crack down on PC cheaters.
Survival Ascended, the somewhat controversial replacement to the original Survival Evolved designed as a stopgap before the long-awaited Ark 2, finally dropped at the end of October. In the lead-up to the launch, developers Studio Wildcard switched off all of Survival Evolved’s official servers to prepare for the new game, angering those frustrated by having to pay for what had originally been suggested as a free upgrade for the original survival game.
Survival Ascended’s launch has been further beset by server woes, as players on console have complained about rampant cheating among PC users, including speedhacks and hitting players through walls.
As such, Studio Wildcard announced that they have temporarily disabled cross-platform play on Windows 10 across four of Survival Ascended’s PVP server types, including standard PVP and its Small Tribes, ARKpocalypse and Modded variants.
“We apologise to our Windows players but we feel this is the best course of action for the health of the game,” the studio wrote.
— ARK: Survival Ascended (@survivetheark) November 29, 2023
The plan is for Wildcard to work with Microsoft and anti-cheat provider BattlEye to add “robust anticheat measures” to the Windows 10 version. That should be done by “early next week”, the developers reckon, at which point crossplay PVP should be restored.
Wildcard added that single-player and private servers won’t be affected by the move, with the lockdown focused on official public servers. The switch-off only affects Windows 10 users on PC.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the messy rollout and launch, Survival Ascended is taking a bit of a beating among players, with a ‘Mixed’ reception on Steam at the time of writing. It seems unlikely that these latest server issues will help that.
Edit: Studio Wildcard has confirmed that the Survival Ascended PVP servers are only turned off for PC users on Windows 10. The story has been updated to make this clear.