‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Xbox One Getting New Patch And Servers Next Week

ARK: Survival Evolved on the Xbox One just received the 733.0 update this past week, but another is already planned for Monday, April 11. Studio Wildcard announced a patch is coming to the open-world survival game to fix some bugs and increase the limits for taming and structures.

The 733.1 update to be released Monday is a server-side update, which means there will be nothing to download for players. Studio Wildcard Community Manager Jen (aka bubblywums) revealed, via Twitter, this update will increase the tame limit by 20 to 200 personal tames. Additionally, the structure limit will be increased by 1,000 to 6,500 structure items per area.

Note that there is still an overall server limit for the number of tamed animals. It is currently 9,500, which currently works out to around 135 tames per person on average, according to Jen.

One of the fixes that will be included with the 733.1 update on Monday is the artifact loot crate issue in caves, per a Twitter post from Studio Wildcard co-founder Susan Stieglitz.

Interestingly, Studio Wildcard will add new servers to ARK: Survival Evolved next week. Stieglitz also made that announcement, via Twitter, where she also said she receives requests for new Xbox One servers at least 15 times a day from fans.

This comes on the heels of the release of the new Extinction Servers, which will reset once a month complete with a meteor impact to signal the reset. The meteor can be seen in the sky and will grow larger as the end counts down. These are in response to some ARK: Survival Evolved players seeking a fresh experience in-game instead of dealing with servers where established tribes dominate the island. It also keeps the developer from constantly adding new servers.

“These time-limited servers are a great way for new players to start on a level playing field and a challenging gameplay choice for those who want to see how far they can progress before the end of days! Participants will earn badges to mark their accomplishment,” Studio Wildcard explained.

The Extinction Servers are an experiment for now, so expect tweaks as Studio Wildcard gets feedback from the community. The harvest, experience, and tame rates were upped to two to three times the normal rates, not long after the new servers went live on the PC, for example.

The addition of new non-Extinction servers is interesting, though, as the current ARK: Survival Evolved official Xbox servers are no longer bursting at the seams with players. Studio Wildcard added hundreds of new servers to the game and the game has seen few players in recent weeks. Previously, most-to-all servers in the official server list would be over 50 and 60 players. Currently, only a handful are above 40 players.

The constant demand for new servers is for players to get a fresh start in ARK: Survival Evolved. The current official servers have matured to the point where various Alpha tribes dominate unless their members break up and leave the game. This has frustrated smaller tribes and individual players who pack up for another server or just quit playing entirely. The Extinction servers are meant to satisfy the desire for players to get on something new, so it will be interesting to see how this develops.

It will also be interesting to see if the ARK: Survival Evolved official server population sees an uptick in the coming weeks. Studio Wildcard announced the Xbox Game Preview program is expanding, which will make the game available in the countries of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Singapore, and Taiwan.

[Image via Studio Wildcard]