After some very last-minute delays, Ark: Survival Ascended finally landed on Xbox Series X|S this week - but its initial reception has been a bit mixed so far. This is a next-gen remake of sorts for Ark: Survival Evolved — now running on Unreal Engine 5 — and it seems the new tech is putting extra strain on Xbox performance.
As you can see in the video up above, the default frame rate here is hugely varied - running all the way from the 20FPS mark up to about 50FPS-or-so on Xbox Series X. Most of the time it's around the 30FPS area though, which is disappointing some fans who were expecting more from the full-priced remake.
Looking at some of the Xbox Store reviews (which sit at 3.6/5 overall), we're seeing some folks say it "looks worse than Evolved", while others are struggling to re-adjust to a lower frame rate in this remake. After all, the original release was enhanced for Xbox Series X|S - providing smoother frame rates and better visuals than on Xbox One.
Ark has always been a taxing game though, especially on console, and a lot of fans are also accepting of that. Another Xbox Store user reckons Survival Ascended has "amazing visuals", but they "just wish the frames were a bit better" - bemoaning a default average frame rate that sits close to 30FPS.
Some have pointed out that there are things you can do to improve the FPS in the game as well::
As with Survival Evolved, Studio Wildcard has plans to be working away on improving this remake while Ark 2 development is ongoing. It's clear that Xbox players would like to see some performance improvements going forward anyway - and we hope their wishes are granted.