'Ark: Survival Evolved' v254 Update: Release of patch 254 delayed until end of January

The upcoming v254 update for "Ark: Survival Evolved" was pushed to be released by the end of January. One of the possible reasons for the delay is the creation of fixes for gameplay issues.

Initially released for Windows, OS X, Linux, and Xbox One in 2015, "Ark: Survival Evolved" is an open-world action survival video game that was developed by Studio Wildcard along with Instinct Games, Efecto Studio, and Virtual Basement. "Ark: Survival Evolved" has also been made available on PC and PS4 in 2016.

The game can be played either on a third-person or first-person perspective, wherein the player must accomplish the basics in surviving on an island with nothing but the Ark's resources.

The Ark consists of 36 square kilometers of land and 12 square kilometers of water for the players to explore and search for items that will help them build a base, a fire, weapons for hunting, and tools for food gathering.

A v254 update was set to be released earlier this month, but Studio Wildcard community manager Jat shared on the Steam page that it will be delayed.

"We're going to be delaying the release of Patch 254 until the 30th of January. I know a lot of you are excited and trust me, we are too. This patch is much larger than we first anticipated and we need more time to work on it in development, and through internal QA process prior public release. However soon you will get to enjoy a hell of a lot of new content, and we're cooking up an extra-special surprise feature for the patch!" the post read.

iDigitalTimes reported that the confirmed list of features that the "Ark: Survival Evolved" v254 has are new hairstyles, Tek Tier phase one, a set of new dinosaurs, new items, alliance chat with other gamers, and more. Some of these have already been demonstrated by Studio Wildcard.

Aside from the many advancements that may have caused the delay in releasing the patch, it is also possible that the developers worked on the gameplay issues of "Ark." There were blue screen issues and console space that needed to be addressed to improve the gameplay experience. The developers also had to work on PS4 and Xbox One compatibility of content to enable the v253 patch.

"Ark: Survival Evolved" v254 is set to be released on Jan. 30.