ARK: Survival Evolved sequel is outed at The Game Awards for next-gen consoles, featuring Vin Diesel

Recently at The Game Awards, ARK developer Studio Wildcard unveiled a rather unexpected franchise sequel: ARK 2, apparently starring Vin Diesel. The ARK 2 trailer has the Fast and Furious star playing a hunter named Santiago.

At this point, it's unclear just how central Vin Diesel's character will be to the ARK 2 storyline. When CD Projekt Red announced that Keanu Reeves would play a role in Cyberpunk 2077, it was initially assumed that the actor's character, Johnny Silverhands, would have a brief cameo appearance. Reeves's digital avatar turned out to have a much, much bigger role in the game, however. 

It's also interesting to note the apparently greater focus on narrative. The original ARK: Survival Evolved is a multiplayer survival experience, akin to games like Rust, and is rather sparse on story beats. It remains to be seen how great the story emphasis will be in ARK 2. The official ARK  Twitter did mention that the game will be an online multiplayer sandbox, so Studio Wildcard might not be changing the formula too much. 

While it raises more questions than it answers, the in-engine trailer is, at the very least, a stunning demonstration of high end next-generation visuals.