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11 Studio Wildcard is the American developer behind the ARK franchise and the developer and publisher of ARK 2. The studio is best known for ARK: Survival Evolved (2017) and the Unreal Engine 5 remaster ARK: Survival Ascended (2023). For a summary of the new game, see the Overview page.
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33 Studio Profile
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55 FieldDetailFoundedOctober 2014 (as Wildcard Properties LLC)FoundersDoug Kennedy (CEO), Jeremy Stieglitz (Co-Founder and Lead Designer/Programmer), Jesse Rapczak (Creative Director), Susan Browning StieglitzHQ OfficesRedmond, Washington and Gainesville, FloridaParentSDE Inc., a Snail Games USA affiliate of Snail Games (parent listed on Nasdaq)Co-Developer on ARK 2Grove Street Games (Development and Technical Director Thomas Williamson)Role on ARK 2Lead developer and publisher
66 Notable Games
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88 TitleYearNotesARK: Survival Evolved2017Debut title. Early Access June 2015, full release August 2017. Over 76 million copies sold cumulatively across all platforms.ARK: Survival Evolved Expansions2017 to 2021Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Genesis: Part 1 and Part 2. Genesis: Part 2 sets up the bridge into ARK 2.ARK: The Animated Series2024Animated companion series. Vin Diesel reprises Santiago and is executive producer.ARK: Survival Ascended2023UE5 remaster of the first game. Early Access October 25, 2023; crossed four million units by December 2025.ARK 22028 target. See Overview.Sequel on UE5 with Grove Street Games as co-developer. Locked third-person, soulslike primitive melee, smaller-tribe survival.
99 Studio History
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1111 The company was founded in October 2014 as Wildcard Properties LLC by Doug Kennedy (CEO), Jeremy Stieglitz, Jesse Rapczak, and Susan Browning Stieglitz. Stieglitz had just exited a previous studio under a one-year non-compete clause. ARK: Survival Evolved entered Steam Early Access in June 2015 and reached full release in August 2017, going on to sell over 76 million copies cumulatively. On October 25, 2023, the studio launched ARK: Survival Ascended, a UE5 remaster that surpassed four million units sold by December 2025 and is its primary live-service runtime today.
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1313 Ownership
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1515 In December 2015, Wildcard Properties LLC was acquired by SDE Inc., a Snail Games USA affiliate, through a merger with a subsidiary called Snail Ark Inc. The corporate parent has been Snail Games ever since. Snail Games is publicly listed on the Nasdaq exchange and its 2025 Investor Day re-confirmed the 2028 target window for ARK 2.
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1717 Vin Diesel's Role
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1919 Vin Diesel's involvement runs deeper than a voice role. Since 2020 he has held the title of President of Creative Convergence at Studio Wildcard, a senior creative-leadership position across games, animation, and licensing. He is credited as executive producer on ARK 2 and on the connected animated series, and voices Santiago da Costa.
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2121 ARK 2 Co-Development
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2323 ARK 2 is not built solely in-house. The credited co-development partner is Grove Street Games, brought in to share the engineering and production workload alongside the live-service obligations on Survival Ascended. Their director Thomas Williamson is Development and Technical Director on ARK 2. The partnership is why the team can keep shipping content for the UE5 remaster while the sequel is in active production.
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2525 Risk-Conscious Roadmap
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2727 Studio leadership has been openly cautious about launching a sequel this size as a single release. To reduce that risk, the team moved several of ARK 2's signature mechanics into a Q4 2027 paid expansion for the UE5 remaster called Legacy of Santiago. That expansion is not ARK 2 itself; it is a public test bed for soulslike combat, advanced traversal, smaller-tribe pacing, and the primitive-only weapon ramp.
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2929 Jeremy Stieglitz has framed the strategy bluntly: every game can have an expansion pack that is a miss and the team can move on, but if a whole new game misses, it can be company-ending. Pulling the new mechanics into a tested expansion is the studio's response to that exposure.
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3131 Unconfirmed Details
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3333 Several aspects of the studio's current operation have not been published: total Studio Wildcard headcount, the number of Grove Street Games staff on ARK 2, the split of responsibilities between the two studios, internal team structure beyond named leadership, and any future projects beyond ARK 2 and the Survival Ascended live-service plan. This page will be updated as the studio publishes additional details.