The long-awaited Ark 2 was announced in 2020, and after a lengthy wait with minimal updates and a few delays, it finally has a new release window. Unfortunately, it’s still a few years away, but we now have a better idea as to why and what to expect from the upcoming sequel.

In an interview with Epic Games’ Brian Crecente, Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz confirmed that Ark 2 is now planned to launch in 2028. This was revealed during publisher Snail Games’ Investor Day. He also explains the studio’s approach to releasing Ark 2, and how it wants to incorporate the lessons learned from releasing Ark: Survival Ascended, the current and remastered iteration of the original Ark: Survival Evolved.

“One of the things about doing Ark 2 was that we felt we had to learn a lot more about how to make the kind of game we wanted to do, and to do it kind of in phases,” Stieglitz explains. “Learning about both the technology and the mechanics seemed, to us, safer than to just try to go and release a whole standalone product called Ark 2.”

To do this, Studio Wildcard is planning to use Ark: Survival Ascended, which has now surpassed 4 million units sold, to gradually prepare for Ark 2’s launch. The first taste of the sequel will come in an expansion called Legacy of Santiago, arriving in late 2027. This expansion will feature mechanics and features planned for the 2028 sequel and serves as a prequel that will help set the stage for Ark 2’s events – Santiago is, after all, Ark 2’s protagonist, portrayed by Vin Diesel.

“Legacy of Santiago will allow us to explore a lot of mechanics that we want to do with Ark 2, but it kind of derisks that, " says Stieglitz. “Essentially, if we don't do it right, if we don't do it perfectly, we're able to iterate on it with a live game and get a lot more feedback than to just release something standalone. It's much safer for us to get a lot of that feedback in a live game where we can react much more fluidly to what players are telling us.”

In terms of Vin Diesel’s role in Ark 2, Stieglitz says his total involvement is still “an open question” that will determine the full scope of ambition of the game’s plot.  

“The question is: How much performance are we going to get from him?” Stieglitz said. “Are we going to get one day, five days, eight hours? You don’t know. And the scope of how much performance we are going to get determines just how the narrative is going to play out. We have a narrative that’s if we get a lot of Vin Diesel, this is what we will do, and if we get a little Vin Diesel, this is what we will do.”

Stieglitz also explains that Studio Wildcard wants to ensure players are ready to leave the previous game behind before launching Ark 2; it doesn’t want to stop updating Ark: Survival Ascended and leave those players in the cold. Thus, it is implementing a robust content roadmap throughout 2026 and 2027. This includes new narrative expansion Ark: Lost Colony launching this week, and 2026 additions such as the esports-focused Ark: Survival of the Fittest, a pirate-themed expansion called Bob’s True Tales: Tides of Fortune, and a modding-focused update called Ark World Creator. Even when Ark 2 launches, Stieglitz states that Ark: Survival Ascended will continue to be updated as long as demand exists.

Ark 2 was announced during The Game Awards in 2020 with a 2023 launch window. The game was delayed to 2024, with Studio Wildcard releasing Ark: Survival Ascended in 2023 instead. Obviously, Ark 2 would miss this 2024 launch window, and is now slated to arrive eight years after its reveal, assuming everything (hopefully) goes as planned. 

Update, 12/22/25:

A day after The Indie Game Awards 2025 ceremony, where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won the coveted Game of the Year award, the team behind the show, Six One Indie, has announced that it has since retracted that award due to developer Sandfall Interactive's use of generative AI in the game. Six One Indie has also retracted Clair Obscur's Best Debut award for the same reason. 

As a result, the games in second place for those two awards are now the winners, meaning Blue Prince is the Game of the Year for The Indie Game Awards, and Sorry We're Closed is the Best Debut winner. 

"The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself," a statement from Six One Indie reads. "When it was submitted for consideration, representatives of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination." 

Game Informer has updated The Indie Game Awards 2025 results below to reflect these changes.

The original story continues below...

Original story, 12/19/25:

The incredible team over at Six One Indie held its inaugural awards-only ceremony, The Indie Game Awards, last year, and the team returned to do the same last night! Game Informer was on the jury for its various awards, and after an awesome ceremony last night celebrating the year's best indies, we have a list of every winner. 

So, without further ado...

Every Winner From The Indie Game Awards 2025

Below, we'll list each category and every game nominated. The winner will be listed in bold lettering. 

Achievement in Accessibility 

• Abiotic Factor
• Barista
• Calm the Storm
• Peak
• Spray Paint Simulator
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home

African Indie Game Award

• Bru & Boegie Get Da Milk!
• Finding FAther
• Flibbius McDoogle and The Mysterious Flying Machine
• IKEELYA
• Metavoidal
• Stick It To The Stickman

ANZ Indie Game Award

• Abiotic Factor
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Mars First Logistics
• PROXIMATE
• Tempopo
• The Drifter

Bite-Sized Game

• CARIMARA – Beneath the Forlorn Limbs
• FlyKnight
• Many Nights a Whisper
• The Dark Queen of Mortholme
• this game will end in 205 clicks.
• Time Flies

Black Voices in Gaming Award

• Advent Neon
• Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi
• Sorry We're Closed
• Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
• Sunken Stones
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical

Community Management

• Consume Me
• Date Everything!
• IKEELYA
• Peak
• Soulstone Survivors
• Strange Scaffold

Debut Game

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Discounty
• Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson
• ILA: A Frosty Glide
• Sorry We're Closed
• Tyrant's Realm

Emotional Impact

• Afterlove EP
• and Roger
• Don't Get Your Hopes Up
• Henry Halfhead
• Wanderstop
• Wednesdays

Gameplay Design

• Absolum
• Ball x Pit
• Dawnfolk
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Keep Driving
• Look Outside
• Öoo
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
• The King is Watching

Innovation

• Blue Prince
• FREERIDE
• Gas Station Story
• PBJ The Musical
• Ruffy and the Riverside
• Taria & Como

Latin American Indie Game Award

• Adventure of Samsara
• despelote
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
• Taria & Como
• Tormented Souls 2

Music

• Everhood 2
• Herdling
• Rift of the NecroDancer
• SONOKUNI
• Sword of the Sea
• Wheel World

Narrative

• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
• Consume Me
• Promise Mascot Agency
• The Drifter
• The Roottrees are Dead
• The Séance of Blake Manor

Solo Development

• Lushfoil Photography Sim
• Megabonk
• NAIAD
• Spilled!
• Tall Trails
• Vile: Exhumed

Southeast Asian Indie Game Award

• Afterlove EP
• Artis Impact
• Glyphica: Typing Survival
• SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure
• Urban Jungle
• Whisper Mountain Outbreak

Visual Design

• 30 Birds
• Artis Impact
• Cat Detective Albert Wilde
• Eclipsium
• Mashina
• Slime Rancher 2

Women-Led Indie Game Award

• Cabernet
• Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
• Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim
• Spilled!
• Urban Myth Dissolution Center
• White Knuckle

Game of the Year

• Absolum
• and Roger
• Blue Prince
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Consume Me
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Keep Driving
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo

Community Picks

• Best Action Game: Hades II
• Best Adventure Game: Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Best Horror Game: R.E.P.O.
• Best Interactive Fiction: Date Everything!
• Best Multiplayer Game: Peak
• Best Puzzle Game: Blue Prince
• Best Role Playing Game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Best Simulation Game: Schedule 1
• Best Strategy Game: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
• Best Survival Game: Abiotic Factor
• Community Game of the Year: Hollow Knight: Silksong

Signature Awards

Here are various Signature Awards given to receipients throughout the ceremony. 

Indie Vanguard Class of 2025

• Chantey (Developer: Gortyn Code)
• Neon Knives (Developer: Cookiecrayon)
• Seasonala Cemetry (Developers: Gabby DaRienzo, Kait Tremblay, Jen Costa, Nina Wong, halina heron, Mobeen Fiktree, Jacqueline de Leon)
• HYPERBEAT (Developers: Alice Bottino, Chancellor Wallin)
• Wildwood Down (Developers: Crashable Studios)

The Mohammad Fahmi Storyteller Award

• Maddy Thorson of Extremely OK Games, Ltd (Associated Game: Celeste, TowerFall Ascension)

Industry Impact

• Game Devs of Color, represented by Catt Small, Brian S. Chung, and Joshy Boykin

And that's every winner of The Indie Game Awards 2025! Are there any surprises for you? Let us know in the comments below!

The year is winding down, and we're wrapping up for the holidays. Before the team gets going, though, there's still a few games to discuss and stories worth breaking down.

Marcus returns from The Game Awards 2025 to tell Alex and Charles about the on-the-ground experience. Then, the crew digs into their Steam Replay for 2025, then talks about a few neat games like Death Howl and Dogpile. And finally, Alex and Charles discuss the newly announced World of Warcraft: Midnight cover story.

The Game Informer Show is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday for chats about your favorite titles – past and present – alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry.

Listen to "World of Warcraft: Midnight Cover Story + Steam Replay 2025" on Spreaker.

Follow our hosts on social media:

• Alex Van Aken (@itsvanaken)
• Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)
• Marcus Stewart (@marcusstewart7)

Jump to a specific timestamp here:

00:00 - Intro06:03 - The Game Awards 202527:55 - Beastro32:33 - Damon and Baby39:06 - Steam Replay 20251:00:00 - Death Howl1:06:27 - Dogpile1:11:19 - World of Warcraft: Midnight

Reviewed on: Switch 2
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Reef Entertainment
Developer: Bitmap Bureau
Release: December 12, 2025
Rating: Mature

The Terminator franchise’s overlap with video games is full of mixed results. Despite it being a universe overflowing with video game catnip-like explosions, robot skeletons, and laser guns, there have been plenty of misses and only a few hits. The same could be said of the film franchise, as well, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day is an undeniable classic – a defining action film of its time that is still entertaining more than 30 years later. Terminator 2D: No Fate is exclusively an adaptation of that film and seeks to recall both the movie and the era in which it was released. As a nostalgic recreation of that time in entertainment, No Fate feels just right. But it is also sometimes a frustrating retread of video game design that we have moved past.

Developer Bitmap Bureau has become an expert in creating pixel art and releasing games that feel like they’re from the past. No Fate’s art direction is some of the developer’s best to date, and seeing all the iconography of Terminator 2 translated into classic arcade visuals is a treat. The animations of all the characters, enemies, and robot tanks look great, and the cutscenes that play out the movie's most memorable story moments are extraordinarily charming.

Gameplay is straightforward, primarily recalling Contra III: The Alien Wars’ run-and-gunplay with a handful of visually engaging vehicle levels that rely on quick reactions. The majority of No Fate’s levels play out with Sarah Connor, or an adult John Connor, in a ravaged future, taking a few steps, crouching to shoot enemies, and moving on. It works well and feels good, but I grew tired of the process, especially considering that beating the game and seeing all it has to offer requires replaying the same levels repeatedly. Making your way to the end (which takes about an hour), dying at the penultimate level, and restarting all the way back at the beginning is an outdated style of game that I don’t miss.

Thankfully, acknowledging the necessity of replaying, the vehicle levels, a beat ‘em up level where you play as the T-800, and a stealth level where Sarah escapes from the Pescadero State Hospital keep things from getting too monotonous. Replaying levels also means that when you do find secrets (like a better gun or additional continues), they are incredibly rewarding, helpful, and worth re-acquiring on every playthrough.

 

Once you make it through the game to credits, there are opportunities to replay the campaign and make a few key narrative choices that lead to big story changes and new original levels. I like this option a lot, as it’s fun to imagine a different version of Terminator 2 (with at least one really dour ending), and it makes me reminisce about bizarre video game movie adaptations of the past that had no problem going off the rails from properties that inspired them.

Terminator 2D: No Fate nails the feeling of a game that should have existed in the early ‘90s to coincide with the release of the film. It’s the kind of game that, had it released at that time, would have likely been revered as a great adaptation to this day. In 2025, it is still a strong retro adaptation of a beloved film, but it is not without some design annoyances that we’ve moved beyond.

Score: 7.75

About Game Informer's review system

One of the biggest eyebrow raisers for the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem was the surname of its protagonist, Grace Ashcroft. That's because she's the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, an investigative reporter and oft-forgotten character who last appeared in the equally overlooked Resident Evil Outbreak. For the many unfamiliar RE fans, this begs the question: Who the heck is Alyssa Ashcroft, and why has she suddenly become a big deal? To prepare for the next mainline Resident Evil game, we're going to answer this tantalizing question. 

Resident Evil Outbreak launched for the PlayStation 2 in North America on March 30, 2004. Set only a couple of days after the initial T-virus outbreak in Raccoon City, the game unfolds across five scenarios across different areas of the doomed city.  Outbreak features eight playable characters, including Alyssa Ascroft, along with an RCPD officer, a Vietnam War veteran, a bar waitress, and a surgeon, among others, fighting for survival against the infected. 

Join Marcus Stewart and Charles Harte as they embark on their first journey through Outbreak. Catch up on each episode below:

Episode 1 - Starting RE Requiem's Spiritual Predecessor
Episode 2 - Tackling the Chilling Second Scenario
Episode 3 - Freezing Our Butts Off in the Second Scenario
Episode 4 - Facing Scenario 2's Icy Hospital
Episode 5 - Exploring Scenario 3's Harrowing Hospital
Episode 6 - The Leech Man Cometh in the Raccoon Hospital
Episode 7- The Key to Success Needs a Padlock
Episode 8 - Feeling the Heat in Scenario 4's Hellish Hotel
Episode 9 - Halloween Havoc in the Final Scenario
Episode 10 - Wednesday Night Fever
Episode 11 - Shark Tank
Episode 12 - Death Wears a Speedo
Episode 13 - Slowly Breaking Through the Daylight