ARK’s Studio Wildcard is launching a 40K-person-server pirate MMO called Atlas next week

If you blinked during the Game Awards on Twitch, you might have missed the announcement of a new MMO launching next week from the makers of ARK: Survival Evolved. Studio WildCard’s Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak were on hand with a quick trailer and interview to herald the upcoming release of Atlas — a massive pirate-filled world — that hits PCs December 13th and is credited to Grapeshot Games and Instinct Games. And by release, they mean “two years of early access,” apparently, but this is WildCard, so you probably figured that. This first person MMO – an “MMO On the Grandest Scale,” the Steam page boldly declares – will then launch on XboxOne next year in the game preview program.

According to the devs, the world is 1,200 times bigger than ARK’s arks and can host “up to 40,000 players exploring the same globe simultaneously” on both official and custom modded servers. The trailer highlights plenty of battles on both land and sea, from naval warfare to fights with dragons and demons. There’s also a good share of fisticuffs as well as what appears to be base building.

“Everything is up for grabs including player’s ships, their crew, their pets, their forts, their land, and their booty. If you can get your hands on it, you can take it. A ship’s permanent logbook tells the tale of their legendary travel, exploits and ownership. “