A new open world game is promising players the opportunity to tame then ride dinosaurs into battle with or against their friends.

Ark: Survival Evolved is a persistent-world survival title from Studio Wildcard, a developer founded by former Microsoft Game Studios technical art director Jesse Rapczak.

It is coming to Steam Early Access on June 3, but Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions are also expected to launch in early 2016.

It will support Oculus Rift VR, Sony’s Morpheus VR headset, and Steam community features such as Steam Economy and Steam Workshop for custom maps and mods.

Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Ark: Survival Evolved promises “a unique blend of emergent multiplayer cooperation and competition”, along with vast, formidable environments, and 60 dinosaurs including the Pterodactyl, Raptor, Brontosaurus, T-Rex, and “gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games”.

Players will organise tribes to accumulate resources, experience, and respawn points, and will be able to construct sprawling villages and cities, with technology spanning the primitive stone-age to the modern electric-powered era and beyond.

The pitch, from Wildcard:

Players awake naked and starving on the beach of a mysterious island among a herd of other confused humans.

“On Ark, they must then hunt, harvest, craft, research technology, and build shelters to protect against scorching days, freezing nights, volatile weather systems, dangerous wildlife, and potential enemies.

Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground.

All creatures in ARK have their own living ecosystems, predator hierarchies, and an autonomy that exists outside of the players’ influences. Their interactions with each other intertwine with the way that players might use them, because almost every one of our creatures will be able to be tamed and used for peace or for war.

Build your character’s strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems. Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover the Ark’s true purpose.

“Ark taps into the scale, size, and wildly unpredictable nature of the dinosaur eras like no other game before it, then pairs it with the wonders of exploration and technological discovery,” said Rapczak.

“We’re particularly excited to bring Ark to consoles, as open-world survival gameplay is typically found solely in PC games.”