The strange story of Ark: Survival Evolved continues, as its spin-off works get reorganized. Developer Studio Wildcard has announced that they are going to be ceasing updates for the Ark: Survival of the Fittest mode. On the other hand, they're teaming up with Snail Games to create Ark Park, a VR game that lets you explore the world of Ark and see the dinosaurs up close.
Ark: Survival of the Fittest was originally developed as a mod to Survival Evolved. Yet when it proved to be popular it was spun-off into its own game released in March. The game was a stand-alone free to play and did not require owning Ark: Survival Evolved. 72 players would drop into an arena and have to craft, train dinosaurs, and build weapons to fight each other. In August Studio Wildcard announced that, in order to offset costs of running the game without adding microtransactions, Ark: Survival of the Fittest would no longer be free to play but rather bundled with Ark: Survival Evolved. It seems these efforts did not work, though, as now development on Ark: Survival of the Fittest is being indefinitely postponed.
In a post on Steam, the developers say that there will currently be no more active development on Survival of the Fittest. They feel as they can not properly develop the game while still working on Ark: Survival Evolved. They do note that this may not a permanent decision and that a future console port may give them enough to go back to development. In the meantime, there will no longer be official tournaments run for the game, though the servers will stay online. They are hosting one last pair of tournaments today with the best 8 players having a 4v4 match against each other. All 8 players will get a $20 Steam gift card for participating, while the winning team will get another $100 gift card each. After that match ends, Studio Wildcard will host a 100v100 "Naughty vs. Nice" tournament with all 100 players of the winning team getting a $50 gift card.
If you're interested in the world of Ark then there's a new game coming out that you may be interested in. Ark Park is a VR game coming to HTC Vive, Oculus, and PlayStation VR sometime in 2017. The game is being developed by Snail Games, developer of online games such as Age of Wushu, Black Gold Online, and 5Street. Ark Park was announced in November, although we are getting new details about it now. The game sounds as if it intends to be a companion game to Survival Evolved, with players able to transfer their captured dinosaurs to the Ark Park to observe them up close and in their natural habitat. You can also wander through interactive exhibits to see other dinosaurs as well. A trailer has been released for the game that you can watch here:
Ark Park will be releasing sometime in 2017 for PC and PlayStation 4 for a currently unknown price. Ark: Survival Evolved is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for $29.99 in early access. Yes, even on PlayStation 4 where they put it in the description, despite there being no PlayStation 4 early access program, and will be fully releasing in 2017.
Upset about development on Survival of the Fittest ending? Excited for Ark Park? Got other concerns? Let us know in the comments below!
