ARK: Survival Evolved has been one of the most followed in development games. A survival game that has enormous maps, multiple climates, and dinosaurs to boot. With the popularity of the main game, ARK: Survival of the Fittest slowly came to light. According to Studio Wildcard, the stand alone started as a internal mod side-project. It eventually launched into its own standalone client.
In their latest post on Steam, Studio Wildcard is ready to discuss the future of ARK: Survival of the Fittest. If you’ve previously downloaded and played the game, you don’t have to worry, you can still play it whenever you please. For those of us who procrastinated or never wanted to try it out, you’ll have to buy ARK: Survival Evolved to get access.
Survival of the Fittest will now be a part of ARK: Survival Evolved. From a technical standpoint it will still be considered its own game, but if you want to own it you will have to buy ARK: Survival Evolved. It is now considered part of the product group, and will no longer be free to play. According to Studio Wildcard there are multiple reasons for the decision, one of which is avoiding free to play monetisation.
Like any video game with servers, free to play games still have costs. Developer Studio Wildcard cited development work, server costs, running of tournaments, prizes, and the opportunity cost. To continue supporting ARK: Survival of the Fittest and not charge for cosmetic items, they decided to merge the free to play game into the main version of ARK.
ARK: Survival of the Fittest has been delayed for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as the developers are curious to see how it will pan out long term on the PC. The development kit has been released, and with the changes made they’ve decided to make no restrictions; modders are free to do what they please.