Ark: Survival Evolved Doubles in Price Ahead of Launch

Ark: Survival Evolved is days away from launch, however the community is not happy. The game, which has been in early access for 2 years, is due for a full release shortly. Just prior to this launch the developer, Studio Wildcard, has decided to double the price of the game. This has left many fans royally upset, including DayZ creator Dean Hall.

Ark: Survival Evolved – The price increase has incensed Dean Hall

You may have been quite interested in Ark: Survival Evolved, however, wanted to get a better idea of how good (or bad) it was going to be before buying it. Well, your savvy shopping in this instance means that you’ve missed your chance to get it on the cheap, as the price has just doubled. A check of the Steam page currently shows the game as being £50.00. This is double what it was just last Friday.

DayZ creator Dean Hall has launched a blistering attach on the company in his Twitter feed:

Just so we're clear on my opinion: the price increase for Ark is ****ing OUTRAGEOUS.

— Dean Hall (@rocket2guns) July 6, 2017

Ark: The game is nowhere near ready for that kind of price. It's greed – pure and simple. It represents a huge disconnect with the community

— Dean Hall (@rocket2guns) July 6, 2017

It seems clear that he thinks that for where the game currently is, to summarily double its price is “greed – pure and simple”. I tend to agree, but then, I would add a caveat.

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!

Dean Hall created the popular game DayZ, he did however, summarily quit the project and has left the game in a state of 75% completed limbo. DayZ was an ambitious project, a zombie survival game with maps on a scale comparible to Arma. The scale of ambition was so great however that he seemingly got bored long before the game even broke out of early access. DayZ in its current state is still, kinda, in early access, but its stagnating. While I agree that Dean Hall is entitled to his opinion, I think he should careful levelling too much criticism at others, he’s had a lot aimed at him.

The Early Access minefield!

Now I’m sorry if that sounds a little ranty, but I’m quite a critic of early access games. I do however have my reasons. For example you may recently recall the battle of the ‘Coaster’ games between Planet Coaster and Rollercoaster Tycoon World. This was two very similar games going head to head in direct competition, we even reported on the latter at the time. Planet Coaster, was, by a country mile, the better game. I was, however, quite a heavy critic of it’s marketing.

The Planet Coaster developers wanted twice the end retail price for early access. Yes, you read that right, you paid twice as much just to gain access to the beta builds. I was incredulous that such a cynical tactic was employed. As far as I was concerned it was exploitative of its most loyal fans. Many disagreed with me and now, it’s irrevelent, but I hate badly marketed early access games.

This news with Ark: Survival Evolved annoys me in a different, but similar way. It’s a major mistake as far as I’m concerned and while Dean Hall may not be my biggest fan (as I said, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones) I can’t disagree with him.

Will you be buying this now? Do you regret not buying it sooner? Or has this put you off entirely? In my opinion, you would have to be a a gullible loonatic to even consider this now. The price increase is simply ridiculous, ludicrous and exploitative.