The Survival MMO ARK Survival Evolved has significantly raised its price and is preparing for release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Dean Hall, the creator of DayZ, finds this outrageous. ARK should still remain in Early Access.
ARK Survival Evolved now costs €70 or $60. In anticipation of the release in August on PS4, Xbox One, and PC ARK has already made this price jump. This price increase is causing excitement – not only among players but also among developer colleagues from Studio WildCard.
ARK: Too many bugs, too poor performance to leave Early Access
Dean Hall, who created DayZ in 2012, calls this price increase “fucking outrageous.”
ARK Survival Evolved is not nearly finished enough to justify this price. That is greed, poorly implemented. It shows that the developers have distanced themselves from their community.
Hall is a pioneer in Early Access. He began developing the horror survival game DayZ in 2012. It entered Early Access on Steam in December 2013. DayZ is still in Early Access four years later but is expected to switch to beta soon. Hall left Bohemia Interactive and DayZ in 2014.
DayZ is considered a prime example of a game that lingers too long in Early Access.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Hall explains what his issue is with ARK’s high price. His main concern is that ARK is exiting Early Access too early and solely for financial reasons. The state of the game does not justify this yet.
Hall is a big fan of ARK. He believes the game must stay in Early Access until it has good performance and few bugs to justify the high AAA price.
In its current state, Hall considers the price outrageous. He sets the standards much higher.
Hall feels the impact of the many bugs in ARK personally. He plays ARK exclusively with permadeath: every death caused by bugs hurts him more than others. Hall has to start over.
Games should stay in Early Access until they are finished
According to Hall, Early Access has a problem: developers and fans are obsessed with how long a game stays in Early Access. In the end, that doesn’t matter.
It’s about games staying there until they are finished. One should not accept that games leave Early Access and hit the shelves when they are not ready.
ARK is not ready to leave Early Access yet. This is only about getting the game into stores. Exiting Early Access has nothing to do with the actual state of the game.
Early Access remains a contentious issue in the community. What do you think? Is ARK ready for the big stage, or should it still remain in Early Access?
More about the price increase for ARK Survival Evolved:
ARK Survival Evolved: Just before release – Price increases to 70 euros
