In ARK Survival Evolved, the price has first risen and after a shitstorm, it has now fallen – at least on PC. PS4 and Xbox One are not affected by this price decrease. Why is ARK so expensive now?
ARK Survival Evolved has increased its price to €70. This led to a lot of criticism. Now the prices have at least fallen on the PC platform Steam. Over the weekend, the price for the German download version of ARK on PC was lowered from €69.99 to €59.99.
However, the game is still priced at €69.99 in the PlayStation Store. The Xbox One store also lists it at €69.99.
But what was the reason for the drastic price increase in recent days?
The price of the digital version is based on the retail price
The price increase from about $29.99 to $59.99 has caused a lot of trouble. The worldwide release of ARK Survival Evolved for PC, PS4, and Xbox One is on August 8. Before this commercial release, the price was increased so drastically.
According to Studio WildCard, the price increase was due to the wishes of the distribution partners. This is the business reality in a “retail model with pre-orders.”
The distribution partners did not want any price difference between digital sales and retail sales. Therefore, the digital version cannot be cheaper than the “retail” version.
Retail versions cost $60 – ARK seems to see little room to maneuver, although this is not explicitly stated.
Pioneering role associated with problems
Since ARK now has 3 times more content than at the Early Access start, Studio WildCard found the price increase justified. Therefore, ARK decided to comply with these demands. However, they understand the frustration.
Only a few major games have made the leap from Early Access to a full launch like ARK, so this step now seems unusual.
They at ARK wish it could have been done in a more elegant way. But the entire industry still has to figure out how such a transition from Early Access to a release model works.
More on the topic:
