In Ark Survival Evolved, the confusion is complete. The survival MMO is supposed to get an MMO spin-off for the Asian market.
To get through Ark Survival Evolved, one needs a precise version plan.
Ark Survival Evolved is a Buy2Play MMO with dinosaurs. It is still in Early Access on PC and Xbox One. However, on PlayStation 4, it is already “fully released”, as Sony does not want early access titles on its platform but is making an exception for Ark. Therefore, it seems they turned a blind eye to some dinosaur issues.
There was already a “Free2Play” variant in our market: Survival of the Fittest. It was meant to be a trimmed-down action version for “Twitch/eSport” – it performed incredibly well on Steam. However, the studio Wildcard announced in August: We are pulling that back. It’s no longer Free2Play, but Survival of the Fittest is part of the base game again.
Now Snail Games, a Chinese publisher, wants to release a “Free2Play” MMO version of Ark for the Asian market. 150 beta servers launched on January 1st for the Asia-Pacific region. As is common with “online ports” for Asia, it is supposed to be a Free2Play game with a cash shop. The title is “Ark Survival Evolved Online.” It is expected to add mailbox features and a more detailed tutorial – typical for Asia-MMO. Allegedly, “graphical improvements” are also to be expected.
The Asia-focused site 2p has reported: The game is also supposed to come to North America and Europe later. They had to walk that back. A representative from Snail Games contacted them: It is too early for such a statement. The situation there is still uncertain. Announcing Ark Survival Evolved Online for a market where the MMO Ark Survival Evolved is already running could lead to misunderstandings and confusion.
Snail Games is right about that. I already feel quite dizzy.
By the way, there is another variant of Ark – with Virtual Reality:
ARK Park: Feeding dinosaurs – VR game becoming a virtual Jurassic Park
