Since ARK Survival Evolved went into full release, it has been unusually quiet around the survival MMO. There have been no major announcements or small statements. The release date of the expansion Aberration is also still pending.
For 2 years, the developers of ARK have been praised for their closeness to the fans and their open communication. Hardly a day went by in the last two years without a tweet from the developers, without a post in the forum, a new video, an interview, or any other sign of life.
Silence at ARK Survival Evolved
But currently, there is silence, although there is so much to discuss. Fans have noticed this too. Redditor Ranthos created a post titled “What’s with all the silence?”. Translated: What is the reason for all the quiet?
In his post, Rahthos describes the situation:
- There have been minor patches without patch notes or announcements from the developers.
- This past week has been one of the worst in ARK’s history regarding severe bugs and server issues like crashes. It has been pure chaos with little communication from the developers.
- There has been no word about the Aberration expansion, although it was announced for October.
- Rahthos feels that it has been quiet around ARK lately and has heard little from Wildcard.
Later, an official ARK account commented on the updates without patch notes, explaining that these were meant to address server crashes. The ARK official did not address the other points, the silence, or the stillness regarding the expansion.
No official statements on ARK’s release sales yet
There’s a lot to discuss: On August 29, 2017, ARK Survival went into full release. Normally, “big titles” like ARK Survival Evolved spread the first success reports shortly after release.
There is no trace of any report on how many units of ARK were sold after the launch. The studio Wildcard hoped for a significant increase in players with the full release.
With the launch, ARK hit retail. Wildcard aimed to reach half of the players who still buy in stores. A target audience was to be addressed that wants nothing to do with digital sales.
Bugs and poor performance are still an issue after launch
There was no information at launch – what is the current state of the game?
The release start of ARK was rather bumpy and brought some server problems. The official servers were quickly overcrowded. Wildcard is gradually solving these problems by providing more servers.
However, anyone browsing the communities on Twitter, Reddit, or the official ARK forum will find a lot of complaints about lags, bugs, and poor performance.
There are reports of issues such as crashes, severe lags, or losing a character.
The latest patch notes for PC, PS4, and Xbox One indicate that Wildcard is working on eliminating bugs. However, resolving the bugs is only advancing slowly, and new ones keep appearing. The performance is still largely poor, especially on consoles.
This has become unacceptable for some, as ARK is now also being offered at the full price of a new game title.
However, there has been no official statement from Wildcard regarding these complaints since the launch.
Where is the release date for Aberration? Expansion was announced for October
Not only are there no reports on the launch and current state of ARK Survival Evolved, but also no information on how it will continue.
Studio Wildcard promised that a lot of new content would be released after the launch of ARK. Among other things, the new expansion Aberration was announced. A DLC that takes players into a creepy underworld with monsters. Wildcard announced this for October 2017.
So far, Wildcard has not released a release date for Aberration, although we are already well into October.
It would be quite normal for Wildcard to postpone the release of an expansion like Aberration. The last expansion, Ragnarok, was also postponed several times.
Normally, Wildcard keeps its players informed when new content is delayed. Regarding Aberration, Wildcard is silent about a release date and does not respond to inquiries from the community.
The calm before the storm, shock paralysis, or well-deserved vacation?
For a title the size of ARK Survival Evolved, this silence is unusual.
- The positive interpretation: The developers have been under pressure for two years and are now using the post-release phase to relax. The studio has entered a sort of “post-release” vacation phase.
- The negative interpretation: The full launch went wrong, and they are in crisis mode to solve the problems or come up with something new.
- But perhaps it is also the calm before the storm. Whether there is still a storm coming and what it could bring remains to be seen.
