Last week Studio Wildcard launched paid DLC for their Early Access title Ark: Survival Evolved which did not go down well with many players.
The studio has posted a response to the backlash explaining why they have released an expansion ahead of completing the core game.
“Scorched Earth: Our original vision for ARK always included the creation of Expansion ARKs, along with the infrastructure and technical systems to transfer data dynamically between live ARKs. We determined that it is more sound to iterate on these systems during Early Access than after retail launch, given the significant risks involved if we didn’t “get it right”. While that meant unveiling the first Expansion early, it also means an easier time integrating further post-launch Expansions into the ARK network. We understand that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and we appreciate the enjoyment people seem to be getting out of this initial view of how Expansion ARKs can work. Now that we have the systems in place to support them, we can ensure minimal integration issues with subsequent releases after ARK: Survival Evolved itself has launched. “
Since the Scorched Earth DLC released, Steam reviews have been mostly negative as players feel the core game needs more work and optimisation.
The update also outlines their plans for future content with the note that there “is a lot more content beyond that as we head into the home-stretch of preparing the game for 1.0 release”.
Releasing paid DLC while a game is still in Early Access will hopefully not become a trend.
