ARK: Survival Evolved Might Have Been Stealthily Delayed

ARK: Survival Evolved has been ane of the most successful indie releases after its Steam Early Access debut. Launched in June 2022 to ride the wave of the blockbuster pic Jurassic World, it officially surpassed 2 million sales in October; SteamSpy now tracks owners' data at ii.9 million.

That's before ARK: Survival Evolved fifty-fifty released on Xbox One's Game Preview program, where the game chop-chop surpassed the daily player count of the PC version. Yet, the game is even so in active development and we accept stumbled upon some hints directly from the press releases that might indicate a filibuster of the full release.

The goal had been to launch one twelvemonth after the Steam Early Access debut, in June 2022. In the frequent press releases almost the game's updates, this was always specified right at the end, until the very last press release sent out in 2022. TitledRAPTOR CLAUS MAKES IT SNOW ON STEAM IN MASSIVE ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED WINTER WONDERLAND UPDATE and shared on Dec 23, it yet mentioned the original release date as you can read below.

Nonetheless, less than a month later the first press release shared in Jan (STUDIO WILDCARD LAUNCHES ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED $60,000 WORLDWIDE MODDING CONTEST TODAY) had already switched to a less specific Summer 2022 window.

One could take assumed a slight delay of about three months (Summertime volition terminate on September 22) at worst. However, the last ii press releases have at present dropped the flavour reference entirely, with ARK: Survival Evolved at present pinned for a generic 2022 launch. Hither's a snapshot from theARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED BRINGS STEAM PLAYERS AN EGGSCELLENT Hazard FOR EASTER! (*GROAN*)... press release sent out on March 25.

It could have been just a typo, but yesterday'southward ARK: SURVIVAL DEVOLVED FLIPS THE EVOLUTIONARY Money ON ITS Head -- DINOS GRAB A SADDLE! press release had the same wording. At this point, it's fair to assume that the full version of ARK: Survival Evolved might release during the Fall (barring any further delays) rather than Summer; of course, this affects mostly PlayStation 4 gamers as owners of a PC or Xbox 1 tin can already play ARK through Early Access/Game Preview.

There could be plenty of reasons for this occurrence, from the usual ones (more than polish makes for a better game) to those specific to ARK. For instance, just over a couple weeks ago Studio Wildcard appear their determination to split up the pop Battle Royale/Hunger Games themed arena manner into a F2P standalone title: Survival of the Fittest. This Multiplayer Online Survival Arena now has its own roadmap with a projected launch in Q4 2022, thus representing boosted workload for the development squad.

Moreover, in that location'southward also the non-trivial matter of the ongoing legal dispute between Trendy Entertainment and Studio Wildcard. Trendy Amusement, the studio behind Dungeon Defenders, filed a lawsuit in December 2022 stating that their former Creative Managing director Jeremy Stieglitz violated contractual agreements not to compete with his former company and has been working on ARK: Survival Evolved since he resigned from Trendy.

Studio Wildcard, who has not publicly commented on this upshot still, filed a movement to dismiss with the post-obit motivation:

Trendy's Complaint reads more like a salacious tabloid story than a curt and patently argument of the ultimate facts allegedly showing Trendy's entitlement to relief, as required by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. Many of the allegations are disparaging and included only to be provocative. They are irrelevant, immaterial, impertinent, and scandalous. Equally such, these allegations should be stricken.

The courtroom of Florida is due to hear Trendy's arguments on April 27; should their motion be accepted, there could be consequences for ARK's development. Let'southward hope it won't come to that, with the game eventually releasing later this year after a proper smooth pass.