‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Price Increase Coming, Signals Early Access Exit Soon For PC, PS4, And Xbox One

Gamers curious about ARK: Survival Evolved might want to purchase their PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or PC copy soon. Studio Wildcard announced price increases for the open-world dinosaur survival game will start next week. This appears to be yet another signal the game will exit Steam Early Access and the Xbox Game Preview program very soon.

ARK: Survival Evolved on the PS4 and Xbox One will see a price increase on Monday, June 12, according to a post on the official website. Meanwhile, the PC version jumps upward from its current $29.99 price on Friday, July 7. No announcement was made about what the price will be on any of the new platforms.

The price increase comes after Studio Wildcard practically gave ARK: Survival Evolved away on Steam recently. The game was available to purchase for only $9.59 two weeks ago with the Scorched Earth expansion discounted to $6.39. Both could have been purchased for just $13.58.

Technically, the PS4 version of ARK: Survival Evolved is not an Early Access release simply because the console doesn’t have the concept. Sony allowed the game to get an official release early once Trophy support was added. It’s still had the same content and same issues as the other platforms, however, and will get the same price increase.

Studio Wildcard at E3

The ARK: Survival Evolved developers will be at E3 to go along with the price increases. Studio Wildcard Co-founder Jesse Rapczak will appear on YouTube Live at E3 Sunday, June 11 at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT. He’ll follow that up Monday, June 12 with an appearance on the Twitch E3 Day Zero Show at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT.

Meanwhile, PrimitivePlus mod and mod community manager Cedric Burkes will be a guest Wednesday, June 14 on the Xbox Daily Show. He’ll appear at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT.

Signals of an Early Access Exit announcement?

I contacted Studio Wildcard a month ago with the conjecture that ARK: Survival Evolved’s full release could come in a few months, possibly September. The studio responded by saying “That’s about right,” but the price increase sounds like it might happen sooner.

The combination of the price increase, appearances at E3, and the current development status of ARK: Survival Evolved signals an announcement on the official release date of the game at E3. The console update released to Xbox One Friday evening (PS4 delayed to Monday) and the PC patch pushed out two weeks ago completed the addition of all announced dinosaurs and creatures to the survival title.

That’s not to say Studio Wildcard is done with adding content and features to ARK: Survival Evolved. Most notably the “Boss Wars” feature still needs to be added along with some structures, like the long-promised extendable bridges. Even more importantly, the final boss battle in the Tek Cave still needs to be finalized.

Beyond that, the developers will need to spend time optimizing and polishing the game ahead of Early Access Exit. ARK’s performance is notorious on even beastly PC gaming rigs and has been a huge pain point for those playing on the PS4 and Xbox One. The in-game world is huge with tons of animal AI to track on the ground, in the air, and in the water. There’s also a plethora of different objects from trees and rocks to the massive structures players build.

All these objects to render and track result in an intensive game that needs serious optimization going into full release. Still, it will be interesting to see how it performs on the Xbox Scorpio and perhaps Cedric will provide some word of that during his appearance on the Xbox Daily Show on Wednesday.

‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Not Done at Early Access

Studio Wildcard won’t be done with ARK: Survival Evolved whenever it does exit Early Access. The developer told Inquisitr: “the fun doesn’t stop [at official release], we’ll be continuing to optimize, fix bugs, and add content far past the ‘1.0’ release version. Console users can expect a Day 1 patch, and so forth which will add yet more things to the ARK.”

For example, studio co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz recently teased a new creature announcement for E3 via his Twitter account. Fans should expect more dinosaurs, craftable items, and features to continue to be added to the game plus future expansions similar in scale to Scorched Earth.

HmmMmm… what is it?!! #E32017 pic.twitter.com/0XWu3fICsW

— Jeremy Stieglitz (@jeremystieglitz) June 9, 2017

Xbox Play Anywhere

For those wondering about the long-promised Play Anywhere support for ARK: Survival Evolved, Studio Wildcard told Inquisitr it will be included with the 1.0 release of the game. This will bring a Windows 10 Store version of the game that will allow cross-play between PC and the Xbox One as well as the ability for individuals to set up or rent dedicated PC servers for the game instead of using a console.

[Featured Image by Studio Wildcard]