On the surface, you could think of ARK: Survival Evolved as one step removed from zombie survival games except it has dinosaurs instead. But the game is a great deal deeper and more involved than that, explaining why it has already sold 400,000 copies for $10 million in revenue. Yes, this little game is doing quite well for itself; studio co-founder Jesse Rapczak states that the game has seen peak concurrency numbers around 64,000 players.
The lengthy interview confirms that the game’s sales thus far have covered the initial development costs, although Rapczak is reluctant to claim “profit” when there’s still more development to manage. He also discusses early access as a concept and mentions that it’s the sort of business decision that makes sense only when the game is fundamentally finished already. Check out the full interview for more details on the game’s man-eat-dinosaur development process and the future of the title.
