If you thought ARK: Survival Evolved’s launch this summer couldn’t get any more contentious, go get another box of popcorn as penance. In the middle of the night on Saturday, Studio Wildcard announced a launch delay in its community roundup.
“As of today, ARK has completed its Gold Master and certification for retail release,” the studio says. “This process took a little longer than expected and as a result, our release date has been pushed back to August the 29th. We’re deeply apologetic for those who were negatively affected by the delay; it sucks, it wasn’t what we had wanted, nor planned but where we currently stand. We wanted to address this sooner but did not want to make any statements until we were completely sure of what was going to happen.”
It was meant to launch August 8th, meaning a delay of three weeks, which will also affect the release of the large-scale Ragnarok mod.
The popular dino survivalbox has been in early access for over two years and infamously produced a paid expansion in that time. July hasn’t been the greatest month for the studio; it previously announced a $59.99 base price for the PC version of the game, a fee game dev Dean Hall called “****ing outrageous, then followed that up with a contradictory series of statements about wiping the launch servers in response to rampant exploiting.
Studio Wildcard does say that the delay gives it time to work on post-launch patches for the game, with an emphasis on the “PC and multiplayer” versions, PC performance, multiplayer boss difficulty, baby critters, under-the-map exploits, and server performance.
“We will be releasing a major version update in the middle of the month which will significantly assist with DDoS mitigation, resolve the exploit which has allowed players to dupe, and of course not to be forgotten, but allow players to rent PC-dedicated Console Servers.”
