Ark: Survival Evolved proved to be a massive hit following its initial release way back in June. Surely, Studio Wildcard is reaping sales after sales, as the game's player pool continues to grow each day. With the introduction of Survival of the Fittest, an arena-based spinoff for the title, a new kind of excitement was experienced by fans. Unfortunately though, it will be discontinued.
According to GameRant, the arrival of Survival of the Fittest to Ark: Survival Evolved has dramatically increased the number of players. It is basically a free-to-play arena-themed version of the game released this year. It was only made available for PC, though.
It should be noted, however, that the said Ark: Survival Evolved spinoff will be discontinued. And although it will still exist, the devs plan to bring it back inside the game as part of the package. Simply put, for players who have yet to sign up for Survival of the Fittest, they will have to purchase it via the main title.
Overall, there are two reasons as to why the decision to include it as a complete Ark: Survival Evolved package was made. One is that Studio Wildcard has already released a new kind of development tool for modders; and second, the studio does not want to put out any restrictions on both content and licensing. The latter reason is more directed towards players who do not own the game.
It is safe to say that the people behind Ark: Survival Evolved has no intentions to become a free-to-play developer. After all, even games like it require a good amount of resources in order to pull through.
As for the PS4 release of Ark: Survival Evolved, GameSpot notes that Studio Wildcard has been hoping for it to happen. However, the decision to do so heavily relies on Sony. Nonetheless, the tech giant iterated that the game cannot be released to the said platform unless its overall development is finished.
Ark: Survival Evolved is now available on PC via Steam Early Access. For Xbox One users, they can acquire it through the Game Preview. And since Sony does not have such feature (Early Access) integrated to PS4, this explains the reportedly discontinued in-progress version of the game.
