ARK: Born To Be Pay2Win?

Jan

30

2024

0

By Louis Bang Bang

Karikatur: ASA Born To Be Pay2Win?

Wildcard is currently in the spotlight with its announcements regarding ARK Survival Ascended, sparking discussions about pay-to-win.

The Frontier Adventure Pack introduces paid skins for the upcoming re-release of the Scorched Earth map for the first time. Initial information was revealed in the Extralife stream. In the Community Crunch 392, it was announced that, in addition to skins, new structures like a railway will also be added. Notably, Snail Games, the owner of ARK, has already utilized game content in other projects like Dark and Light or PixARK – the railway even seems to be inspired by "Outlaw of the Old West" ;-). Additionally, the new paid dino Oasisaur was introduced, which is included in the aforementioned pack and is said to be able to resurrect fallen animals – a questionable idea for a survival game...

In the last Crunch at the end of January 2024, a new cosmetic system was also introduced. This allows players to create their own skins and use them on official servers, provided they are approved (details: Community Crunch 394). It is noteworthy that Wildcard has developed this feature but has not yet delivered any new content. Information regarding micropayments (MTX) is missing – although these skins would certainly be suitable for in-game purchases. Understandably, as when the CEO of Wildcard spoke about NFTs in 2022, the community reacted with strong resistance.

Jeremy Stieglitz stated in 2015 that there would never be in-game monetization:

There will never be monetization of this game, aside from possible completely new expansion ARKs (entirely new worlds as expansion packs).
There will never be paid items, not even cosmetics – there will be tons of cosmetic "item skins," but exclusively as earnable in-game rewards and free, time-limited events to promote the game – nothing for which you would ever have to spend money.
The term "Loot Crate" simply refers to a high-quality treasure chest.
To be clear: We at Studio Wildcard are strictly against any in-game monetization, as we have seen how it ruins good games.

This statement reflected the ambition at the time to make ARK Survival Evolved a fair game for everyone. However, just nine months later, in December 2015, Wildcard was sold to the Chinese company Snail Games – since then, Wildcard has only been the developer.

The need to generate revenue to secure salaries and profits is an unavoidable aspect of business.

Nevertheless, we should express ourselves respectfully towards the "snails" – um, the owners of Wildcard & ARK. Even though the thought of serving them our rexes as baby food accurately describes my feelings.

The introduction of further paid content by Snail Games could mark the beginning of a stronger commercialization – with possible restrictions on the modding system and free servers. This would be a significant blow to a community that has so far valued the creative freedom of ARK. YouTuber LtBuzzLitebeer also expresses such concerns in a video.

Additionally, ARK Survival Ascended has not yet reached the expected player numbers and is stagnating at the level of ARK Survival Evolved from 2015. Moreover, you still need a "moon rocket" as a PC to play it smoothly.

Familiar content will only return with the DLC maps for ASA – but that will take months. These delays (also with ARK 2) could prompt Snail Games to focus more on in-game purchases to ensure profitability – even if that means further delays with the maps.

Ultimately, it will show how the balance between monetization and maintaining game integrity will be found – and how the community will react.

May we be wiser in 2025. In this sense:

Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway,
looking for adventure in whatever comes our way.

Update from 06/05/2023

It got worse than expected: In addition to the unfinished map Center, a series of paid animals under the title "ARK Fantastic Tames" has been announced.

Pyromaniac

First up is the souped-up Shadowmane "Pyromaniac," which can transform from a shoulder pet into a large creature like a Ferox – now with a built-in flamethrower. The "burning lion" is immune to fire damage, making the Dragon Boss on The Island easy prey and the Tek Cave with lava flow a "piece of cake." Price: $5 – and the pay-to-win question is answered. What comes next? ARK Dominator Tek-tier packages with complete Tek gear and a Tek-Mek that can transform into a fighter jet?

Check out the following videos:

Update August 2025

To be fair and with some distance from the entire topic - yes, the Fantastic Games are P2W and skins can be purchased, but rather discreetly. Commercial PVP servers are then much more pay-to-win with their starter packs & co...