WildCard Addresses Scorched Earth Controversy

Ark: Survival Evolved recently had a paid expansion released, called Scorched Earth, which was released on September 1st. And to say it's gotten some mixed reviews would be putting it... mildly. Now, folks universally agree the new content looks amazing, and that it does some pretty cool things with the now-familiar Ark: Survival Evolved formula... the issue is that the folks over at WildCard have released a paid expansion for a game that's TECHNICALLY in early-access. Which kind of spits in the face of what "Early Access" is supposed to entail: typically, new content released in Early Access is supposed to be part of the base game, so releasing it as DLC is... well... insulting, to say the least.

But then, WildCard hasn't exactly been a stranger to shady dealings in the past.

Anyway, in a new blog post released the other day, the folks at Ark discuss some of the features of the DLC, as well as address, in the barest possible sense, the controversy surrounding its release.

"Scorched Earth: Our original vision for ARK always included the creation of Expansion ARKs, along with the infrastructure and technical systems to transfer data dynamically between live ARKs. We determined that it is more sound to iterate on these systems during Early Access than after retail launch, given the significant risks involved if we didn't "get it right". While that meant unveiling the first Expansion early, it also means an easier time integrating further post-launch Expansions into the ARK network. We understand that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and we appreciate the enjoyment people seem to be getting out of this initial view of how Expansion ARKs can work. Now that we have the systems in place to support them, we can ensure minimal integration issues with subsequent releases after ARK: Survival Evolved itself has launched."

So, the TL;DR version is this: "We always intended to have expansions, so why not test them on early access like the main game?" Which, if you ask me, is still bullshit, because if you have time to be working on DLC (which breaks the base game, by the way) when the main game is still unfinished, then your priorities are clearly focused on money more so than cohesive gameplay, but heck, it seems to be good enough for the folks on the forum, who are heaping praise on WildCard following the blog post... and our own AS Unreal, who has eloquently expressed a dissenting opinion in a recent first impressions article.

Regardless of how you feel, I very much doubt WildCard will be changing its tune anytime soon, so vote with your wallets and time, and let the dice fall where they may.