Studio Wildcard, the developers behind the much-loved Ark franchise, has recently received an unexpected but understandable amount of negativity thanks to their controversial decision to offer Ark: Survival Ascended as part of the upcoming Ark 2 bundle for Xbox.
However, the studio has decided instead to backtrack and throw these plans to the wind thanks to the community feedback. The uproar started when Studio Wildcard announced that it would be shutting down the Ark: Survival Evolved official servers soon and that if players wanted to keep playing, they would need an upgrade.
Studio Wildcard announced that players could keep playing the game just so long as they purchase Ark: Survival Ascended, which essentially means buying the same game twice to continue playing. Players who wanted to get in on this deal would have had to purchase the Ark Respawned Bundle for an incredible R930.
However, after all the negative feedback, Studio Wildcard has now decided to cancel the Ark Respawned Bundle, although they still seem to have missed the point. According to an official blog post, Ark: Survival Ascended being part of the Ark Respawned Bundle was a way to bundle the game alongside Ark 2, meaning players would essentially be receiving both games for the price of one.
Now that the bundle has been ditched, players can only purchase Ark Survival Ascended on its own for R1100 across all platforms, meaning players are now being charged more money for one less game… I don’t need to tell you it is a terrible deal and a great example of Studio Wildcard missing the entire point.
The Ark servers are set to be completely shut down by August 31, so players will have no choice but to purchase the game again, for its new, increased price, if they want to continue playing on the official, supported servers until Ark 2 releases.