Studio Wildcard seem to repeatedly mess up Early Access for ARK: Survival Evolved [Steam]. First with a DLC for an unfinished game that caused a bit of an uproar and now this new eye watering price.
Previously, the game set you back a reasonable ~£22.99 but it has just increased by more than double to £54.99. That's priced higher than a lot of finished AAA titles and I really am struggling to comprehend their thinking here. This is what they said about it on Twitter:
QuoteARK: Survival Evolved has increased its price on Steam to ensure retail parity for the upcoming launch.
So essentially they're using the price of their console game to push up the price of the PC version, or else people would likely go for the cheaper version on PC. It's interesting that they haven't mentioned this at all on Steam itself, likely in fear of the backlash. It wasn't even mentioned in their release date announcement, but it is mentioned in the Early Access pull-out (if anyone ever bothers to read those).
The Linux version is, to be absolutely blunt, terrible. It looks nothing like the Windows version graphically, performs very poorly for me (lots of reports of terrible performance on Windows too though) and some of it is completely broken on Linux.
I've tried reaching out to the ARK developers many times through Twitter and Emails, no reply on either. I admit Twitter isn't the best place, which is why I also emailed them multiple times over the period of a few months. I've frequented their official forum to see them seemingly ignore all Linux graphical issues. Caves on Linux are basically impossible to do due to the graphical bugs, which makes other parts of the game impossible to do as well.
Honestly, if this wasn't one our streamer's favourite games there's absolutely no way I would continue running a server for it. Our current one is quite expensive so we will be looking for a cheaper option since a few people do enjoy it still. To be clear: Unless there's a mass exodus from it, our server will continue as normal.
Due to the massive price increase along with the awful quality and support of the Linux version, I suggest this goes firmly in your nope pile. I'm sad to say that, truly I am, as I was so very excited about playing this one, but they've done nothing to earn my respect. It could be a great game, who wouldn't want to tame and ride on a massive dinosaur? There's just too many issues right now and this new price I fear will lock out a lot of potential new players.
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HyperRealisticRock Jul 7, 2017
hahahahah, it already has mixed reviews now it not the time to up the price on a sub par game, show that you can actually improve upon the game making it stable and perform better rather than more dinos. The game is still in early access and I wonder how many more years will we wait for it to 'release'.
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Cyba.Cowboy Jul 7, 2017
Don't think I've ever seen as insane pricing with a video game before.
That's roughly what you'd typically pay for a so-called "AAA title" in Australia... But we're talking the biggest games you can name, not an everday game (let alone one that is a work-in-progress!).
retail parity
:D
i wanna see that retail parity on linux client when it gets released
Yeah that won't happen... Though given the high price-tag, it should.
Deleted from the wishlist.
Same here.
With sub-standard performance under Linux-based operating systems, no firm guarantee that this (the performance) will change in the foreseeable future and such a high price-tag, there's no way I'm picking this up...
The Linux version has still the same bugs as 2 years ago. Right, they never fixed any Linux specific bug in 2 fucking years. Not a single one, believe me. Worst developers ever.
And that just confirms that I'm making the right decision by removing it from my "wish" list...
Don't think I've ever seen as insane pricing with a video game before.
Heh welcome to Australia where we constantly pay insane pricing for digital content.
Physical games are no better... But at least EB Games/The Gamesmen/JB Hi-Fi have various specials throughout the year.
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TheRiddick Jul 7, 2017
They were meant to release dx12 then Vulkan update for the title LONG time ago, its unknown why they have continued to delay it since they refuse to communicate with the open source community or community in general about specific issues.
I'd say their ready to shelf this title, seen this happen before were a company releases their game to retail market broken and then just moves on to another title.
Sadly this developer is going to use this as evidence why not to develop for Linux, even thought it's their fault for putting %99.9 of their team and effort into content and not actual engine saving patches and fixes along with perf updates...People may come for the content but they stay for the gameplay which largely involves engine improvements.
Last edited by TheRiddick on 7 July 2017 at 3:02 am UTC
I'd say their ready to shelf this title, seen this happen before were a company releases their game to retail market broken and then just moves on to another title.
Sadly this developer is going to use this as evidence why not to develop for Linux, even thought it's their fault for putting %99.9 of their team and effort into content and not actual engine saving patches and fixes along with perf updates...People may come for the content but they stay for the gameplay which largely involves engine improvements.
Last edited by TheRiddick on 7 July 2017 at 3:02 am UTC
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Don't think I've ever seen as insane pricing with a video game before.
Heh welcome to Australia where we constantly pay insane pricing for digital content.
While that's true, there are places that will *usually* have them a little bit cheaper (£45-£50 ish)
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I tried it in linux when they had a free weekend event a while back, it was trash performance wise. IC they've yet to improve it any if at all. This is related to UE4's linux support or more on their side I wonder.
Probably a bit of both. Developers always seems to have massive linux problems developing on UE4. Crossing my fingers for a good Insurgency sandstorm but a lot is working against it on linux with it being a UE title I think.
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This is, what ARK thinks about any bugs they do not like:
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lucifertdark Jul 7, 2017
HmmmFrom what I saw the last time I managed to get Rust to even start a game it's in a very similar position to ARK, absolute rubbish performance & no sign of any true fixes coming any time soon, I'm happy to be proven wrong as it's been a while since I last fired it up.
Whelp , into the bin with this one.
Any thoughts on Rust ?
Can we persuade Sin to play that ?
1 Likes, Who?
Rust performs amazingly well. Just needs to be in windowed mode for me.HmmmFrom what I saw the last time I managed to get Rust to even start a game it's in a very similar position to ARK, absolute rubbish performance & no sign of any true fixes coming any time soon, I'm happy to be proven wrong as it's been a while since I last fired it up.
Whelp , into the bin with this one.
Any thoughts on Rust ?
Can we persuade Sin to play that ?
1 Likes, Who?
Crazy Penguin Jul 7, 2017
LOL! Now they have gone completely insane xD. This game is such an overhyped garbage. I wish I could sell it.
1 Likes, Who?
lucifertdark Jul 7, 2017
I'll have to give it another go then, My machine had an upgrade since the last time I tried so perhaps it'll be better for me now too.Rust performs amazingly well. Just needs to be in windowed mode for me.HmmmFrom what I saw the last time I managed to get Rust to even start a game it's in a very similar position to ARK, absolute rubbish performance & no sign of any true fixes coming any time soon, I'm happy to be proven wrong as it's been a while since I last fired it up.
Whelp , into the bin with this one.
Any thoughts on Rust ?
Can we persuade Sin to play that ?
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We all know I love this game. I have also defended it at times too, I can see past most of the annoying bugs. But the fact there is only a month until they release the game that I have no faith they will ever fix the caves.
And then to slap this price tag on it. I mean to spend £55 to get half a game... IS A JOKE. And even I wouldn't recommend Linux users buying it now.
That's the point. Ark is one of my favourite game on Linux. I can live with the "bad" performances on my GTX 970 : frankly, it's really playable and smooth (not on par with the window version, though). But the caves glitches prove that the developpers really don't care, that makes the new price ridiculous for linux users...
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This game is an absolutely must have! I play only this game. Now I'll try to set it with steam controller! And the prize is a fair prize, now that they finishedd it. Now they only need vulkan api to work. I love it!
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I wish I could get rid of ARK or resell my Steam license to it.
You can. In the same section you get your refunds, there's an option to have the game removed permanently from your profile. Of course, you don't get money from it.
Also, according to liamdawe, £54.99 converts to about $70.92 when it's $59.99 here. MAYBE (and a big maybe, at that) they could justify this if all the versions worked just about as intended, but being broken on Linux doesn't warrant that. This is pretty ridiculous, but the DLC crap they pulled convinced me not to buy this game anyway.
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.
Meanwhile, similar game "7 Days To Die" has just recently been at 60% discount in Steam Summer sale, it has just had a big update improving graphics, variety, and game balancing. Absolutely love 7D2D. Can't recommend it enough.
I'm terribly disappointed with quality of ARK on Linux and 7D2D looks awesome, but similar? The main appeal of ARK is not the survival part but dinosaurs, especially taming them.
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I love the game. I dread the UE bugs that are pretty obvious in this game. This game is going hard to bump fortresscraft evolved from my top played throne, and actually only because I can let FCE just grind while I work :-).
The community is pretty toxic though. People in this thread are complaining as loud as all the salty windows users. So I take those complaints like a "people need to have something to complain over".
At that price tag I cannot really recommend it for linux users at this moment.
If the current graphical bugs are fixed, which is an UE thing, it is good enough to recommend at that price. There are other minor bugs that can be worked around.
But the joy I get from having tamed my first therozWhatsthatticklechickencalled...
The amount of joyful play I got from this game is so much more than the amount of money I invested in it. I think the price tag was less than 20 euro at that time... That's about 1 movie ticket, or 1/4th I paid for the Deus Ex port or 1/4th I paid for Planet Nomads, I think 1/3rd of the alien saga. 572h on record, and I play mostly since end 2016, although I have the game since 2015.
The community is pretty toxic though. People in this thread are complaining as loud as all the salty windows users. So I take those complaints like a "people need to have something to complain over".
At that price tag I cannot really recommend it for linux users at this moment.
If the current graphical bugs are fixed, which is an UE thing, it is good enough to recommend at that price. There are other minor bugs that can be worked around.
But the joy I get from having tamed my first therozWhatsthatticklechickencalled...
The amount of joyful play I got from this game is so much more than the amount of money I invested in it. I think the price tag was less than 20 euro at that time... That's about 1 movie ticket, or 1/4th I paid for the Deus Ex port or 1/4th I paid for Planet Nomads, I think 1/3rd of the alien saga. 572h on record, and I play mostly since end 2016, although I have the game since 2015.
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.
Meanwhile, similar game "7 Days To Die" has just recently been at 60% discount in Steam Summer sale, it has just had a big update improving graphics, variety, and game balancing. Absolutely love 7D2D. Can't recommend it enough.
I'm terribly disappointed with quality of ARK on Linux and 7D2D looks awesome, but similar? The main appeal of ARK is not the survival part but dinosaurs, especially taming them.
Yes, it is quite a different experience - but there are similarities - survival, crafting, base-building, foraging, etc. Ark is set it a prehistoric-style world whereas 7 Days To Die is set in a post-apocalyptic zombie-overrun world. I wrote an interesting chapter in the forum about a chunk of my recent 7D2D gaming:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/2827
Last edited by g000h on 7 July 2017 at 1:15 pm UTC
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If the running of the server gets too expensive then you could consider having an official gol tribe we could join on a different server, possibly official.
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Oh, I didn't know that. Not sure I want to throw money away, but....I wish I could get rid of ARK or resell my Steam license to it.
You can. In the same section you get your refunds, there's an option to have the game removed permanently from your profile. Of course, you don't get money from it.
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Mohandevir Jul 7, 2017
"The Linux version is, to be absolutely blunt, terrible. It looks nothing like the Windows version graphically, performs very poorly for me (lots of reports of terrible performance on Windows too though) and some of it is completely broken on Linux."
Let's hope it as to do with this...
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/ark-survival-evolved-plans-to-use-vulkan-for-linux-this-year.8831
... And that the Linux version will get patched with this version.
I will wait for the Vulkan version review before bying it. :)
Let's hope it as to do with this...
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/ark-survival-evolved-plans-to-use-vulkan-for-linux-this-year.8831
... And that the Linux version will get patched with this version.
I will wait for the Vulkan version review before bying it. :)
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Quote
ARK: Survival Evolved has increased its price on Steam to ensure retail parity for the upcoming launch.
So essentially they're using the price of their console game to push up the price of the PC version, or else people would likely go for the cheaper version on PC
@liamdawe I'm not sure if you are saying you agree with that sentiment or not but PC games should always be cheaper as the developer doesn't have to share anywhere near as much of the sale with Steam as they do the consoles which use the money to subsidise the cost of the hardware. PC gamers pay full wack on their hardware but make that back on the savings from the cost of games. And why would it matter if someone chose the PC version over the console? Its still (more) cash to the developer.
I agree the Linux port needs some proper effort put into fixing its issues. Unfortunately the longer developers leave issues on other platforms while they continue to further develop on Windows the more the issues grow and the harder it becomes to resolve them which seems to lead developers to throw their arms in the air and decree developing for Linux is near impossible. From my own experience if you develop for multi-platform throughout it adds little overhead and the end product is always more stable as the other platforms tend to expose bugs sooner that are still there on one platform but less obvious. But I digress. Fix the game Studio Wildcard! We paid for it.
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