Studio Wildcard makes the surprising announcement that theARK: Survival Evolvedspin-off gameARK: Survival of the Fittestwill be console exclusive to the PS4.
Even a multi-million dollar settlement overARK: Survival Evolvedcan’t keep developer Studio Wildcard down. A little over a week removed from its legal drama, Studio Wildcard has announced its next big move, as the company has revealed that theHunger Games-styleARKspin-offARK: Survival of the Fittestwill be releasing as a console exclusive to PlayStation 4 this summer.
This news may come as a shock to some dedicatedARKplayers, asARK: Survival Evolvedis very popular on Xbox One. The core online multiplayer dinosaur survival game has proven to be a major early access success on that platform, and so Studio Wildcard bringing the spin-off to PlayStation 4 over Xbox is a bit puzzling.
Regardless,ARK: Survival of the Fitteston PS4 will pit up to 72 players against each other in a brutal fight to the death. Players will able to tame some ofARK’s signature creaturesand partake in a variety of different match types, including free-for-all and variations on team deathmatch. Furthermore,ARK: Survival of the Fittestwill have a focus on eSports, with monthly cash prizes for those that play the game at the professional level.
PS4ARK: Survival of the Fittestplayers can look forward to an exclusive offline practice mode not found in the PC version of the game. Better yet, just asARK: Survival Evolvedon Xbox One has offline split-screen support,ARK: Survival of the Fittest’s offline practice mode will also have split-screen. However, it’s unclear at this time ifARK: Survival of the Fittestwill take it a step further and also provide support for split-screen online functionality as well.
If split-screen online play isn’t available at launch, it’s possible that it could be added toARK: Survival of the Fittestin a future update. After all, Studio Wildcard has promised to provide regular content updates toARK: Survival of the Fittestonce it launches, and if the frequentARK: Survival Evolvedupdatesare any indication, it won’t disappoint in that area.
With thePlayStation 4 outselling the Xbox One, it makes sense for Studio Wildcard to support the platform. However, the company has already built a fan base on Xbox thanks toARK’s early access release, and makingARK: Survival of the Fittesta console-exclusive to PS4 could alienate those fans. WithARK: Survival of the Fittestset to release around the same time as the full release of the core game this summer, we’ll see soon enough if the PS4 becomes the dominant console for theARKfranchise.
ARK: Survival of the Fittestis available now on PC and will come exclusively to PS4 on July 19th, 2016.
