Ark: Survival Evolved’s community manager Jat has written a response to the recent fan outcry over the Scorched Earth expansion.

Scorched Earth released last week, and includes a new desert area as well as new tools, creatures, and weapons. The expansion is priced at $20, $10 less than the base game. However, shortly after the release of said expansion gamers did what they do best, took to the internet in a rage of storm. Their issue and confusion? Why a paid expansion was being released for a game still in Steam’s Early Access program, and for a game that has various issues that still haven’t been addressed.

Studio Wildcard’s community manager earlier today finally took to the internet to issue a response.

“Everyone at Wildcard wakes up every day thinking about how we can make ARK into a better game today than it was the day before.

“It’s not always easy, but our intent is ever-forward progress towards a retail release that will be far more ambitious in scope and features than our original vision when we launched ARK into Steam Early Access in June 2015.”

“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,'” he continued. Jat explains that by unveiling the first expansion early, it will mean “an easier time integrating further post-launch Expansions into the ARK network.”

“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.”

The rest of the blog post outlines some upcoming features, such as new creatures and the integration of an Explorer Note system which will start revealing ARK’s backstory.

My Opinion:

It seems kinda shoddy to release an expansion for a game still in early access. I understand the strategy of doing it, but to ask fans who have been with the series since day one, supporting its drawn-out early access stay, for $50 dollars to play the “whole game” as it is right now seems kinda again, shoddy. Just release the game.

Tyler Fischer is a Senior Writer for MONG who plays video games when he’s not busy researching alien conspiracy theories at 2AM. You can find him on Twitter.