Studio Wildcard’s ARK: Survival Evolved has seen significant changes since release and especially since it came to Xbox One for its Game Preview Program. The developer even released Survival of the Fittest, a PvP-focused version of the game, for free.
However, the challenge of maintaining two separate clients is proving difficult for the team and it will be bringing both projects together going forward. Survival of the Fittest will still be available to those who didn’t buy Survival Evolved though.
The developer also noted that its dev kit would have been restricted without merging the two together and that’s still relatively undecided about the product’s business model. It entertained the idea of going free to play but that would’ve posed its own learning hurdles.
All of this also means that Survival of the Fittest will be delayed for Xbox One and PS4 in order for the developers to assess how its most recent changes will “pan out in the long term.”