Ark is already beeing recycled by SNAIL GAMES

[乇ﾑらㄚ]

Here, i want to highlight a fact that is explaining many things. Everything in this post is true and explains many sides of Ark Development.

I hope that many people wont blame a Dead (the name is, of course not the employees, they probably keeping on working on it but under the Snail games watching and financial plans) Studio (wildcard) after my post, and will blame the real managers/editor behind Ark: SNAIL GAMES.

First, the players need to understand that Ark, isnt managed by Wildcard since DECEMBER 2015:

https://mmos.com/news/snail-games-usa-acquired-studio-wildcard-developer-of-ark-in-december-2015

You might be wondering why Studio Wildcard has been helping with the development of Dark and Light or why Snail Games announced two ARK spin-offs, the Minecraft-like PixARK and ARK GO, in addition to the free-to-play Chinese release of ARK. Well, it turns out that SDE, Inc, an affiliate of Snail Games USA, which is a subsidiary of Snail Games, bought out Studio Wildcard; the merger was filed for on December 4th, 2015. Officially, the company was merged into "Snail Ark, Inc." Unfortunately, we don't know how much Snail Games paid for the company.

This revelation was made due to the fact that new court documents filed by Insight Venture Management, the parent company of Trendy Entertainment that was recently suing Studio Wildcard over a failure to uphold a non-compete clause, referenced the buyout.

So now you know why ARK is slowly being turned into a major franchise, courtesy of Snail Games. The Chinese game developer and publisher owns Studio Wildcard and, by extension, the ARK franchise. It will be interesting to see what they do with the franchise after this initial burst of games.

The article that is revealing this fact and the news is from 31 january of 2017. That means that it wasnt totally confirmed until then.

Now i hope that everyone is understanding, after the reading of this article, the reasons behind the Chinese cheaters invasion in 2016.

The Chinese cheaters invasion in mid 2016 (when the DLC came out) has been simply used by Snail Games as a way to promote ARK in China. Maybe not intentionally, of course, but absolutly NOTHING has been done to ban cheaters, and to make communication possible between the Asia and EU/US communities ( the Chinese langage posted ingame in Ark isnt showing properly, EU/US players cant see and read Chinese letters in chat, they appear as "boxes" which is a deep fail for a multiplayer game) . Snail games, indeed, already considered that, the full profit has been made, long ago, in US and EU, and that the ASIA market was much more promising. So, this is very simple, they let Chinese Cheaters invading ARK US and EU servers (after the full transfert update), with Marketing Intentions- they let chinese cheaters streaming widely. In this story, the EU and US community has been betrayed, but this is not WildCard fault, this is SNAIL GAMES fault. This is normal that a Chinese editor doesnt care at all about their EU and US customers, especially while they are just "squatting" official servers which means full costs and no profit (note that the servers continue to keep on lagging even with 15 people on them: best proof that servers renting costs have been reduced to the max).

The result has been Ark Chinese version: https://mmos.com/news/ark-survival-evolved-launching-china-january-1st-free-play-game

In this ugly marketing project the victims are the Ark EU and US playerbase, especially the pvp/official players, that been totally pigeoned by SNAIL GAMES (they didnt expect to have a massive cheaters invasion from china and many of them been sick of Ark after this) and really, they got all my compassion today.



Now, lets go further in investigation. Iam a game dev, so i pay a lot of attention to the tricks behind games development. Many of you may not know that SNAIL GAMES are also developping DARK AND LIGHT at same time as they are "supposed" to "work on ARK".

The first infos about Dark and Light are explaining a lot about SNAIL GAMES intentions.

Ill explain you with few screenshots, from dark and light:

Ark dragon asset?
http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/529180/ss_c36f1fd95614175b80f52a41ff7a1c8d824a7868.jpg?t=1489686563

Ark unicorn?
http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/529180/ss_0e33dcaf30a19ae3aa5ee3cd4c5f21a166fe8c4e.jpg?t=1489686563

Ark wvern?
http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/529180/ss_880260526b530a69270154231eea7b65a445944a.jpg?t=1489686563

Dragon again?
http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/529180/ss_8318cb9b5a9b029d10d6ad9fcd1dafda49ffb008.jpg?t=1489686563

technically speaking, we can already see that some of Ark assets will be used (ofc a bit remodeled, but globally those are the same assets/rigging, probably animating) for Dark And light. This, in order to lower to the max the development costs of it.



I hope that those few explanations will prove to US and EU customers that we are in front of a shameless way to act from SNAIL GAMES side and that they will decide to either buy or boycott their future games.

[θάνατος]

sadly EU,US,RU better get use to it they have a pop or 3billion thats almost half of the world pop, of course the market is "better" over there. china and inda will choose what happens next in most aspects.

[g0rml3ss]

Messaggio originale di Tomhud™:

Messaggio originale di Geek:

Who cares people complain about anything these days. Instead of caring about these games. Why not care avout whats happening in the world today? Or do Nuks not scare you? lol

Well if you cared about what was happening in the world then you wouldnt find time to be on here telling us what we should and shouldnt care about.

Also NUKES dont scare me - ill be happy knowing you lot are coming with me :)

*Tips hat*

[乇ﾑらㄚ]

@NGCaliber: you got some points, but, in this case, isnt that wrong that Ark is still beeingconsidered as an "indie" game, by steam and many journalists. Isnt that a wrong label actually.

As many people i really though WildCard was Ark, until those past monthes articles highlight more and more sides of the matter, AND Snail games reveals ark/china and so on , until D&L shows trailers where we find similar assets, which is shocking.

If the chronology you wrote is fine, that would mean that Ark, isnt anymore an indie game since spetember of 2015.

Also, this is not only about financial, the competition is hard between gaming companies, but the quoted articles clearly stated that a part of Ark management is from Snail games, so, of course we can be worried, or in need of explanations about a foggy future.

[Drago]

Interesting because in August 2015 Wildcard said "No Segie Dinos" then come October 2015 the stone chewing Giga was released.

That explains the huge flipflop and total disballance of The Giga.

[NeddyTheNoodle]

This is just upsetting...

The more I read up and see things about the fact that China is effectively buying out ARK, the more I lose faith in the entire game.

ARK used to be about dinosaurs, survival, and an open world. I miss those days, back when all we had was a trailer in early 2015.

Now what do we have? A company that bought out WildCard to exploit them and use their game to make $$$. There is no more passion, what's the point in even developing ARK further if it's just going to be used by these scummy people?

Honestly, this is depressing, ARK is ruined...

[HighFlyer15]

Messaggio originale di Noodle:

This is just upsetting...

The more I read up and see things about the fact that China is effectively buying out ARK, the more I lose faith in the entire game.

ARK used to be about dinosaurs, survival, and an open world. I miss those days, back when all we had was a trailer in early 2015.

Now what do we have? A company that bought out WildCard to exploit them and use their game to make $$$. There is no more passion, what's the point in even developing ARK further if it's just going to be used by these scummy people?

Honestly, this is depressing, ARK is ruined...

If only you had been here since the beginning. ARK has always been going in this direction. You joined a game in heavy development. It's not the fault of Wildcard that we have crazy people putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5.
It's still an open world about dinosaurs, survival, and an open world. What's missing? Or are you more upset about what's been added? All the things Wildcard decided loooong ago to add. Tek was there from the beginning, all the non-dinosaur creatures were announced a long time ago through dossiers. They stopped being released weekly way before Wildcard got bought by Snail games.

There's no more passion? Can you not grasp just how massive these monthly content patches are? Wildcard is still passionate about their game. If you can't see that you're blind.

These "scummy" people saved Wildcard from being ruined. If not for them Wildcard probably wouldn't be where they are today.

[Maltheus]

There was something weird going on behind the scenes back then, but I think Ark's slide has more to do with the oddball control-freak personalities at Wildcard, than what the parent company might be doing. Companies focused on the bottom line, either skimp on features (not the case here) or do whatever their customers cry out for (also not the case here).

[HighFlyer15]

Messaggio originale di Drago:

Interesting because in August 2015 Wildcard said "No Segie Dinos" then come October 2015 the stone chewing Giga was released.

That explains the huge flipflop and total disballance of The Giga.

When did Wildcard get purchased by Snail games? December 2015. You're wrong by several months. Take your damn tinfoil hat off, you nutball.

[TotallyUncool]

Messaggio originale di ez peez:

@totallyuncool:

Not really i compared facts and conclusions, btw up to you to decide if you keep on supporting his kind of "buisness"

I think that people get actually all the elements to decide about what they will do or not.


As i said iam just highlighting the fact that people complained for like 1 year about WC decisions and now they just have absolutly all the elements to judge and to understand the reasons of their bad Ark experience, those last monthes. This is not only me this is public knowledge now, posted by many webjournalists.

Supporting what business? Being owned by a Chinese company? That said company have permission to use assets from ARK and also develop their own online Chinese-aimed (Asian market aimed?) version of ARK and also ARK park? That's pretty much the only facts presented here, everything else is, as I've already said, YOUR speculations/opinions.

You're basically saying that people are having bad experiences in ARK because Snail Games owns WC, but you have presented no evidence to back this claim up. Snail Games biggest crime so far seems to be that they're a Chinese company and that's about it. You have no idea how much influence they have over the development or handling of ARK: Survival Evolved, and you've shown nothing supporting your theories so far. Do that, and I will believe you, otherwise it's still only your speculations.

[Infinivex]

this is total BS wildcard was never sold to snail ARK is still being made by wildcard and not Snail take off the tinfoil hats already

[HighFlyer15]

Messaggio originale di Zothen:

Btw, because ez peez is a mental fail, heres the truly interesting read with a reply by Stieglitz:

https://www.reddit.com/r/playark/comments/5r2trt/wildcards_acquisition_by_snail_games_usa_what_we/

Feel like this was drowned in most of the posts. It deserves another post, especially because of Jeremy's personal reply on this ENTIRE matter.

[NGCaliber]

Messaggio originale di ez peez:

@NGCaliber: you got some points, but, in this case, isnt that wrong that Ark is still beeingconsidered as an "indie" game, by steam and many journalists. Isnt that a wrong label actually.

As many people i really though WildCard was Ark, until those past monthes articles highlight more and more sides of the matter, AND Snail games reveals ark/china and so on , until D&L shows trailers where we find similar assets, which is shocking.

If the chronology you wrote is fine, that would mean that Ark, isnt anymore an indie game since spetember of 2015.

Also, this is not only about financial, the competition is hard between gaming companies, but the quoted articles clearly stated that a part of Ark management is from Snail games, so, of course we can be worried, or in need of explanations about a foggy future.

That statement wouldn't be wrong about it being considered an "indie" company though it really isn't. The only differences is that you have a studio that has no other products. Regardless of who funds the game. Same difference as micro breweries being bought out by larger companies. They are able to enjoy the same "micro brew" label, and thus sound politically hip in the eyes of the consumer.

But since Snail Games Inc in nature has acted as a silent partner up until Jeremy Stieglitz sold a chunk of his shares to them. This has been theorized in the subject of the lawsuit scandal. Those stocks were sold and that money was used to pay the settlement. This would mean that Snail Games Inc no longer had to be silent and was shortly before the announcement of ARK Park and other ARK branded Snail Games products.

All of this means that yes Snail Games probably owns a larger chunk of WCS shares, but is not a whole ownership. But this also remains to be true to the fact that they have been part of the decision making. It also likely suggest they were part of the major decision to release Scorched Earth rather than not release it until the game had officially launched. Cause what company wants to invest into another company and see that they are withholding a chance at making money.

I realize the trend is to point your finger and shame companies for making suggestive moves to earn money, but you have to remember why they are in business to begin with. These computer game developers are not in anyway acting as non-profit charities. There is no reason to assume that they must fall upon a communistic regime of social justice. We would be stuck with really horrible games if this was true.

[TomHud™]

Messaggio originale di HighFlyer15:

Messaggio originale di Zothen:

Btw, because ez peez is a mental fail, heres the truly interesting read with a reply by Stieglitz:

https://www.reddit.com/r/playark/comments/5r2trt/wildcards_acquisition_by_snail_games_usa_what_we/

Feel like this was drowned in most of the posts. It deserves another post, especially because of Jeremy's personal reply on this ENTIRE matter.

so they are partly owned by snail games then

`Snail is a truly awesome partner, the best kind. Certainly all is well over here, and we'll have a lot more official news about our plans upcoming at GDC -- completing ARK: SE and making it a satisfying start-to-end adventure.`

[OgGiUs]

Thanks got lass lags and better netcode

[NGCaliber]

Well... I took a deeper look at the Dark and Light store page on Steam.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/529180/Dark_and_Light/

I don't really know if I would say that anything has been taken from ARK to make this. I see a lot of EU4 mechanics that you see in ARK, but that is not unique to ARK. Dragons, wyverns, unicorns are not uniqeu to ARK in any way. I would suggest that I see more similarities to World of Warcraft but with an openworld sandbox craft/build that you would expect from a survivor game.

Chances are I will be trying this game out since it looks interesting. Right now there are 2 titles listed on Steam through Snail named producers, and that is this game and ARK Park which WCS has endorsed.