‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ PS4 Release Held Up By Sony Until It Is Done

PlayStation 4 owners hoping to see ARK: Survival Evolved on their console soon have a longer wait to look forward to instead. Studio Wildcard provided an update on the PS4 release early Monday morning and revealed an early access release is being blocked by Sony.

ARK: Survival Evolved is currently a Steam Early Access release for the PC and was released to the Xbox One as part of the Xbox Preview Program in December 2015. Studio Wildcard had planned to release the game’s Hunger Games/Battle Royale spin-off, ARK: Survival of the Fittest to the PS4 at the end of July. That changed recently when the studio decided to merge the competitive multiplayer game back into the main release, as previously covered by Inquisitr.

That announcement suggested Studio Wildcard was ready to release ARK: Survival Evolved to the PS4 sooner rather than later. The developer even has a build of the game ready for the console, but it turns out Sony is putting the brakes on an early access-style release.

“As for the PS4 Release of ARK: Survival Evolved, it is currently up to Sony,” Studio Wildcard Community Manager Jat Karunakaran revealed in the game’s official forums. “We’ve been informed that we can’t release the game on this platform until it has been finished. We would like nothing more than to make ARK available on PS4 as soon as possible, as we already have an awesome PS4 version of the game running internally. If you would like to see it sooner, please let Sony know, as it’s unfortunately not our decision.”

The targeted release date for ARK: Survival Evolved is currently up for debate. Previous mentions following a confirmed delay from July stated winter as the release window, which gives Studio Wildcard a period that runs until March 20, 2017. Now it appears to be holiday 2016, per a Twitter post from Jat, which makes a late November or December release more likely.

Sony has not given a reason behind the decision to block the release of ARK: Survival Evolved. The PS4 does not have an early access program like the PC or Xbox One, but that hasn’t stopped other titles from coming to the console early. The open-world zombie survival game 7 Days to Die was released to the console on June 28, despite the fact it is still listed as a Steam Early Access title.

7 Days to Die has been praised as a fun game on Steam, but the PS4 release has been hammered hard in reviews for a sub-par port replete with bugs and performance issues. The game currently sits at a dreadful 45 review score on Metacritic and may be the reason Sony has turned a cold shoulder to early access releases.

As for the Xbox One, owners of that console version of the game are waiting for the next update to deliver the PrimitivePlus official mod, the expansion to The Center map, new animals like the Allosaurus and Pellagornis, plus new structures, fishing, and more. The PC version of the open-world survival game received the update over a week ago. However, Studio Wildcard’s lead developer explained the console release requires some extra work due to all the content included in PrimitivePlus.

The official mod is a significantly large addition to ARK: Survival Evolved. The total conversion adds hundreds of new craftable items to the game, which results in about a two GB add-on. Studio Wildcard is currently trying to prevent five-minute load times for the console release along with massive, multi-gigabyte updates every time a change is delivered.

What do you think about Sony holding the release of ARK: Survival Evolved until it is fully released? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Studio Wildcard]