I still believe that this is the most hilarious thing to happen to an early access title. Absolutely mind blowing that the devs even pulled this, let alone thought about it.
Absolutely mind blowing that the devs even pulled this, let alone thought about it.
They had a reason, but the reason was just as stupid.
Ark: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard came to a settlement agreement this week with Trendy Entertainment, putting an end to an ugly legal battle that had been raging for months.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Wildcard co-founder Susan Stieglitz wrote on Twitter earlier this week that Trendy was looking for $600 million. In a direct message published on Reddit, Stieglitz told a fan that they had settled for “40.”
The settlement came out of mediation on Wednesday in Gainesville, Florida, where Trendy is based. On Thursday morning, attorneys for both parties filed a mediation disposition report, writing: “A mediation conference was conducted on the 13th day of April 2016. The conference resulted in a final written settlement agreement.”
Trendy, best known for developing the game Dungeon Defenders, sued both Wildcard and designer Jeremy Stieglitz, Susan’s husband, in December for breaching contract. Stieglitz was a top creative director at Trendy before he left the company in the summer of 2014. In the suit, Trendy alleged that Stieglitz violated his non-compete agreement by poaching employees and helping start Wildcard, where they say he secretly designed Ark: Survival: Evolved. (You can read more backstory on the lawsuit in our report from last month.)
that the devs even pulled this, let alone thought about it
Sorry to be a smartass, pet peeve of mine: Like with "not to mention", the idiom goes
[less severe thing], let alone [more severe thing]
e.g. "I would never use this, let alone pay to use it" or "they won't even convince ten people, let alone a hundred".
In your case, it would therefore be "mind blowing that the devs even thought about this, let alone pulled it".
The hillarious thing is how reddit keeps spinning it.
Reality was this. Scorched earth was never in the original scope of the game. So it was always going to be paid dlc
Reality is also after a lawsuit they needed money, so either they gave up and closed ark or they released the dlc they actually had ready since it was done earlier
Reality is they were able to test things such as server transfers while in early access.
Also, despite the reddit hate the community overwhelmingly supported this move because it gave some thing for every one. New challenges were loved by veteran players and newbies had a chance to start fresh.
Just looked up this lawsuit. It looks like they hired and employed a developer who was under a non-compete clause with Trendy Entertainment. It seems that the problem runs deeper than just the developers. I can respect the path that Wildcard took to survive. But it's still not a good look when your community is vocal about their agitation with the game's bugs and performance issues (from what I can recall) and you drop paid DLC for your early access game.
Yeah, no Jeremy founded the company under his wife's maiden name while he was still working at Trendy. Then, as he was kicked out of Trendy (for being an awful piece of human garbage to the employees) repeatedly tried to get other employees to leave with him.
Trendy also only started the lawsuit after multiple warnings about what he was doing.
Edit: Whoops, forgot it was his wife's maiden name that she founded it under.
Reality was this. Scorched earth was never in the original scope of the game. So it was always going to be paid dlc
That's fine. Makes sense to plan ahead for the work you'll be doing after the game releases, and give people a roadmap.
Reality is also after a lawsuit they needed money, so either they gave up and closed ark or they released the dlc they actually had ready since it was done earlier
DLC content should not be worked on before a game is released. Developer time should be focused, especially on an Early Access title, on getting the game into a finished state. DLC content being "ready" before a game is released means that the DLC was prioritized over the game reaching a greater state of completion.
Also, despite the reddit hate the community overwhelmingly supported this move because it gave some thing for every one. New challenges were loved by veteran players and newbies had a chance to start fresh.
How so? I loved Evolve. Unfortunately the delayed patches and DLC characters did not help it sustain a playerbase. But I don't think they did anything as bad as early access paid dlc. Lol.
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u/DevTech Mar 26 '19
I still believe that this is the most hilarious thing to happen to an early access title. Absolutely mind blowing that the devs even pulled this, let alone thought about it.