Ark: Survival of the Fittest released – Free to Play

Ark: Survival Evolved developers Wildcard have released a completely free spin-off of their game, titled Ark: Survival of the Fittest.

This standalone game is classified by Wildcard as a Multiplayer Online Survival Arena – which means it’s a Hunger Games-inspired online battle royale with dinosaurs. The game is similar to Ark: Survival Evolved, although players play in a confined area instead of a large map and crafting options are more combat-oriented and not as numerous.

The studio for Ark: Survival of the Fittest is a separate entity from Ark: Survival Evolved’s studio, and the two titles will focus on different concepts. Survival of the Fittest has already showcased its focus on competitive and balanced play.

Ark: Survival of the Fittest is attempting to bring the survival genre into the eSports spotlight by adding a ranking system and offering cash prizes to the highest ranked players in the world according to their ‘Survivor League’ tracker.

The game started off as a modded game mode for Ark: Survival Evolved, but after the success of its Twitch debut and positive reception it was remade into a separate title which focuses purely on competitive and arena gameplay.

Ark: Survival of the Fittest still has the same performance issues as Ark: Survival Evolved as it runs on the same engine, although these issues are being slowly resolved by both studios. Survival of the Fittest is in Early Access at the moment and it will be interesting to see how the two different titles differ as they develop.

Survival of the Fittest is free on Steam, but if you want the more permanent and open world experience of Ark: Survival Evolved you’ll have to pay.