Sony paid $3.5 million to make ARK: Survival Evolved a March PS Plus game.

[John Elden Ring]

Via September SEC filing.

• Sony paid $3.5 million to make ARK: Survival Evolved a March PS Plus game.
• Microsoft paid $2.5 million to keep it on Game Pass for the first half of this year
• Microsoft $2.3 million to bring ARK 2 to the service when it launches.

 

[Deleted member 51]

Well damn, that's a bunch of cash! Someone seems to have gotten the better end of the deal though.

 

[ethomaz]

No news here.

Userbase matters and the price to put a game in a bigger userbase is bigger than a smaller userbase.
When the dev makes that deal they have to account for how much potential users will be receiving the game... in the PS+ case it is like 45m+ while Gamepass is probably around 20m.

What you have to pay is proportional... when Gamepass grow up to more subs the cost to make these deal will increase too.

 

[Bryank75]

Ark? Probably not worth it.... LOL

No offense to anyone who likes it.

 

[Old Gamer]

Both Sony and MS wasted money on this I think.

 

[ethomaz]

Ark? Probably not worth it.... LOL

No offense to anyone who likes it.

No offense... it is a bad game including technically a bad game.

 

[ethomaz]

Ohhh there are some more... the actual doc quotes:

he Company recognized $2.5 million in revenue related to ARK 1 perpetual license for the six months ended June 30, 2022 and deferred $2.3 million related to ARK 2 that is included in the long-term portion of deferred revenue.

In November 2021, the Company entered an agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC ("Sony") to make ARK 1 available on the PS4 platform and PS Plus program for a period of 5 weeks in exchange for $3.5 million. Sony launched the 5-week program on March 1, 2022 and the Company recognized the full amount of revenue from this contract for the six months ended June 30, 2022, as the significant performance obligation of making the game available on the platform was met on the first day of the contract.

The deal is only paid if the game match the performance written in the contract (ARK did in the first day btw)... so if you don't reach the mininum number of downloads/players of the game on PS+ you are not allowed to received the $$$.

 

[DonFerrari]

Not my type of game and no interest on the sequel but it must be doing something right, it’s popular.

 

[peter42O]

Ark isn't the best game but it's very popular so for both Microsoft and Sony, im sure the cost was worth it.

Don't care about the money aspects but I would love to know how long games are signed to the subscription service for. This would be great instead of just seeing a tweet that says these games are leaving in two weeks.

 

[ethomaz]

Ark isn't the best game but it's very popular so for both Microsoft and Sony, im sure the cost was worth it.

Don't care about the money aspects but I would love to know how long games are signed to the subscription service for. This would be great instead of just seeing a tweet that says these games are leaving in two weeks.

I'm not sure what are you saying but...

PS+: you could redeem it in March 2022, after that you can play it forever while you are subscribed to Plus.
Gamepass: you could play it from November 2018 until December 2021 on Gamepass... after that you can't play the game anymore on Gamepass so you need buy it or wait MS makes a new deal.

BTW MS have a page with all that info (when the game entered and when it will leave) for each game on Gamepass.

 

[Angie]

Sony and MS got scammed

 

[Bryank75]

Sony and MS got scammed

Definitely, this guy is making bank... (pretty old game too if you include early access)

"Jesse Rapczak: Exactly. GamesBeat: You spent $2 million developing Ark before hitting Early Access. What was that process like? Jesse Rapczak: The team's comprised of a lot of people who have worked together for a long time." 23 Aug 2016

 

[IntentionalPun]

PS+ you own the game if you just "claim it" and keep your account alive.

Gamepass is temporary access for a smaller userbase.

Makes sense the fees wouldn't match, they aren't really "equal" things.

And it's worth it for the platform holders, PS+ rakes in 100 times that in a month lol

And for MS, it's 6 months of access + the potential of some sales if people like the game and want to keep playing once it leaves. Even more worth it.

These companies just aren't paying that much money at all for most of the games on their services.

 

[peter42O]

BTW MS have a page with all that info (when the game entered and when it will leave) for each game on Gamepass.

This is what I was talking about. Do you have a link to this page? This would be great to have bookmarked. Thanks.

 

[ethomaz]

This is what I was talking about. Do you have a link to this page? This would be great to have bookmarked. Thanks.

Maybe I'm mistaking it?

When you go on the title Gamepass page there is the part it says you have "X days left" because it got out from Gamepass or you can't buy with Gamepass discount anymore.
The PT-BR page has that.
But of course this info only shows to games that have a final date set... not to games that the end are not decided yet.

For example Stable left in 4 days.

Sable | Xbox

Sable é uma história de descoberta através de um deserto em mundo aberto renderizado.

www.xbox.com

 

[Loy310]

What a waste of money.

 

[ksdixon]

What a waste of money.

 

[peter42O]

Maybe I'm mistaking it?

When you go on the title Gamepass page there is the part it says you have "X days left" because it got out from Gamepass or you can't buy with Gamepass discount anymore.
The PT-BR page has that.
But of course this info only shows to games that have a final date set... not to games that the end are not decided yet.

For example Stable left in 4 days.

Okay. Gotcha.

I was hoping that for example A Plague Tale Requiem goes on Game Pass day one which is October 18th and it would be great to know how long it will be on Game Pass once the 18th hits. I know they usually put the days left when it's a week or two away but knowing a game would be available for say 6 months or whatever the duration is right from the outset would be great. Would love to see them do this but I understand why they don't.

Hope this clarifies what I was saying.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Okay. Gotcha.

I was hoping that for example A Plague Tale Requiem goes on Game Pass day one which is October 18th and it would be great to know how long it will be on Game Pass once the 18th hits. I know they usually put the days left when it's a week or two away but knowing a game would be available for say 6 months or whatever the duration is right from the outset would be great. Would love to see them do this but I understand why they don't.

Hope this clarifies what I was saying.

Yeah it's a 2 week thing that causes the "leaving soon" thing to show up.

MS extends contracts sometimes it seems (according to the ARK news), which is probably why they don't have any way to know way ahead of time how long a game will be on Gamepass.

 

[Angie]

The weird part of this news to me is this.

"Microsoft $2.3 million to bring ARK 2 to the service when it launches."

And they pay this to be not just on gamepass but also exclusive.

They didn't expect to make more that $2.3 million if the game was not exclusive? The studio have so low expectations for the game on console.
Really makes me wonder how good the game will be.