Good news for egg fans playing Ark: Survival Evolved on consoles: Ark‘s second annual Easter event, Eggcellent Adventure Part 2, is slated to hit PS4 and Xbox One on Monday, April 24. That’s more than a week later than the PC update, and also a week following actual Easter.
Delayed updates for time-sensitive events like this one are pretty common for Ark on console. Eggcellent Adventure part deux marks the fifth big seasonal event to come to Ark on Xbox One, following on from the game’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day celebrations, and it’s the third event to come to PlayStation 4, which first joined in the holiday fun late last year in time for the festive Winter Wonderland.
As you might expect, Ark‘s Easter event goes big on the egg-themed fun. You can hunt for Easter eggs (just keep an eye out for wild mate-boosted dodos as you roam the world), which you can trade for special holiday themed cosmetics: Bunny ears for you and your dinosaurs, and a jaunty rabbit outfit for your kangaroo (AKA Procoptodon).
All in all, Eggcellent Adventure is a little more low-key than Ark‘s previous Halloween and Christmas events, which gave the world a makeover to varying degrees, added fancy base decorations and costumes, and even summoned holiday-themed monsters into play. But it’s always pleasing to see developer Wildcard embrace its wackier, seasonal side.
This also isn’t the first time that Wildcard has taken liberties with the holiday calendar when it comes to console players. Last year’s Halloween event came to consoles on November 2. But sometimes it swings the other way: Last year, Xbox players began their Thanksgiving celebrations two weeks early.
Wildcard’s calendar finally realigned with reality as Christmas and Valentine’s Day rolled around, with each console event coinciding with their real-life holiday counterparts. As such, console players might be disappointed to see that Easter marks a return to the delays of old.
Ark‘s lead community manager and associate producer, who goes by simply “Jat”, has addressed the delay: As much as Wildcard enjoys doing holiday events, he says, “sometimes other work is going to take priority, and in this case… everyone at Studio Wildcard is focusing on wrapping up development on the main game.”
Jat also cites the complexity of Ark‘s next big console update, which implements significant new features including the reworked UI recently introduced to PC, as being a major contributor to the delayed Easter festivities on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Still, with Ark nearing the final stages of its Early Access development, I’m hopeful that Wildcard will eventually be able to sync everything up. “We would, of course, love to do as many large festive holiday events as possible and we’re discussing ways we can better include these in our development pipeline,” Jat wrote.
In the meantime, think about it this way: Maybe consoles are just 342 days early for Easter 2018.
Comments
6 responses to “Why Console Ark Players Are Celebrating Easter A Week Late”
HALLOWEEN 2 in ark was so fucking shit. So was xmas 2. Hope easter was better.
Is this game “so fucking shit” though? I’ve been curious about it but never felt the urge to jump in. Is it a true believers only kind of game or is it something anyone can jump into?
No its a great game. 2100 plus hours so far lol. Halloween 1 and Xmas 1 were fantastic experiences. The followups were shit. The game itself is almost complete and its really fun to play.
“Almost complete”. Of all the things Consoles should be borrowing from PC, unfinished game is not one of them! I’ll probably buy it when it’s on sale I think, thanks.
*shrug* Ark has been one of the best supported early access games since its release and tbh, part of the joy has been the release of new dinos onto the island each month. I do recommend it on pc over console though. The modding community is just amazing.
I’m firmly in the console club. The pros of PC don’t outweigh the cons for me as a consumer personally. Just comes down to what I want from my gaming experience.