It's a shady situation at best...
From my point of view, Wildcard is being lead around by the nose by its publisher Snailgames.
Ark2 got pushed back (was supposed to launch 2023), and Snail is trying to prop up its sagging stock (which is tanking hard and fast). With no golden egg to prop up stock value for 2023, they decided to force Wildcard to renege on its claim that the unreal 5 version was to be a free upgrade. In order to force a mass exodus from ARK:SE, they are closing down the official servers.
That's a huge middle finger to you, to me, and every other ARK player.
It's bad enough that they are trying to soak the price of a new game for what we already essentially paid for, but they are erasing years of progress from their player base. Dinos, bases, player character progression? PooF!
It's no wonder why the current servers are ghost towns. Why would anybody want to play 4 more months when they know it's all for naught?
You owe us better treatment Wildcard.
I won't be buying ARK:A unless they allow character transfers at the minimum, or until it's massively on sale.
