A recent SEC filing has revealed how much Sony and Microsoft paid Ark: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard to bring the multiplayer title to PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass.
The filing was spotted by Ark YouTuber "GP" (as highlighted by Kotaku senior reporter Ethan Gach) and was submitted in September 2022 as part of Studio Wildcard parent company Snail Games' recent IPO bid.
The filing reveals that Wildcard had a "long-term title license agreement (game pass)" with Microsoft for a period of three years ending December 31, 2021, which was then amended in June 2020 to "extend the Ark 1 game pass perpetually effective January 1, 2022, and to put Ark 2 on game pass for three years upon release."
In terms of how much those deals cost Microsoft, the filing notes that Wildcard received $2.5 million relating to the Ark 1 perpetual license for the first half of 2022, and a deferred $2.3 million related to bringing upcoming sequel Ark 2 to Xbox Game Pass.
In contrast, Sony paid Wildcard $3.5 million to bring Ark 1 to PlayStation 4 through PlayStation Plus for a period of five weeks.
"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," continues the filing.
There are some other interesting tidbits too. At the top of the document, Snail explains that Ark has generated over 76.5 million console and PC installs, with 38.4 million of those resulting from free promotions.
It added that through the six months ended June 30, 2022, Ark averaged a total of 395,150 daily active users (DAU) on Steam and Epic, delivering a peak of 755,000 DAU during that period.