Get Ark: Survival Evolved for free on Steam for a limited time

(Image credit: Studio Wildcard)

During the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase it was confirmed that Ark 2 will release in 2023, and be coming to Xbox Game Pass on Day one. We saw Vin Diesel ride a tyrannosaurus, and that's a series of words I never imagined having to type before. To celebrate the announcement, Studio Wildcard are giving away the original Ark: Survival Evolved free for a limited time.

It's been quite a journey for Ark, which entered Early Access in 2015. Chris investigated it at the time, and narrowed down its appeal to two things it lets you do: ride dinosaurs, and make your character poop. Before it left Early Access in 2017, Ark received updates like the addition of growable beards, and then functioning toilets, which it took Chris four hours and a dozen dead sheep to get working. It's continued being updated since.

As our resident survival game expert, Chris spent a lot of time writing about Ark. He declared the best mount in the game about riding dinosaurs was actually a damn frog, and also found time to sing the praises of its pickiest creature, a giant snail that eats only cake.

What a game. You can claim your copy of Ark on Steam any time between now and Sunday, June 19, at 10am PDT. While you're at it, Ark 2 has a Steam page as well.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.