Studio Wildcard

Wildcard Properties, LLC, doing business as Studio Wildcard, is an American video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington. Founded by Jesse Rapczak and Doug Kennedy in 2014, the company is best known for their debut video game, Ark: Survival Evolved.

Legal disputes
In March 2016, Trendy Entertainment filed a lawsuit against Studio Wildcard. Trendy proclaimed that former creative director Jeremy Stieglitz has violated the no-compete clause in his contract by secretly developing Ark in a major capacity. At that time, Ark was at risk from being halted and the game pulled from sale on Steam.

Stieglitz, uncomfortable with where he stood with Trendy, requested that he be released from his contract, or that the company fire a few individuals that made him unhappy. Eventually, an arrangement was made that saw Stieglitz's three-year no compete clause reduced to one, and Stieglitz departed from Trendy.

The lawsuit was eventually settled for US$40 million. Ark ended up staying on Steam.

Ark's official release date out of alpha was initially scheduled for Summer 2016, but because of the lawsuit and multiple other issues, had a delayed release.