‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Nintendo Switch Release Coming This Fall
ARK: Survival Evolved will make its debut on Nintendo Switch this fall. The release news was announced by representatives from Studio Wildcard during the GDC Unreal Engine keynote this afternoon.
Not much is known about the Switch port at the time of writing, but Wildcard seems very committed to capturing the visually stunning nature of ARK’s open-world sandbox on Nintendo’s zeigeist system. Here’s what developers had to say about bringing the Unreal Engine title to the hybrid platform:
“Unreal Engine enables us to make fewer target looks and know that that look is going to translate to the console experience across all these devices including things like multiplayer, playing with your friends, joining tribes… All of that experience you can expect from ARK is available on the go with the Switch."
The reveal arrived alongside the off-screen gameplay footage shown above, and the conversion looks fairly impressive at face value. While it’s hard to gauge how framerates and visuals are truly performing from an obscured angle, the basic identity of ARK remains in tact. Players spawn on the beach and punch some Dodos, but it’s unclear how everything functions once large groups of Dinos spawn into the map. If performance on PS4 and Xbox One is any indication, the Switch version will likely function well enough with occasional bugs and framerate dips.
The Switch port of ARK is yet another example of Wildcard’s mission to bring its prehistoric playground to as many platforms as possible. Late last week, Wildcard revealed mobile versions of Survival Evolved are also in development. Invites for the Closed Beta test are expected to release today. The voxel-based PixARK spinoff is set to enter early access and Game Preview early next week as well.
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ARK: Survival Evolved is available now on PC, Xbox One, PS4, OS X and Linux. The Switch version is expected to release this fall.
Are you surprised to see ARK running on Switch? Would you want to play this game on a portable screen? Tell us in the comments section!