ARK: Survival Evolved is coming to Switch, Survival Evolved has announced. The news was just shared during an event at GDC.

Studio Wildcard said that ARK: Survival Evolved on Switch will look visually comparable to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. Also, the same features and way of delivering multiplayer will be similar.

At GDC today, a Switch version of ARK: Survival Evolved was announced during the Unreal keynote. This was all possible thanks to Abstraction Games, who is handling the port. It’s in such an advanced stage that it was demoed live in front of attendees. Abstraction CEO Ralph Egas mentioned to GamesIndustry that the team “created something you could almost send for certification.”

Egas shared the following regarding the team’s progress when it comes to ARK: Survival Evolved on Switch:

“Studio Wildcard only asked for a first playable. That’s not even a straightforward port. They just want to be able to play it, but maybe sound isn’t there yet. Or no cutscenes. Or not all the controls are implemented yet. Maybe you can walk and do this and that, but you can’t craft anything yet. That’s a first playable and that’s what we agreed. But we went all the way and did a straightforward port on every sub-system, and then some. We still have some work to do, but it’s already running close to 30fps in most cases.”

Egas also spoke about Switch’s power, developing for the system, and the work involved:

“Switch is not as powerful as a PS4 or Xbox One. Everyone knows that. Having said that, the difference isn’t as big as the general perception would have you believe. In some locations you need to downsize a bit on the distance you’re able to view. But not as much as you’d think compared with Xbox One and PS4. Obviously, in terms of Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, that’s a different story. But compared with the base platforms, Switch is not that bad.”

At the Unreal keynote at GDC today, the first off-screen footage debuted of ARK: Survival Evolved running on Switch. You can watch the clip below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B6kJm5pOx8

https://nintendoeverything.com/ark-survival-evolved-announced-for-switch/

Watched in 1080p60, and it looks like it stutters and runs sub 20 fps.

ARK devs seriously dont know how to optimise games.

Guessing this will be a Dynamic 720p25-30 when docked.

*edit:  Probably a Alpha build, running on that switch, and maybe performance is better in the final version. Still how it runs on PS4/XB1, I dont have high hopes they get this running flawlessly on the switch.

What is this game? Infiniminer with dinosaurs?

Wut?

I mean, I'm happy about it and very curious to see how it ends up running on the Switch considering its performance issues on the PS4/XB1 but it wasn't exactly a game that people were clamoring for. I wonder how many sales Studio Wildcard are expecting from this endeavor.

This eurogamer article was from September 2017, so I don't know if the situation has improved much since then but I doubt it.

"Normal mode, runs at 720p on Pro (yes, really) and a blurry 640p on base (this is an approximate measurement: the game is so blurry, pixel-counting is very difficult) while the detail mode offers up 720p on the standard PS4 and 1080p on Pro."

"Base PlayStation 4 performance overall just isn't good enough. Whether you're playing in normal or detail mode, detailed jungle scenes drop well below 30fps. For a 720p title, let alone a circa 640p game, it's actually quite remarkable to see performance drop so low"

I don't have high hopes for docked when it can struggle to hit 640p30fps on the PS4, never mind handheld mode. "Visually comparable" to PS4/Xbox? I'll believe that when I see it.

Another studio is doing the port so maybe that could make a bit of difference (and why it's even running on switch at all). I don't care much of game itself too much, but as like I was with DOOM it's interesting to see how devs can try and push Switch's capabilities (even if it doesn't end up turning out the best). I don't think it'll run flawlessly but it'll be interesting to see how close they can try.

I think its more about how bad they are at optimising, than how demanding the game actually is.
So maybe they put more effort into getting it to run on the switch, it might run better there.

However that video they released, Im pretty sure is sub20 fps, and it has micro stutter.
Its probably a early build, but like I said.... no faith at all in ARK developers.

Thank gawd! lmao.
This might just end up being the best running version of the 3 then. Hahahahah.

Some shot of reality for some users. 

Hell yeah, looking forward to it.