ARK: Survival Evolved Sets Its Sights On Nintendo Switch

Last week, Studio Wildcard surprised us all by announcing that it's bringing ARK: Survival Evolved to mobile devices with the help of War Drum Studios. Given the resources required to run ARK on PC and consoles, this announcement definitely caught us off guard, but as it turns out, Wildcard isn't done with the ports just yet. At GDC today, the developer revealed that it will also be bringing its game to the Nintendo Switch.

This time, it'll be Abstraction Games handling the porting duties. At the moment, details on the Switch version of ARK are fairly sparse, with Wildcard saying that it'll be out sometime in fall 2018. We're also unsure if it'll be up-to-date with the PC version, though Wildcard does say that it will feature "the complete contents and features of the original game," suggesting that this will at least be the version of ARK we received when it left early access on Steam.

For those who haven't subjected themselves to ARK's particular hooks yet, it's a game all about survival, base building, and player-vs-player combat. These are features ARK shares with many other games in the survival genre, but it makes things interesting by throwing prehistoric creatures and dinosaurs into the mix. You'll have to contend with these vicious creatures as well as other players, adding a unique twist to the typical survival formula.

Taking things one step further, players can also tame many of the creatures that walk ARK's mysterious island. This means you can tame an army of fast-moving Velociraptors that can help you move across the island quickly, or ride on the back of the gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex, using it lay siege to your enemies' bases. You can even take to the skies by taming a Pteranodon, Argentavis, or the massive Quetzalcoatlus.

ARK: Survival Evolved certainly attracted its share of fans during its stint in early access on Steam. At the same time, however, some of the decisions Wildcard made with the direction of the game led to outcry from those very same fans, so ARK has had a turbulent existence thus far. Here's hoping the Switch version runs well, because this could definitely be a great game to play on the go.