ARK Survival Evolved is coming to the Nintendo Switch games list.
The surprise announcement was made at GDC 2018, during the State of Unreal presentation.
From the footage shown off during the event, ARK Survival Evolved on Nintendo Switch could be another top port for the console.
From what we know already, Studio Wildcard are looking to port the full version of the game to the Switch, although it’s unclear if this will be a work in progress.
ARK spent a long time in Steam Early Access and is still very popular on the PC platform.
Studio Wild say that the new port will be available by Fall 2018, with the company partnering up with developer Abstraction Games.
And according to the team who are working on ARK for Switch, the game only took a matter of weeks to get working on the hybrid console.
“We did not expect to get a keynote announcement,” Abstraction CEO Ralph Egas tells GamesIndustry.biz.
“But then again our client didn’t expect us to deliver a build that is this advanced already.
“I got an email from Jeremy [Stieglitz, Studio Wildcard], who said our build was so robust and impressive that they’ve decided to demonstrate it live during Epic’s keynote. That’s big news for us.
“Most companies usually have a Plan A and a Plan B, and it’s Plan B that they’re banking on. But we delivered Plan A, and they didn’t expect it. They wanted a first playable at this point, but we actually have created something you could almost send for certification.
“That’s how we try to operate. They didn’t expect that. And that’s why they’re all of a sudden shifting gear and doing an entire presentation at GDC.”
However, it should be noted that draw distances on the Switch will probably be lower, as well as the density of dinosaurs on the Island.
“Of course, with the runtime memory footprint, there’s not as much as PS4 or Xbox One, so that means you need to reduce the content that is being used at any one time,” Egas adds.
“Partially that’s a case of having fewer dinos here or there, and downsizing on actual content experience. But that’s only a bit. The rest is just from clever compression algorithms.”
Another game that looks set for the Nintendo Switch is Diablo 3.
A new retail listing appears to have outed the port, which has already been confirmed as being in development by other media sources.
Earlier in February, it seemed Nintendo Switch games fans had been given a pretty clear hint on what might be announced in 2018.
Blizzard, the publisher behind Overwatch and Hearthstone, posted a message from social media that appeared to be teasing a new release.
Not only that, but it was for a game that has been well received on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
A six-second video posted on Twitter featured a Diablo nightlight being turned on and off… via a Switch.
“Sweet dreams,” the video caption reads.
It’s wasn’t the most straight forward tease, but it was hard to think what else it could really mean, other then a Diablo 3 port for Switch.
However, since then, Blizzard have been doing some back-tracking.