When Ark: Survival Evolved was first announced for Nintendo Switch eyebrows were raised, and then when it was actually released eyes rolled. People like to talk as if issues of the Switch struggling to run some games is a recent problem, but back in late 2018 Ark arrived and was a bit of a shambles. It worked, technically, but was extremely rough to play and almost impossible to recommend.
Somewhat strangely, Studio Wildcard has now confirmed the release of Ark: Ultimate Survivor Edition in September, at retail and for $49.99USD on the eShop. It'll include the base game and all major expansions (Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, and Genesis Parts 1 & 2), though at launch it'll only have Scorched Earth with the others to follow in two month intervals. Even so, if playable that could be a huge amount of content for the price.
Intriguingly, though, this edition and all existing copies will apparently showcase a 'complete revamp', with a new port specialist supposedly rebuilding the code in Unreal Engine 4. So, presumably, those that already own the game can anticipate a major and hefty update when the Survivor Edition launches, though importantly all progress and save data will be retained:
Additionally in September, everyone who already owns the ARK: Survival Evolved base game on Nintendo Switch will receive this complete revamp of functionality, graphics, and optimization. Studio Wildcard has contracted with a talented third party developer who is rewriting the entire ARK Switch code from the ground-up, developing it on the latest version of Unreal Engine 4. All existing Switch player progress and Save data will be maintained.
Key new features of ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition for the Nintendo Switch include:
- New cinematic story content to further expand the narrative of ARK: Survival Evolved.
- Custom server support powered by Nitrado server networks.
- “Young Explorers” Mode: Journey through the epochs in this new educational mode. Explore ARK island to discover & learn about the amazing prehistoric creatures that inspired the game. Appropriate for even the smallest survivors!
It'll be interesting to see how this update compares to the current build, and whether it will genuinely deliver a significant overhaul to improve the experience.
Let us know what you think - will you be tempted to revisit this after the update, or perhaps take the plunge on the Ultimate Survivor Edition?
Comments 28
It would be hard for them to make the graphics any worse.
Wow. You gotta give them props for that. Most developers just drop a half-baked port, take whatever money they've made and move on.
Was looking forward to this game when it was announced for Switch, but quickly backed off after the awful reviews came out.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the update and see if the game is worth purchasing after.
I didn't even know ark was on switch. After just now watching the digital foundry video regarding it's performance i can't believe they released the game in that state. It's disgusting. And i feel bad for anyone who purchased it.
Hopefully they deliver with this major update. If they do props to them. Wouldn't be a bad PR move to give the people who already purchased the game the dlc for free too.
It might even look better than Minecraft!
Joke aside, that studio has no clue how to optimise a game. It was ugly and didn't even run properly on high end PC when it was released. Also they blamed their own incompetence on nVidia and AMD drivers.
Yeah, tell us who the "third party developer" is, Wildcard. THEN maybe I might be interested in ARK on Switch again. I was very interested when it was first announced, then saw just how horribly optimized for the system it was, and never got around to purchasing it. So I will definitely take this with a grain of salt and see how it comes along in September to decide if I want to purchase or not then.
Is this game focused on single player or multiplayer?
@Slowdive that’s the important question! I know very little about this game, but I do remember the negative reviews. That being said, there’s a number of people on my Friends List who’ve put a LOT of hours in to this game!
Nice, I will wait for that before buying the game.
Ha, bought this a while back, played it for a few hours and just had to stop it was awfullll, maybe I'll check it out again after the revamp, glad it's free for old owners.
I did purchase this game on switch it’s very bad but there is some good to it stay in like an open area next to a lake without going near a full jungle near trees because the trees lag the game and they just look awful. Doesn’t do to bad when you play in single player but when you go online it is basically unplayable. It skips bad when you open your inventory as well and can sit there for about 5 seconds before it even opens so amazing trying to build things just the worst. When you dive across dinosaurs and other creatures they don’t skip the game to much just the really large ones but you don’t see them so often. Graphics looks like mudd and everything looks like mud terrible not fun to look at, the dinosaur do have there texture on them and sometimes be cool and color to look at but still look foggy but they are probably the only thing that looks decent in the game. In the end I just hope they can fix all or most the problems the game has and it has a lot. Though local play is nice when you don’t want to play it online but with a fiend.
Now with 20 more pixels and 5 more fps....🙄
I'll see it when I believe it.
So if they are saying that this is a retail release and that this new version will supposedly look and play better, then color me interested. But I'm of course, cautiously optimistic about this whole announcement.
Also, if the "retail" version of the game is not on a physical cartridge and instead a download code in a box, then that's almost a deal breaker for me.
If CD Projekt Red could port a whole butt-load of a last gen open world game like the Witcher 3 onto Switch all onto a 32 Gigabyte cartridge, then I hope this game looks about as well as that game does.
@TheAceOfGurren honestly Saber, Panic and Feral were great.
Saber for Switcher 3 and Crysis
Panic for DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal. (Let’s ignore Apex Legends shall we)
Feral for Alien Isolation
My my, IF they manage to delivery a good port i will buy for sure i was interested on this game but the original was a totally shameful work
Never bought it but saw it in action and jesus christ it was bad very bad, maybe the worst Switch port out there or up there. Don't expect much from this at all.
@WallyWest didn't run so hot on other consoles too but it was a bit more better on other consoles
@Erigen I am not familiar with this game. I only know that this port was not the best. However, I am impressed by the developers trying again. As you said, usually developers call it a "loss" and leave. I am impressed by these guys.
For $49.99 you can purchase ARK: Survival Evolved and you will be treated to guaranteed crashes and some of the worst graphics/performance available on the Switch.
For $39.99 you can purchase PixARK, and you will be treated to guaranteed crashes and some of the worst graphics/performance available on the Switch.
By law of "fool me once, fool me twice", if you waste $49.99 on yet another "updated" version of ARK that turns out to be poor, you have no one to blame but yourself.
@Astral-Grain 😭 Sad facts. Definitely waiting for reviews for this one. On the bright side, I never purchased PixArk so they've only fooled me once so far. 😉
Uhh abit too late no?
I'm looking forward to this, Finally a response after about 4 years of nothing, a little late but I was hoping everytime I see it.
Not gon front aside from the clay graphics I actually had A LOT of fun with this game. Trudged well over 20 hours in it. I did have to stop eventually cuz there came a point I could not tell for the life of me what was attacking me lol I'm definitely excited for this news BUT I will be waiting to see the improved visuals. If it's clear enough to finally tell the difference between a tree and a raptor I'm definitely buying it
@TheAceOfGurren I hope it's either Saber or Panic Button. Both studios work magic when porting to the switch.
Back in 2018. I bought Ark Survival Evolved on switch at launch from EB Games. 3 hours after that I was back at the same Eb games trading it in and getting the Bayonetta double pack.
I'll believe it when I see it. Got fooled by the game in 2018 at launch and couldnt believe how terrible it was. Thankfully Best Buy let me return it even after it was opened when I explained how garbage the game was.
I won't be stupid enough again to buy this game. Glad to hear they're fixing it though... or attempting to so many years later so we shall see.
Tried my neighbours copy a few months back (he likes it, oddly enough lol and tried convincing me to give it anorher shot) and it appeared to have had 0 updates so I didn't bother.
NGL I've already got 300 hours on Ark on Switch.
@Sidon_ZoraPrince I made the mistake of purchasing the game when it first came to switch and once I ran it I immediately regretted it and was super upset because I had bought it on the e-store and couldn't just return it. It didn't help that I also was young and didn't have a job at the time so dropping like 40 bucks on a broken game was a true tragedy
@BloodWolfe I'm honestly still not sure if they have updated it yet despite it being November :')
Tap here to load 28 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...