When Ark: Survival Evolved stumbled onto the Switch back in 2018, it was borderline unplayable on the hybrid system.
Studio Wildcard is looking to turn this around with Ark: Ultimate Survivor Edition - a complete revamp of the original game, rebuilding the title on Unreal Engine 4 and enhancing the functionality, graphics and optimisation.
Unfortunately, if you were excited about the game's September launch, it seems you're going to have to wait a little bit longer - with the developer revealing at PAX West today that the game has now been delayed until October 25th.
Existing owners of Ark: Survival Evolved on Switch will receive this "complete revamp" as a free update. All existing progress and save data will be maintained as well. Here's what else you can expect, along with a look at the development build:
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!
- Read more - REVIEW Ark: Survival Evolved - An Ambitious Survival Epic That's Borderline Unplayable On Switch
Will you be giving this game a second chance when the new edition arrives next month? Comment below.
Comments 26
Truly tragic.
I will definitely be disappointed for thus.
I'll still pick it up in October to support them because they are trying to redeem themselves.....I didn't buy it the first time because I have alot of games in my switch backlog but I will buy this one because one I like it on PC and two I want to play it portable lol
Isn't the switch port like a really muddy graphical mess?
Oh no.
Well anyway.
I picked it up for the price of a burger so am happy about this update and can wait a little longer
No great loss, the original game runs pretty bad on the Switch, can't imagine this is much better.
God why is everyone so dismissive about this new Ark port?
No Man's Sky gets fixed - yayy redemption story!!
Ark gets fixed - ah who cares, the first version is bad
Where's all the praise for a developer completely rebuilding their game in a different engine to make it run nicely on Switch? I get that you all are sceptical. And i am too, yeah (the framerate still looks somewhat choppy - it's a dev build though in the video). But they're putting in an effort to make it right and i find it unfair that it's being completely dismissed by so many.
@StefanN,
Guess we realize the Switch has it's limitations, and yes it's nice developers are taking the time and trouble (for money of course), to port this game to the Switch.
But this does come with a huge caveat if the games performance borders on unacceptable, as they are still charging for the game at the end of the day, and even if the console is less powerful, we still need a level of performance that makes the whole port worthwhile imho.
So many.......... seven or so people at the moment.
@johnvboy I think the comments section does represent the general sentiment. But hey, maybe it's just a vocal minority.
And i agree with you, if the port is still going to be bad, it's bad. I'm just surprised how little people are willing to give this second attempt a chance despite the development build looking lightyears better already (apart from the framerate lol and i do care about that)
It's not the fact the original port was bad or there going out of there way to improve the game overall. It's just we're at the point where no one really cares anymore.
@StefanN,
Totally true, and I have been saying this for years, our opinions are of the core minority variety, and will have little impact on what the masses buy or do not.
But we can still have opinions, and as we say it's not going to make or break the games sales by any stretch of the imagination... so why worry.
Who in the right mind would want to buy a game that runs at 12 fps? I would not trust this company to release a working game on the switch.
Another Switch port that would have been a bigger deal four years ago.
Hopefully, this game not only runs significantly better, but also supports cross play on Nitrado's servers.
A buddy at work is constantly talking about Ark: Survival Evolved, I admit it does somewhat have my interest (cause dinosaurs will always be awesome), but I honestly don't think this is a game I would enjoy.
I'm very interested if the game plays well.
@StefanN No Man's Sky didn't need fixing it needed content and HG were pumping out new content within months after release. This game released in a godawful state years ago and its only now they plan on fixing it.
Is this better or worse than the original release?
I spent hundreds of of hours on Ark on PS4 with 4 other mates from real life. It truly is a fantastic experience. Strangely, The actor Vin Diesel is a play tester and bug reporter.
Apparently on PS5, it now runs as good as ever.
I miss the world of Ark though I am not going back as there is a real sunrise to enjoy.
Curious though to see how the Switch update pans out. The video footage above is pretty damn good.
If anything, this could mean that they have updated the game for an upcoming Switch Revision.......
Well I counted the game as a loss before when I purchased it so, I suppose I can wait another month lol.
This is good news. It means they care enough to delay if needed to give a good product. Otherwise they'd just release as is without any delay.
That bodes well.
But. We'll still have to see come release time whether they've succeeded in rebuilding this game.
Is the game any good though? What do you do in it? Every video I see is just someone running around with dinosaurs in a first person perspective.
@VoidofLight did you not even read the article you commented on? They are updating it to be on par with the other versions on the other consoles Because the original port was a mess…
@vio its pretty fun its a survival game your basically a man dropped into one of several maps with nothing and you gotta survive the various dinos and other beasts around you by crafting tools armor and building shelters and taming beasts. Beyond the survival stuff theres pretty cool lore and story that reveals that the titular Arks are orbiting stations of artificial land where cloned creatures from throughout Earths past have been placed including yourself and you slowly learn of previous clones who explored and learned about the Arks and the Homo Deus transhuman beings who created them.
Each of the Maps is a different Ark and theres a system where you beat a series of boss creatures and you can Ascend to the next Ark granted this is not easy. There also real creative in the Ark design and some of the unique creatures that go way beyond just Dinos or even Dragons in one theres what i can basically describe as a giant praying mantis spiderman that you can ride as mount and basically webswing with in its swampy environment.
Then there’s multiplayer. There its basically Darwinism the game think Rust but with armies of t rexs…
@johnvboy They made this port with the switch in mind by recoding just for the switch so I think its gonna be a lot better but I still think it’s gonna hick up quite a bit but we will have to see.
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