Studio Wildcard has officially confirmed that ARK: Survival Ascended is in active development for Nintendo Switch 2, marking a significant step forward for the popular survival game on next-generation Nintendo hardware.
This development is primarily driven by advancements from Epic Games with Unreal Engine 5, allowing the team to achieve technical standards previously unattainable on the portable platform. In a recent interview with PCGamesN, Studio Wildcard’s co-founder and development director, Jeremy Stieglitz, shared an update on the project’s progress: “The game is actively being developed.
While we cannot discuss an exact release date due to ongoing variables, we have functioning builds running on Nintendo Switch 2, made possible only by the capabilities unlocked by the new Unreal Engine.
Prior to these advancements, ARK: Survival Ascended could not meet the system’s performance requirements.
The introduction of Unreal Engine 5.7’s nanite tessellation has had a transformative effect on game performance, and this encouraged us to prioritize engine updates for all platforms.” ARK: Survival Ascended brings a comprehensive overhaul of the original ARK, fully leveraging Unreal Engine 5 technology to enhance both visuals and gameplay.
The reimagined graphics incorporate dynamic Global Illumination via the Lumen system for realistic light reflections, while advanced mesh streaming through Nanite allows for highly detailed environments, rendering hundreds of millions of triangles simultaneously.
Additional gameplay enhancements stem from sophisticated new physics systems.
The upgraded dynamic water now reacts authentically to every creature’s movement, generating waves, ripples, and splashes.
Fully interactive foliage ensures that every plant, tree, and blade of grass responds to player and environmental events, offering an immersive and reactive world.
Players can witness the environment’s transformation in real-time—from toppling trees that affect their surroundings to buildings that break apart with realistic physical interactions. ARK: Survival Ascended for Nintendo Switch 2 will include access to all of ARK’s major worlds.
The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, and The Center are currently available, with Extinction slated for release on December 16.
Additional expansion worlds, such as ARK Genesis Part 1 and Part 2, will be released free of charge at regular intervals, ensuring ongoing support and content updates for players on the Switch 2 platform. This definitive survival experience tasks players with customizing their survivor, forming tribes, taming and riding dinosaurs, and managing a complex ecosystem that responds dynamically to food, water, temperature, and weather variables.
As players expand their settlements, they’ll encounter reworked user interfaces, improved navigation for intelligent creature pathfinding, new wildlife such as Wild Babies, a comprehensive photo mode, and numerous structural and item additions—all part of a series of quality of life upgrades designed for ARK: Survival Ascended. With Studio Wildcard’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of the survival genre and Nintendo Switch 2’s next-gen hardware capabilities, ARK: Survival Ascended is poised to offer fans an enhanced and robust gameplay experience.
Further updates, including a confirmed launch window and additional feature details, will be shared by Studio Wildcard as development progresses.
This development is primarily driven by advancements from Epic Games with Unreal Engine 5, allowing the team to achieve technical standards previously unattainable on the portable platform. In a recent interview with PCGamesN, Studio Wildcard’s co-founder and development director, Jeremy Stieglitz, shared an update on the project’s progress: “The game is actively being developed.
While we cannot discuss an exact release date due to ongoing variables, we have functioning builds running on Nintendo Switch 2, made possible only by the capabilities unlocked by the new Unreal Engine.
Prior to these advancements, ARK: Survival Ascended could not meet the system’s performance requirements.
The introduction of Unreal Engine 5.7’s nanite tessellation has had a transformative effect on game performance, and this encouraged us to prioritize engine updates for all platforms.” ARK: Survival Ascended brings a comprehensive overhaul of the original ARK, fully leveraging Unreal Engine 5 technology to enhance both visuals and gameplay.
The reimagined graphics incorporate dynamic Global Illumination via the Lumen system for realistic light reflections, while advanced mesh streaming through Nanite allows for highly detailed environments, rendering hundreds of millions of triangles simultaneously.
Additional gameplay enhancements stem from sophisticated new physics systems.
The upgraded dynamic water now reacts authentically to every creature’s movement, generating waves, ripples, and splashes.
Fully interactive foliage ensures that every plant, tree, and blade of grass responds to player and environmental events, offering an immersive and reactive world.
Players can witness the environment’s transformation in real-time—from toppling trees that affect their surroundings to buildings that break apart with realistic physical interactions. ARK: Survival Ascended for Nintendo Switch 2 will include access to all of ARK’s major worlds.
The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, and The Center are currently available, with Extinction slated for release on December 16.
Additional expansion worlds, such as ARK Genesis Part 1 and Part 2, will be released free of charge at regular intervals, ensuring ongoing support and content updates for players on the Switch 2 platform. This definitive survival experience tasks players with customizing their survivor, forming tribes, taming and riding dinosaurs, and managing a complex ecosystem that responds dynamically to food, water, temperature, and weather variables.
As players expand their settlements, they’ll encounter reworked user interfaces, improved navigation for intelligent creature pathfinding, new wildlife such as Wild Babies, a comprehensive photo mode, and numerous structural and item additions—all part of a series of quality of life upgrades designed for ARK: Survival Ascended. With Studio Wildcard’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of the survival genre and Nintendo Switch 2’s next-gen hardware capabilities, ARK: Survival Ascended is poised to offer fans an enhanced and robust gameplay experience.
Further updates, including a confirmed launch window and additional feature details, will be shared by Studio Wildcard as development progresses.
