ARK: Survival Evolved ported to Switch in weeks, Studio Wildcard delighted

Doesn't the title say enough - even Studio Wildcard, the developer of ARK: Survival Evolved, was in disbelief over how quickly and well made Abstraction Games' Switch port of their game is. Well, maybe Wildcard could learn something, right?

The port debuted during Unreal's keynote delivered on the Game Developers Conference (GDC), even though it was initially meant to be a mere demonstration of a first playable version of Switch flavoured ARK: Survival Evolved.

Dutch based Abstraction Games has already developed a reputation of port specialist, with the list including Hotline Miami, King of Fighters XIV as well as ARK: Survival Evolved for PS4. However, the latest move seems to have stumped even the original dev.

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Abstraction Games' CEO Ralph Egas spoke to GamesIndustry.biz, where he said the studio came up with a version of ARK: Survival Evolved that's almost ripe for certification, even though it was requested as a first playable.

Egas says Wildcard was so delighted with the outcome, they decided they must show it off at GDC, during Epic's keynote no less. The fact that Abstraction's partners are gargantuan in comparison didn't stop the company from delivering their A game though, and then some.

"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", Egas said. In fact, he stressed that Abstraction Games thrives on and strives for that sort of modus operandi.

Studio Wildcard ARK: Survival Evolved

Ultimately, we somehow have no doubt Ark: Survival Evolved will run better on Switch platforms than on PC, which of course barely constitutes a compliment. Perhaps it would be educational for Wildcard to take out a notebook and delve into some reverse engineering?