Studio Wildcard will shut down the official servers for Ark: Survival Evolved on Nintendo Switch on August 31, ending online support for a version of the dinosaur survival game that has drawn "over a million players" since it launched in 2018, GameSpot reported.
The shutdown covers both Switch releases: the 2018 original and the Ultimate Survivor Edition, the remaster built by Grove Street Games. Both lose their official servers on the same date. The developer announced the closure "with wistful hearts".
We want to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey.
The million-player figure is the studio's own, covering the Switch version across the eight years since its 2018 release.
What survives the shutdown
Ark's single-player modes and unofficial servers will remain "fully playable" after the official servers go dark on August 31, which leaves most of the game intact. Playing online with other people is one of Ark's main appeals, however, and GameSpot notes that unofficial servers are neither as easy to get into nor as consistent an experience as the official ones.
Both Switch versions have been discounted ahead of the cut-off. Survival Evolved is available for $5 on the eShop and the Ultimate Survivor Edition is marked down to $12.50. Both are playable on Nintendo Switch 2 through backward compatibility, so an Ark library bought on Switch does not stop working with the newer hardware even after the servers close.
The most recent entry in the series, Ark: Survival Ascended, is not available on Switch at all, though Studio Wildcard is working on a version of it. That leaves the two Survival Evolved releases as the only way to play Ark on Nintendo hardware for now, and from September they will be single-player or unofficial-server propositions only.
