Welcome to the age of big games coming to mobile in unabridged format: ARK: Survival Evolved is coming to iOS and Android, with an iOS beta opening today. The plan for the mobile version is to contain the full online experience as the PC version of ARK, with a full 50-person multiplayer environment with the ability to join tribes to share resources, XP, and spawn points; there is also an offline singleplayer mode available.

ARK: Survival Evolved drops players on a mysterious island that’s full of dinosaurs. Players will try to survive the ARK, an island with over 80 species of dinosaur, by crafting the tools they need to survive. It’s possible to build structures as well, including entire cities! You’ll find blueprints and notes that reveal the history of the ARK, and can explore its many different ecosystems. Also, you can ride a Pterodactyl.

ARK: Survival Evolved is tremendously popular on console and PC, and this mobile adaptation promises to introduce mobile players to the series as well. The only compromises from the first media releaed appear to be some visual fidelity, as the game needs to run on a variety of hardware that might be powerful, but is optimized for battery life rather than performance. Still, ARK: Survival Evolved is looking quite good, and like it could faithfully represent the dinosaur survival experience on the go.

And much like the Fortnite announcement for mobile, this is showing the capability of mobile platforms. Players are mature enough to handle complicated virtual touch controls now (though I’m hoping for controller support), and if the games can work on mobile hardware, and prove to be financially viable…why not? In the same way that dinosaurs and humans meet in ARK: Survival Evolved, so too are the barriers breaking between disparate platforms.

If you’re intrigued by ARK: Survival Evolved on mobile, you can sign up for the beta today at this link, with a spring release planned for the game on iOS and Android.

Update: The beta link is now live. Also, the developer clarifies some information on the game’s performance:

For those who've been asking about mobile specs, we're looking at a 2GB download size, running at 30 FPS on iPhone 7 and up. Will feature the entire Island map with most of the creatures. Devices will require 2 GB of RAM on iOS and 3 GB of RAM on Android.

— ARK: Survival Evolved (@PlayARKMobile) March 15, 2018