Terraria by Re-Logic and 505 Games was one of the early indie adopters of the Nintendo Switch, but we may be waiting into the new year for its official launch. According to a developer announcement on Friday, the Nintendo Switch releasee will be coming in the “very new future” — but with no confirmation on the 2017 release window.
Terraria was first confirmed to be coming to Nintendo Switch in the earliest Nindies announcement for the handheld home console. You may remember this widely-publicized Tweet:
We hope you enjoyed this special look at some of the fantastic indie games coming this year to #NintendoSwitch! pic.twitter.com/rWLfqExw5b
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 28, 2017
Then, a half-a-year later, Terraria’s official Twitter account re-confirmed their commitment to Nintneod Switch, this time narrowing the release window to 2017:
Terraria for Switch will launch later this year but there isn't an exact date yet. It will be 1.3 or higher 🙂
— Terraria Official (@Terraria_Logic) August 17, 2017
However, it looks like there were some significant speedbumps in the Minecraft-esque indie title’s much anticipated 1.3 update. Because the team was re-writing the entire code for the game, the team wanted to make sure everything in the game is stable day one.
Then, late last week we got official patch-notes for Terraria 1.3 which is now available for PlayStation 4. In those patch notes, we got this message on what is coming next for the development team:
Once the team gets through the initial hotfixes needed on Console, they will shift their attention to bringing Mobile up to the 1.3 era as well as finally bringing Terraria to the Nintendo Switch. Some work has been done there, but with the foundational codebase now in place, that work can accelerate to full speed! We will hopefully have an update on that timing in the very near future, so stay tuned. Beyond that, the Re-Logic and Pipeworks teams will get together on laying out a cadence for bringing all of the 1.3.X content over to Console/Mobile/Switch moving forward.
It’s worth noting that they never explicitly note that the game isn’t coming this year, so hopeful holdouts may be pleasantly surprised. But a more neutral reading of the quote will note there seems to be a lot on the plate for Re-Logic, including upgrading the mobile version of the game, finalizing the Xbox One release of 1.3, and crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s of the Nintendo Switch version. Thankfully, now that the bulk of the work is done, we should be hearing about a launch date in the “very near future.”
Terraria is currently available for Android, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, PC, PlayStation Vita, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One — in other words, basically any current-generation console. The Nintendo Switch version (as mentioned above) will be coming sometime in the “very near future.”