This evening's Nintendo Direct has brought plenty of surprises for fans of Nintendo's portable console, including the unexpected announcement that Payday 2 will be available for the Nintendo Switch later this year.

Nintendo didn't narrow down the launch window beyond the calendar year during the Direct, though Nintendo fans looking forward to joining in on Payday 2's heist-filled action will be happy to hear that the Switch iteration of the title will include some of its previously released downloadable content.

When Payday 2 originally launched in 2013, the game quickly garnered an online following of gamers that worked in cooperative groups to execute well-thought heists and maximize their ill-gotten payday from various banks. To support the title's longevity, developer Overkill Software has been consistently churning out both paid and free updates for the title, though this led to the studio defending itself against accusations of a pay-to-win platform shortly after a particular update released last year.

Though many gamers have worried that ports to the Switch platform will feature downgrades in order to fit titles onto the less-hardware intensive platform, Nintendo has assured gamers that the Switch edition of Payday 2 will function just like the PC edition of the game. While the Nintendo Direct itself gave 2017 as a general release date for the title, the official press release states that gamers should expect Payday 2 to arrive for the winter season, likely just in time for the holiday shopping window.

Nintendo had promised that the Switch would procure plenty of third party support, and moves like this show that The Big N is certainly putting in an effort to back up its words. While titles like Skyrim and Payday 2 aren't close to being fresh and new, the thought of being able to play such games while on-the-go does have a certain appeal to it. Should gamers be looking for a more literal fight, the Nintendo Direct also brought the news that Arms would be releasing this June.

There's currently no word on which downloadable content will be included in the Nintendo Switch version of the game, but we expect newer paid releases like the John Wick heist and or the Scarface heist won't be included, though the older free items like the John Wick character pack and the original diamond store heist will probably make the cut.

What do you think about Payday 2 coming to the Nintendo Switch, Ranters?

Payday 2 is available now on PC, Linux, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. A Nintendo Switch version is slated to arrive later on in 2017.