Home Gaming Going free-to-play wasn’t enough to save Evolve

Going free-to-play wasn’t enough to save Evolve

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Evolve2

Before its release, Evolve was one of the most hyped games in recent memory (though not quite as rapturous as No Man’s Sky). Many publications (including this one!) bestowed heaps of pre-release praise on the game, having played it in controlled conditions. And that’s because, when the stars align, the game is genuinely fun.

Unfortunately, in the real world, those conditions were seldom met, and just about every game devolved in to a game of chase the monster for perpetuity. Running around in circles for hours is seldom fun. Couple that with a frankly obscene take on in-game monetisation, and you have a game that very quickly haemorrhaged its active user base.

But there was hope! This year, the game relaunched on PC as a free-to-play game. Retooled to be more fun, developer Turtle Rock had put faith in the free-to-play model. While Evolve Stage 2 did indeed attract new players, they didn’t stick around. And now, it’s all over.

Turtle Rock has ceased development on Evolve. In a rather emotional post on the developer’s site titled “Our Final Message To Our Evolve Community,” Turtle Rock lays it all down.

“We had huge aspirations for Evolve, and while we got to spend five and a half awesome years on planet Shear with a ragtag group of Planet Tamers and fearsome Monsters, it still doesn’t feel like enough – we were hungry for more but unfortunately today is the last day that Turtle Rock Studios can work on Evolve.”

That means no more development or updates to the game – and the planned release for Stage 2 on consoles has been binned.

“It’s always hard to leave one of our games behind. Left4Dead was no different and now it’s Evolve’s turn. There will always be a special place in our hearts for our past projects. No matter what happens with Evolve in the future, we’ll know it was born in this studio and developed by this team alongside this beautiful community.

This is the life of AAA game developers who aren’t self-funded and don’t own their own IP. We don’t get to make the call. We all know that going in but we still sign the dotted line because we love what we do. We are happy to have gotten the opportunity to do something risky, something new and innovative. We created a brand new Sci-Fi world. We got to go to planet Shear and interact with alien flora and fauna. We got to hunt down, trap and kill giant monsters together. We got to BE the monster. What an awesome experience.”

The letter doesn’t explicitly state why the development is being shut down, though it does imply that 2K has made this particular call. 2K, will however, be keeping the PC servers alive “for the foreseeable future.”

Last Updated: October 26, 2016

41 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief

    October 26, 2016 at 09:12

    A shame actually, I can only imagine how they must feel

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

      October 26, 2016 at 09:15

      It’s not nice no and kudos on them for trying something new. Hopefully this means LFD2 is on it’s way for ALL platforms

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        October 26, 2016 at 09:16

        We need LFD3!!!

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

          October 26, 2016 at 09:25

          Yeah, sorry XD

          Reply

  2. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    October 26, 2016 at 09:14

  3. Pariah ???

    October 26, 2016 at 09:16

    These guys are owned by the same company that owns Aliens: Colonial Marines, which in turn is owned by the same company that owns Rockstar. They killed Jazz Jackrabbit. I hate them.

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      October 26, 2016 at 09:17

      Aliens: Colonial MArines was published by SEGA.

      Reply

      • Pariah ???

        October 26, 2016 at 09:18

        FINE I GOT MIXED UP WITH GEARBOX AND BORDERLANDS AND 2K AND THE CROSSOVER.

        SUE ME.

        Reply

      • Dungeon of JJ

        October 26, 2016 at 10:11

        I still cannot say SEGA without singing it. Damn these childhood memories! 😛

        Reply

  4. RinceThis

    October 26, 2016 at 09:16

    Shame man.

    Reply

  5. Pariah ???

    October 26, 2016 at 09:18

  6. HvR

    October 26, 2016 at 09:28

    I’m sorry shame se gat.

    They got big heads and tried to nickel and dime their user base.
    The shortfall in the design was apparent within the first week and they did buggerall to fix it. If you do not react immediately with force to fix your issue in tech world you will die and you will die quick.

    Reply

    • Pariah ???

      October 26, 2016 at 09:39

      These guys died slow. Slow n painful.

      Reply

      • HvR

        October 26, 2016 at 09:47

        One month after release they were bleeding 10% of the active user base a day

        Reply

        • Pariah ???

          October 26, 2016 at 09:49

          It was released 10 Feb 2015. 18 months is not a quick death. That’s slow and painful. Especially considering how dead it has been for 17 months of that time.

          Reply

          • HvR

            October 26, 2016 at 10:06

            Well I would argue effectively dead since April 2015.

            After that they tried to resuscitate for year and half it by pasting Mickey Mouse bandaids on fist size chest wound

    • Dungeon of JJ

      October 26, 2016 at 09:48

      Agreed

      Reply

    • HairyEwok

      October 26, 2016 at 11:08

      Agree with you, they killed the game, also, they say they were innovative… they were innovative in the completely wrong field.

      Reply

  7. Andre Fourie

    October 26, 2016 at 09:28

    This game was one big flop.

    Reply

  8. Viper_ZA

    October 26, 2016 at 09:40

    Failed Games + 1 > Good Games

    Reply

  9. Dungeon of JJ

    October 26, 2016 at 09:47

    They really should stop throwing “AAA” around. It means little these days when indies are developing better games.

    Reply

  10. MakeItLegal

    October 26, 2016 at 09:49

    feel sorry for them, but lets be real, running around chasing a monster rinse and repeat is not exactly great feeling , and i felt like i wasted my time playing it, i bought something 2 levels later it was free…sorry guys feel for you but tbh good ridden

    Reply

    • HvR

      October 26, 2016 at 10:04

      It isn’t a expansive experience so multitude of monsters and maps were key.

      Locking 2/3 of the content behind a pay wall and half of that behind a pay wall season pass buyers also needed to pay for of the bat on a brand new IP and brand new experience should go down as one of the stupidest gaming business decisions ever.

      Reply

      • MakeItLegal

        October 26, 2016 at 10:14

        well said

        Reply

  11. Sageville

    October 26, 2016 at 09:57

    The reason Evolve Failed: Nobody wanted to play the hunted monster.

    Reply

  12. Ebinski

    October 26, 2016 at 09:59

    You guys should try Paragon, F2P on PC and Ps! Same feel as evolve only in a 3rd person moba setting

    Reply

    • Dungeon of JJ

      October 26, 2016 at 10:02

      I see it’s not on Steam 🙁

      Reply

      • Ebinski

        October 26, 2016 at 10:05

        Try Epic games, unreal engine

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      October 26, 2016 at 10:24

      Have you played Paladins?

      Reply

      • HairyEwok

        October 26, 2016 at 11:13

        Have you played Overwatch 😛

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          October 26, 2016 at 11:16

          Still playing Overwatch form time to time

          Reply

      • Ebinski

        October 27, 2016 at 07:32

        nope but will give it a look, thanks

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          October 27, 2016 at 09:19

          Not brilliant, but really fun. Also free. And for some reason….better latency than Overwatch

          Reply

  13. Nicolai Danielsen

    October 31, 2016 at 17:07

    Evolve is not dead just yet! The community still want this game to at least go to consoles so those players can have what the pc community already has. If you want to help you can sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/2k-renew-the-contract-with-turtle-rock-studios-so-they-can-finish-their-work-on-evolve-stage-2?recruiter=618942857&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

    Reply

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