Turtle Rock Will No Longer Be Working on Evolve

When Evolve went free-to-play earlier in the year, it seemed like a smart decision that might have been made slightly too late. Despite the huge boost in users, the game had been around for a while already and it wasn’t exactly a smooth transition for everyone involved.

It also looks like it might have come too late for developers Turtle Rock. They will no longer be working on the game with maintenance responsibilities passing over to the game’s publisher, 2K. Speaking in a heartfelt blog post, Turtle Rock cofounder Chris Ashton made it clear that this wasn’t their decision:

“This is the life of AAA game developers who aren’t self-funded and down 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.”

Ashton also added that although a console version for Evolve as a F2P product was planned, that is now unlikely to go ahead. To celebrate their time with the game, the guys will be holding one final livestream on October 27 at twitch.tv/evolvegame starting at 12 PM Pacific Time.

When it was first released, Evolve has a warm (but hardly effusive) reception from critics and fans. Many bemoaned the lack of content that was later sold as DLC – the game is possibly most famous for having one of the most aggressive DLC schemes ever seen in the industry. Expensive pre-orders were available before the game had even been fully unveiled.

Nevertheless, Evolve was a fun game that suited a niche market. Having sunk a couple of dozen hours into the game, the idea was interesting and hugely entertaining while the novelty was still fresh, but ultimately died away once other new games came out and its limitations became clear.

Evolve will continue to be offered as an F2P product for the “foreseeable future”. Here’s hoping Turtle Rock bounce back before too long.