Turtle Rock Studios Is Ending Support for Evolve
By Derek Nichols 25 October 2016
Even after a successful resurrection as a free-to-play game on Steam, Turtle Rock Studios announces that support for the multiplayer-centric title, Evolve, is coming to an end.
Since it launched early in 2015, the road for Evolve has been filled with many ups and downs. After launching with much anticipation, the player base began to quickly drop off due to controversy surrounding its DLC plans and what many saw as limited replay value. Even though the game was recently and successfully resurrected on Steam as a free to play title, it appears that time has ultimately run out for Evolve and Turtle Rock Studios.
In a post on the official Turtle Rock Studios forum, co-founders Chris Ashton and Phil Robb had the dubious honors in announcing that after five and a half years of work, support for Evolve is officially coming to an end. The game will continue to be playable both on PC and consoles beyond this point as there has been no talk of the servers being shut down, but players will not be seeing any further content or updates to the game going forward.
It’s clear based on the message that the developers at Turtle Rock Studios were not ready to let this game go, but due to the fact that it is not self-funded nor does it own the IP, the studio had no other choice than to stop support. Though the game may not have succeeded quite in the way people were hoping it to, Turtle Rock remains proud of what it managed to accomplish, even though the team wasn’t able to get closure on their own terms.
Most of all, we want to thank you, our players, for supporting Evolve and Evolve: Stage 2, many of you from the very beginning. You embraced our vision and fell in love with it just as we did. We have learned so much from you. Thank you all for your feedback, your support and your dedication.
The developer is planning one last Evolve themed live stream tomorrow, on October 27, 2016 starting at 12pm pacific time. In addition to actually playing the game for fans, the studio plans to also talk about the project as it came together over the years and answer as many questions from fans as possible.
The news ultimately hits at an odd time as Evolve had rebounded nicely after moving to a free-to-play system on Steam. Since that time, the game has received a huge amount of updates, not only for bug fixes and other improvements, but with content like new gameplay modes, maps, skins, and even new hunters. Thanks to an in-game currency system, players could easily unlock these new additions just by playing the game. With support now coming to an end, the original goal to take Evolve Stage 2 to consoles is also no longer on the table.
Did you manage to try Evolve Stage 2 on PC? What are your thoughts on this game ultimately coming to an end? Let us know in the comment section.
Evolve is available now on Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Source: Turtle Rock Studios
