Turtle Rock Studios Ceases Evolve Support, Updates

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
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Turtle Rock Studios Ceases Evolve Support, Updates

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While Evolve's servers will still remain active "for the foreseeable future," the game will receive no further official support or updates.

It looks like it's the end of the road for Turtle Rock Studio's asymmetrical shooter: Evolve. Despite a considerable uptick in players after going free-to-play [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167880-Evolve-Returns-to-Steam-as-Free-to-Play-Title#&gid=gallery_6326&pid=1], it looks like the title is no longer worth the developer's time, as the studio has announced that it will be ceasing all support and updates.

"Unfortunately today is the last day that Turtle Rock Studios can work on Evolve," said Turtle Rock in a blog post [https://talk.turtlerockstudios.com/t/our-final-message-to-our-evolve-community/106117]. "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."

Fortunately, for those who are still enjoying the game, Turtle Rock said that Evolve's servers would remain active "for the foreseeable future," so if you've dumped a bunch of money on the game's pricey DLC [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139809-Evolves-Launch-DLC-Totals-100], you'll still get to play.

"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," continued the statement.

It's a shame, really. Evolve was a really cool concept and I loved it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137537-Evolve-Tokyo-Game-Show-Hands-on-Preview] when I first played it, but questionable business practices ruined the experience for many, and the studio had lost too much faith that even a free-to-play conversion couldn't save the title.

Source: Turtle Rock Studios [https://talk.turtlerockstudios.com/t/our-final-message-to-our-evolve-community/106117]

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Barbas

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Oct 28, 2013
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Another one cracks its balls on the way down the bullshit tree and ends up fucking the dust.
 

Solo-Wing

Wanna have a bad time?
Dec 15, 2010
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Well when it went free to play I could not find any in game store for real money, Only for keys. A in game currency that can only be earned through gameplay.

What exactly was the plan there?
 

rodneyy

humm odd
Sep 10, 2008
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Solo-Wing said:
Well when it went free to play I could not find any in game store for real money, Only for keys. A in game currency that can only be earned through gameplay.

What exactly was the plan there?
maybe with the bad reaction the first iteration of the game got this was to put as good an opinion of it into peoples heads as possible, then if they stuck around and kept playing to slowly add microtransactions
 

Hawki

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So, is it fair to say that the game stopped evolving, and that someone pressed B?
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Sep 6, 2009
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I wager that in 6 or 9 months, they will announce a new (unnamed project), and blissfully-ignorantly trot out several planned DLC packs.
 

Vigormortis

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Nov 21, 2007
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and the studio had lost too much faith that even a free-to-play conversion couldn't save the title.
What the fuck are you talking about? The reason for the discontinuation is in their statement:

"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."

They didn't make the call, their parent company did.

Do you even read the news story you put to print? Jesus...
 

SirSullymore

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Mar 26, 2009
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Ah oh well, I for one really enjoyed that game and it's world. I hope the concept isn't abandoned completely.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
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Jul 15, 2013
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Heyyyy, the game isn't even free to play on consoles still. What really is the point of charging for it there anymore?
 

Chareater

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Aug 12, 2010
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I love evolve but it has one huge problem that even going F2P can't fix...


It gets dull fast and I mean super fast, you play it for like a week then quit because every game is sadly the same. Just like before evolve has gone from a huge playerbase to almost nothing because of this.

I can't blame them for stopping support I don't see a way you can turn this into a game that would keep players for a long time.
 

Alrom

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Jan 7, 2013
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Chareater said:
I love evolve but it has one huge problem that even going F2P can't fix...


It gets dull fast and I mean super fast, you play it for like a week then quit because every game is sadly the same. Just like before evolve has gone from a huge playerbase to almost nothing because of this.

I can't blame them for stopping support I don't see a way you can turn this into a game that would keep players for a long time.
Sums up what I was about to post.

The game is fun but after a week of playing I didn't wanted to login even for the daily bonus.


That and the fact that balancing this game must be hell. A good team of hunters can win most matches but if one person isn't good as a certain hunter role and the monster has some awareness about the game and its mechanics, the hunters start to have a bad time.


After 34 hours of evolve stage 2 I can only remember two or three matches that were perfectly balanced and at no point I was sure if that was going to be an easy win or a crushing lost.

Every other match I could tell how it would end after the first dome.
 

MCerberus

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Jun 26, 2013
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Saelune said:
Turtle Rock is a AAA developer? Yeah, ok.
They became AAA when they sanded off the rough edges and character that makes AA games so appealing in order to appeal to the mass audiences through season passes and preorders. Imagine if Tripwire put killstreak rewards in a Red Orchestra game for example.

Or if Spiral Knights put in diablo-style loot drops with stats.
Or if Elite: Dangerous had a "return home instantly" button.
Or if World of Warships had hitscan weapons
Hey this game is fun.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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Moral of the story, 2K games know nothing about launching a new IP, or maintaining an existing IP, or running a Free 2 Play game.

I feel bad for the people at Turtle Rock, I wonder if they miss working for Valve...
 

Rawbeard

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Jan 28, 2010
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Steven Bogos said:
it looks like the title is no longer worth the developer's time, as the studio has announced that it will be ceasing all support and updates.
Yeah, show it to those damn bastards at Trutle Rock!

Steven Bogos said:
"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."
Oh wait... did Steven not read the annoucement before proceeding to bash a game studio that will file chapter 11 in a month or so?
 

Valkrex

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Jan 6, 2013
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Solo-Wing said:
Well when it went free to play I could not find any in game store for real money, Only for keys. A in game currency that can only be earned through gameplay.

What exactly was the plan there?
Gold keys were implemented for real money about 3 weeks ago. You could use them to buy characters and skins but not perks. Then TRS's contract ended and 2k didn't renew it despite the gold keys not having a change to do... anything.

fix-the-spade said:
Moral of the story, 2K games know nothing about launching a new IP, or maintaining an existing IP, or running a Free 2 Play game.

I feel bad for the people at Turtle Rock, I wonder if they miss working for Valve...
Yea 2k made a ton of mistakes here... I loved Evolve from the beginning, even with the questionable business decisions, but it was easily some of the most fun I've ever had in the game. And to see TRS's work get cut short when they had so much stuff in the works (they had told us on the Evolve forums about plans for tons of new characters, maps, matchmaking overhauls and more that were all being worked on) is honestly heartbreaking. I just hope that TRS's next project is with a company that knows what they're doing and this doesn't mark the end of asymmetric games.
 

Comic Sans

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Oct 15, 2008
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Valkrex said:
Solo-Wing said:
Well when it went free to play I could not find any in game store for real money, Only for keys. A in game currency that can only be earned through gameplay.

What exactly was the plan there?
Gold keys were implemented for real money about 3 weeks ago. You could use them to buy characters and skins but not perks. Then TRS's contract ended and 2k didn't renew it despite the gold keys not having a change to do... anything.

fix-the-spade said:
Moral of the story, 2K games know nothing about launching a new IP, or maintaining an existing IP, or running a Free 2 Play game.

I feel bad for the people at Turtle Rock, I wonder if they miss working for Valve...
Yea 2k made a ton of mistakes here... I loved Evolve from the beginning, even with the questionable business decisions, but it was easily some of the most fun I've ever had in the game. And to see TRS's work get cut short when they had so much stuff in the works (they had told us on the Evolve forums about plans for tons of new characters, maps, matchmaking overhauls and more that were all being worked on) is honestly heartbreaking. I just hope that TRS's next project is with a company that knows what they're doing and this doesn't mark the end of asymmetric games.
I agree. I came in late to the party when it was hard to find games, and was incredibly happy when it went free to play and brought in a new audience. It's kind of depressing to see the game grind to a halt when it felt like it had so much room to grow. The development team seemed super enthusiastic too. Like you said, they had a lot of ideas and seemed excited to grow the game. I was really sad when I read this news last night. The game very much feels like something that was a great idea hobbled by some bad decisions, publisher and developer.

Honestly, I wish they had implemented the golden keys sooner. The biggest complain I heard from people was that it took way too long to unlock new content, so they got bored quick. If people had a way to drop a quick $5-$10 to unlock a few hunters or a monster they might have stuck around longer. Who knows, it might not have saved TRS's contract but a man can dream. I wanted to see the Wraith form they were planning and the new maps at least.