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Turtle Rock Ending Support For Evolve, Stage 2 Update Likely Not Coming To Consoles
Turtle Rock announced today it will no longer be working on Evolve, and that the free-to-play Stage 2 update for the game is, "just not meant to be," on consoles.
Turtle Rock made the announcement of its intentions to move onto different projects on its forums writing, "It’s always hard to leave one of our games behind. Left4Dead was no different and now it’s Evolve’s turn."
To our fans and & followers -- we are sad to announce that today our work on @EvolveGame ends.
— Turtle Rock Studios (@TurtleRock) October 26, 2016
Community letter >> https://t.co/cEyxWhRk0g pic.twitter.com/i3BY1Gqijr
Yesterday on its blog, Evolve publisher 2K wrote a post calling the development of the game's Stage 2 changes complete. "Today, Turtle Rock finishes development on the project and begins to transition day-to-day server operation to 2K, as we take the operation of the Evolve franchise fully in-house."
Turtleock's post is much more somber.
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.
Regarding Stage 2's console aspirations, 2K wrote, "2K will continue to evaluate the possibility of bringing Evolve Stage 2 to console, but maintaining and growing the game’s audience on PC is the primary focus." Turtle Rock, however, is less optimistic writing, "There’s a lot that we really wish we could have done, especially taking Stage 2 to consoles, but it looks like that’s just not meant to be."
The game's servers will continue on, allowing for continued online play, just don't expect to see any new content for the game.
Regarding its future Turtle Rock writes, "Those of you who’ve followed Turtle Rock Studios, this is not goodbye. We have lots of stuff in the works that we hope you’ll enjoy but we are departing on the Laurie-Anne for the last time and must bid a farewell to the planet Shear. We’ll see you all again, another time on another world…"
For our review of Evolve, head here.
[Source: talk.turtlerockstudios.com, @TurtleRock, blog.2k]
Our Take
Evolve is about a year and a half old. Both Turtle Rock and 2K's posts, despite the difference in messaging, seem to imply everyone involved hoped it would have a longer tail. Unfortunately, it's a game that struggled to find an enduring audience. I was interested in seeing if going free-to-play on consoles would inspire a new audience, but I think Turtle Rock is right in their assumption that it is not going to happen. Turtle Rock is a talented studio, so I am excited to see what it makes next.
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