Evolve, a team-based shooter about giant monsters, was first released in 2015 as a paid standalone game. Then it went free-to-play. Now, it’s going to keep on going without the help of the people who actually made it.
Developers Turtle Rock have posted a letter on the game’s forums saying “unfortunately today is the last day that Turtle Rock Studios can work on Evolve”.
The language in the letter is weirdly vague, never explicitly saying that the game is being shut down, or sold, or handed over, or whatever. All it really states with clarity is that Turtle Rock, the team that created Evolve—and which carried it from THQ’s collapse to 2K—will no longer be working on or directly supporting the game.
A question from a fan wondering about the situation is answered in more detail by the game’s Community Manager, Shane Kali Meyer, who responds “2K ended our contract. We wanted to continue working on the project.”
2K’s blog post on the transition offers more detail, essentially confirming that Turtle Rock won’t be working on the game any longer, and that support for Evolve’s PC servers will continue “for the foreseeable future”. It also says 2K will “continue to evaluate the possibility of bringing the [free to play] experience to consoles in the future, though right now our focus is on bringing in new players and maintaining the game’s audience on PC.”
This is the second time in a row that Turtle Rock have had to leave a game of theirs behind in the hands of a publisher; they created Left 4 Dead before it was signed by Valve, and are now leaving Evolve’s IP with 2K.