Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind relaunched MMO shooter Evolve, revealed that it is pulling the plug on support for the game.
When Evolve was launched in early 2015, the reception did not meet Turtle Rock's expectations. As such, in the middle of this year, the game underwent a vigorous overhaul that rebranded the game into Evolve: Stage 2, which is a free-to-play version of the title.
The relaunch did wonders for Evolve, as Evolve: Stage 2 features new gameplay systems, characters and unlockable items, all at no cost to players. The game experienced a massive turnaround, with a 643 percent gain in players for the month that Evolve: Stage 2 was released compared to the previous month.
However, it seems that the massive increase in players is not enough for 2K Games, the publisher of Evolve, to continue having Turtle Rock support the shooter. In a blog post on the official Turtle Rock Studios website, the developer revealed that it will no longer work on Evolve, and that it was 2K games that made the call.
"It's always hard to leave one of our games behind," Turtle Rock wrote. The studio noted that it has previously done so when it ended support for Left4Dead, but that is the case for game developers who are not self-funded and do not own the games that they themselves create. Turtle Rock had hoped to bring the game to consoles, but it seems that such a thing will not happen.
Turtle expressed its gratitude to THQ, which is the first studio that picked up Evolve before unfortunately diving into bankruptcy, and also to 2K Games, which acquired the game and published it in 2015, in addition to agreeing to fund Evolve: Stage 2.
"Most of all, we want to thank you, our players, for supporting Evolve and Evolve: Stage 2, many of you from the very beginning," Turtle Rock added.
While Turtle Rock will no longer be working on the game, the servers for Evolve: Stage 2 will still be up and running into the foreseeable future, as noted by 2K Games in its own blog post regarding the decision.
The publisher also said that it will continue evaluating the possibility of taking Evolve: Stage 2 to consoles, though the current focus would be to attract new players and to maintain the user base of PC gamers.
Turtle Rock will be holding its last Evolve-themed Twitch live stream on Oct. 27 at 12 noon PT (3 p.m. ET). Gamers who would like to watch the stream will be able to ask about the studio's experience on the project as Turtle Rock bids goodbye to Evolve.
