At the end of Evolution

It seems after a turbulent launch period, failed new measures and an attempted free to play model Evolve’s mistakes have finally caught up with them as the game is now officially dead.

The news broke with the developers, Turtle Rock Studios issuing a farewell: “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.”

While the game was far from horrible, the problems started all the way back in development when Turtle Rock were looking for funding and ended up partnering with THQ, who were also in financial trouble. After THQ’s inevitable shutdown Take Two acquired the rights to the IP and even extended the development period to help finish the game as it was intended.

While the game launched to a lot of praise, the DLC model — which was practically a pay-to-win model — drove the community to the ground and left it fragmented.

After several attempts at a revival they took a call to launch Evolve Stage 2; a free to play version of the game in the hopes of reviving their player base. While the initial results were promising with over a million players in the first week following the relaunch it doesn’t seem to have been enough as 2K has now pulled the plug.

The servers for Evolve Stage 2 will remain online for the foreseeable future. Do give the game a try with friends before its gone forever, it’s quite fun when playing with a few friends.