Developer 2K says servers will stay online for the “foreseeable future”.
[dropcap size=small]N[/dropcap]ot long after becoming ‘Free To Play’ on PC, Turtle Rock Studio’s have announced they will be stopping support for their multiplayer FPS, Evolve.
Whilst support may have ended for the title, Developer 2K soon followed the announcement by stating that they will be keeping Evolve’s servers online for the “foreseeable future”. Their original plan was to also make the game Free to Play on consoles – also referred to as ‘Stage 2’- but it has now been put on hold to shift the focus on to PC players, as 2K recently explained in a blog post (via Playstationlifestyle):
We’ll also continue to evaluate the possibility of bringing the Stage 2 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.
The Co-Founders of Turtle Rock Studios, Phil Robb and Chris Ashton, wrote a fond farewell letter to the players on their site after the news initially broke. The pair expressed their sadness at seeing work on Evolve draw to close, and explained that it was not their decision to do so:
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.
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.
Turtle Rock Studios Co-Founders Phil Robb and Chris Ashton (image: Digital Trends)
They then went onto thank players and everyone who supported the project up to this point:
We want to thank all the people at THQ who initially believed in us when we were that tiny studio in a little converted warehouse with a dream of making something truly different. Thanks to 2K for picking up the mantle out of THQ’s bankruptcy and making Evolve one of the most anticipated games of 2015. Additional big thanks to 2K for reaching outside their comfort zone and funding Evolve: Stage 2 by taking a AAA game free to play, which was a first for all of us.
Most of all, we want to thank you, our players, for supporting Evolve and Evolve: Stage 2, many of you from the very beginning. You embraced our vision and fell in love with it just as we did. We have learned so much from you. Thank you all for your feedback, your support and your dedication.
It’s always sad when work on a game officially comes to a close, but at least fans of Evolve can take some solace in knowing the servers will stay up and running.
The folks over at Turtle Rock Studios held a final Evolve livestream last week to say their final goodbyes to the community – you can check it out here.
