Back in July, it was reported that asymmetrical multiplayer shooter Evolve was trying to increase its active player numbers by going free-to-play. But despite an initial increase, the relaunch didn't draw in as many people as hoped. Now, Turtle Rock Studios has announced it will no longer be supporting the game.
The decision wasn't Turtle Rock's to make; the developer doesn't own Evolve, which is published by 2K Games. In a blog post on its official forums, company co-founder Chris Ashton said: "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."
When it relaunched as Evolve: Stage 2 in July, average player numbers jumped by over 15,000, but that figure drastically dropped as the months passed. The last 30 days has seen a peak count of 3509, and right now just 1045 people are playing the game.
Evolve: Stage 2 won't be disappearing completely; 2K confirmed that it would be keeping its servers online "for the foreseeable future," but there won't be any more updates, bug fixes, or new content.
The announcement also means that the F2P version of Evolve almost certainly won't be coming to consoles. "It looks like that's just not meant to be," said Ashton.
Turtle Rock said it "has lots of stuff in the works," and thanked fans for their support and dedication. As a way of saying goodbye, the company is hosting a final Evolve-themed livestream Q&A on the game's official Twitch channel this Thursday (Oct 27) at 12 p.m. PT.