The sales figures for the cooperative shooter Evolve delight Take-Two President Karl Slatoff. However, analysts are skeptical: Evolve is too niche.
There is a significant divergence in the assessments. Karl Slatoff, the President of Take-Two, speaks of an “incredibly successful launch month” for the monster hunt Evolve. Especially the rate at which players purchased both the base game and the season pass is fantastic. The game is selling insane numbers digitally, the DLC plan is fully on track, and the reactions from critics have also been positive. Slatoff did not disclose specific numbers.
Slatoff feels confirmed that when they acquired Evolve (then still Metamorphosis) from THQ’s bankruptcy assets for 10.9 million US dollars, they already had the feeling of holding something very special.
Too niche, too complicated DLC plan
Analyst Doug Creutz is noticeably more skeptical. According to his firm’s assessment, Evolve has sold only 300,000 copies in physical format, and even assuming a favorable “Physical/Digital” split, one might reach about 1.5 million units in the first year. The game is “too niche,” and the confusing and over-complicated DLC sales plan certainly hasn’t helped the game’s sales.
Meanwhile, the Steam numbers for Evolve indicate that the initial hype quickly faded. While the game initially achieved significant figures, the player counts are rapidly declining. This aligns with the sales figures in the UK reported by Games Industry: there, it peaked at 1, but then quickly fell down the ranks and is now barely holding on to the top 10 in physical sales.
The trend could also stem from the fact that developers take some time to develop patches to address significant issues.
