The creators of Evolve must leave their game and the rights will fully transfer to 2K.
The story of Evolve has been a constant up and down. After being one of the most anticipated releases of 2015, the 4v1 monster game failed to captivate many players long-term. After a long restructuring and the launch of “Evolve Stage 2” as a free-to-play title for PC, it initially looked promising – but interest quickly waned. Now, the developer Turtle Rock Studios has received the bill from publisher 2K.
Today, on October 26, 2016, is the last day that TRS will work on Evolve. In the official forum, they wrote a rather long farewell post, thanking the loyal community and reflecting on the nearly 6 years of development that the game consumed. They also expressed gratitude to THQ, who believed in Evolve early on, and to 2K, who continued the project after THQ’s bankruptcy and even enabled the switch to free-to-play.
According to community manager Shaners, the Turtle Rock team wanted to continue working on Evolve, but the contract with 2K was terminated.
This also means that the rights to the Evolve IP now completely rest with 2K, who alone decide what happens with the brand in the future. Turtle Rock Studios thus “loses” its second major franchise after Left4Dead (to Valve).
Tomorrow (Thursday), the developers will hold a final livestream to answer community questions and personally thank everyone one last time.
Cortyn says: Especially the comments in the forum made me quite sad, because Evolve was and remains one of the best games I have ever played. I can only hope that 2K extracts even more from the entire Evolve universe.
On the other hand, I can hardly imagine how awful it must be for creative people when their “baby” is taken away because they no longer own the rights to it. Since this is now the second case, I truly hope that the Turtle Rock employees will continue to deliver good work. Because Left4Dead and Evolve will hold an eternal place in my “gaming history.”
