The creators of Evolve and Left4Dead have a new project – and a new employer.
When looking at the history of various developer studios, few have experienced such emotional roller coasters as Turtle Rock. After the outstanding zombie shooter Left4Dead, which in the eyes of many fans was “ahead of its time”, the IP was acquired by Valve. A similar fate awaited Evolve, which received good reviews but fell short of expectations due to poor PR and some issues – even Free2Play couldn’t save the game. The IP Evolve was also taken away from the studio and the rights now lie with 2K.
But Turtle Rock Studios is not at the end. As was announced now, the developer team consisting of nearly 70 people is now working for the publisher Perfect World (Neverwinter, Star Trek Online).
In an interview with GamesIndustry, the studio explained:
“We are developing a new franchise that takes place in a completely new universe and is driven by the gameplay that our community loves and expects from Turtle Rock. We are focusing on what we do best – exciting co-op FPS action.”
However, the new project is neither to be a zombie scenario (Left4Dead) nor another post-apocalyptic scenario (Evolve).
“What we can say is that there will be a strong ‘Dark Fantasy’ element.”
Although it wasn’t explicitly mentioned, under the auspices of Perfect World, it’s likely that the new co-op shooter will be a Free2Play title. After all, the game is set to be released in 2018.
In the coming months, Turtle Rock plans to further expand the team and reach approximately 100 employees. In the future, they want to work on multiple projects instead of having just “one iron in the fire”.
Cortyn says: To be honest, this is one of the nicer “last reports” from 2016 for me. I had feared that after the Evolve fiasco, Turtle Rock would be in a bad spot. That they are now working with the same enthusiasm on a new project, which is also set in a dark fantasy setting, makes me smile in satisfaction. Ultimately, I just hope that the developers won’t have their IP taken away from them again later, even though that is legally absolutely legitimate. Nevertheless, I can imagine such a situation being quite unpleasant.
