Turtle Rock Studios bids reluctant farewell to Evolve

Evolve developer Turtle Rock Studios will be waving goodbye to the multiplayer shooter after its recent free-to-play switch failed to pay off. 

Speaking to fans through the Turtle Rock blog, studio co-founder Chris Ashton explained that today is the last day the team are allowed to work on Evolve, with publisher 2K taking control of the day-to-day server operation and bringing game operations fully in-house.

It means the future of Evolve: Stage 2 -- the name of the free-to-play version of the game -- is in doubt. Turtle Rock Studios had planned to bring the freemium edition to consoles, but 2K says its focus is now on "bringing in new players and maintaining the game's audience on PC."

For those still playing on PC, the good news is that the game will "remain online for the foreseeable future." In-game currencies such as silver and gold keys will also continue to work as normal. 

Turtle Rock has expressed regret at being forced to hand over the keys to the sci-fi shooter, but conceded that "this is the life of triple-A 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," added Ashton. "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. 

"Additional big thanks to 2K for reaching outside their comfort zone and funding Evolve: Stage 2 by taking a triple-A game free-to-play, which was a first for all of us."

Turtle Rock will be holding one final Evolve-themed livestream on Thursday, October 27 on the game's official Twitch channel. Beyond that, the studio says it has "lots of stuff in the works that we hope you'll enjoy."