Monster hunting multiplayer game Evolve has just gone Free-to-play on Steam, with a new beta to download and rejigged gameplay.
The game, originally released in early 2015, did well on initial sales but soon saw a steep drop off in numbers on its multiplayer servers. As a purely multiplayer game, this is not a good thing by any means.
Some of the blame was apportioned to the DLC packs, with not one but two season passes and most of the content being drip fed through these paywalls. Others found the weighting of characters to be annoying.
Developer Turtle Rock Studios announced the change on their blog and discussed the issues and the changes being made to the game, including the improvements they’ve worked on;
“Just to give you some examples:
- We’re reworking the hunter classes to make the team less reliant on having experienced trappers and medics.
- We’re making improvements to the maps and UI.
- We’re improving load times, overall performance, and getting you into the game faster.
- We’re focusing on improving stability and fixing bugs.
- We’re completely reworking our progression system and tutorials.
- We’re adding more customization options.
Most importantly, we just want to put the game in your hands. Try Evolve out. See what you think. We hope you like it and we’re not going to charge you to give it a try.”
Why a Beta? Turtle Rock explain that they expect their server infrastructure to be hit hard by the new model, with more gamers potentially picking up the free game, so they want to stress test and get feedback from the players.
And to those who already bought Evolve and its season passes? ”
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Anyone who owns classic Evolve will be given “Founder” status in the new free version, and all the content you already own comes with you to the new version. As long as we work on Evolve, we will show our appreciation for our committed fans and early adopters with gifts, rewards, and special access. Why? Because you believed like we did, and we will never forget that.”
