Why Evolve Failed | The Game That Just Didn't Made It Far And Disappointed Everyone | It Was Dead From The Beginning

The Lost Of Evolve The Game That Just Didn't Made It Far And Disappointed Everyone

Evolve we finally know why it failed so catastrophic Lee as a videogame so evolve was one of those very strange case studies in the video game world an asymmetric multiplayer game or four people pit off against one monster in kind of a hunt style competitive game very very exciting very very exciting concept that many people were looking forward to in fact we rarely gets asymmetrical multiplayer games and there you know there's very much a reason for that because it's nearly impossible to balance four players against one player in addition to the terrible way to buy monsters and how they packaged monetization within the game the game basically failed months after released in 2015 and the player base is dried up more than you could ever imagine in 2016 the game actually went free-to-play and evolve stage 2 but as you can see from this graph right here the peak player counts during this time quickly dwindled into a puddle of nothing weeks after the launch of stage 2 so because the player base has dropped off once again at the face of the earth we know it wasn't an issue of money for players even the game itself at free to play was not captivating enough for people to stick around evolve quickly died shortly after this in the aftermath only a few hundred players remained active in this game it is one of the Great's and mysteries of the gaming world how did it evolve actually fail beyond what it did to its monetization and what it did to its content progression was it truly a game that just could not be enjoyed for what it was or was it.

Something else well we finally know the answer yesterday it was announced that 2k games is going to be taking down the game from service this September it's gonna be shutting down the game completely so if you want to play evolve up into that point you better go ahead and play it right now because it's about to be dead I feel bad for anyone who really really likes evolve and is still playing the game because well they're not gonna have a game in September so what exactly happened well the team at 2k games developed this 1v4 concept while working on the game and they were really excited about its however there was some testing that went on outside of the development team and it wasn't looking good however the team still moved on with their vision the team is quoted as saying we believed that we were making an alien world you were going to explore and we had intended to make it awesome that team could have made a co-op game where four players explore a savage alien world and I think it would have gone down as one of the great games of the decade but there was no way to get that game greenlit no one would pay for us to make that game so in order to hook us they went with their for v1 multiplayer vision which they 100% believed in however early prototype builds of what the game would become were not internally looked down on very well in fact even members of the team thought it was unstable and was going to be unsuccessful members who were testing the game said it was not going to work and there were some definite problems that had to be ironed out problems that were core to the game but the team was ignorant towards those criticisms because they were role-playing the vision they had for evolved.

Rather than what it was actually like when people were playing the game themselves it's an exercise of making a product and getting so far entrenched in what you think the game is going to be that you are not able to see what the game has become evolves for v1 mode was next to impossible to balance one of the team member says because it's heroes and monsters function so differently they operates on totally different systems so a lot of the stuff we wanted to do had to be super watered down and you know what gamers really caught on to that really quickly virtually every character broke all the rules so no matter what cool idea they wanted to implement there was always something that was gonna screw that up because there was no way to balance this game the team admits that they never really solved for v1 it caused more problems than we ever imagined and we didn't have a team to make a competitive shooter to make those changes to get that balance in the game that the game so desperately needed so there they were a team that was going to build evolve that got greenlit based off the idea of asymmetrical gameplay then they made the realized it wasn't going to work but they couldn't backpedal on it because that was the idea they pitched to those that provided funding to those that were going to support the game into those that were going to make the game available to play so imagine that position for a second you've got all this funding based off this idea that you made the game just is not working out but you really can't redesign the game because you've got a hard release dates so what happened so what did they do to rectify this problem nothing they couldn't do anything they had to see the game through to the end so evolve was built as a game that was never going to succeed a game that only really works if you're playing with friends a game that was designed this way by a team of people so passionate about the game that they could not see what it was becoming the team also admitted that during this process that they realized that the game was not going to work that they even considered making it free to play from the very beginning that they were gonna give the game away charge people for cosmetic stuff and just make it free quote-unquote maximize the player base because we know this THQ know this the game was destined to fail I mean damn those are some serious words from a development team that tried their best to make a really good game they really tried to make something new to make something that was different and to give us a different gameplay experience than what we had had with prior competitive shooting games but somewhere along lines they did realize that the game was not going to work it's unknown if the developers or the publishers were the ones in fact that were unwilling to backpedal on this idea and get it on the right track but the team did say that they sincerely believed that there was nothing wrong with the Evolve at launch that they could not fix.

Once the game went live they said they had a great launch tons of people that bought the game and that tons of people were playing it but I don't know how much of that I agree because evolve came with a bunch of pre-order bonuses and DLC and monetization for a $60 full price game essentially it became the quote/unquote punching bag evolves confusing mess of pre-order bonuses complicated special editions paywalls for entire monsters locked behind pre-orders it was just such a freakin disaster from the get-go evolves team justify these ridiculous inclusions by the fact that evolves maps and the future would be free so the would be able to stick together but of course that did not happen evolve buried itself among the purgatory of gaming's most greatest disasters greedy pre-order bonuses ridiculous paywalls and decisions from the publisher and a development team that knew the game was going to fail but did nothing to rectify the issue they went along for the ride and continued developments of a game that they knew deep down to the core was going to be an absolute disaster it is truly one of the great shames of the industry because I was one of those players with evolve I bought the game on day one I loved the vision that they set out for the game but then I was horrified at what it actually was evolve will always be a reminder for this industry that's a good vision will not always turn into a good execution and you know what in an industry where gamers deserve the best that is not good enough evolve may have succeeded as a vision but it truly failed as a video game thanks for watching guys I really appreciate it so let me know what you think about evolve down in the comments section and make sure to let me know what game you want me to feature on did it fail in the next episode thumbs the video up if you enjoyed it and we'll see you on our next video peace love and happiness until then you guys have a great day.

Here are some other words from a known gamer of evolve
evolve didn't just die it was murdered this game was an unmitigated disaster it was supposed to be the Friday the 13th before Friday the 13th it was a chance to have the power fantasy of playing as some of the scariest most fearsome monsters films stories had ever created it was also the most poorly handled release of the entire year and in 2017 it still stands one of the most shocking Mis handlings of a new IP the gaming has ever seen this is not lawbreakers this is not the David versus Goliath story of no man's sky evolved was a game that was afforded the money time and marketing necessary for the success of a multiplayer game from day one and 2k internal rocks squandered every bit of it so what killed evolve was evolved actually a good game and nothing more than a victim of the decisions of the people who've never touched a design doc or was it flawed from it's very foundation it's a little bit of both but what it is without question is a story that is one of the strangest and to case publishing history and certainly the strangest in multiplayer gaming over the past few years evolved failures were unique and they were spectacular and today we're going to examine what happened to this game what killed this game so publicly and so rapidly and to do so we're gonna look at it from every perspective a development perspective the gameplay perspective and a publishing perspective to get a full picture as to how this game was killed.

But it gets started let's take a look at one of its most foundational issues you got you got my money huh oh yeah I'll pay you soon yeah well um here's a suggestion um have the money by tomorrow and there won't be any problems the first shot fired into the body of evolve is how to K managed to create a narrative surrounding a vault that was unique in all of the worst ways the game's approach to DLC to pre-ordering set this game off on the wrong foot and that's putting it lightly evolved was one of the first and the recent trend of releasing full price $60 experiences filled with free-to-play masa Nations but what made evolve unique is that it may have been the worst most abrasive form of these issues that we had seen yet in fact it was almost startling the anti-consumer it started with the pre-order bonuses that were unwieldy and confusing but essentially offered players access to certain characters and monsters in the beta and full release that non be order players wouldn't have so far so fair except for the fact that this game was a wholly new IP and it's pre-order campaign began before gameplay had even been shown in fact all that was available when the real marketing dollars got behind involved were a few screen grabs but still not too harmful to the gamer this is where things went off the rails evolved offered a season pass in addition to the base purchase this season pass is considered by some to be the first in gaming history to not offer even close to all the games future DLC in nearly none of its day one dlc not by a longshot and boy was there a lot of day 1 dlc 2k internal rock had held back almost half of the game's content after completing it to sell is day 1 dlc this was not a small amount of content it was a large amount of some of the most expensive DLC in console gaming history a single monster an essential playable character in the one before evolved cost $15 day one a single normal character a hunter costs $8 day one there was $60 worth of DLC available on launch day all completed all held back to extort more money out of you after your original $60 purchase that means it's a get the complete evolve experience at launch it would cost you 120 dollars and that didn't include the option to buy the Afro mansion season pass evolve was a mobile game you could play big screen there is no way around that unlike battlefront - or destiny changes were not made in response to the huge amount of backlash that 2k faced from gamers instead 2k proceeded on doing nothing but acknowledging that the problem existed in fact take - CEO had this to say about the fan outrage over the game they were publishing controversy generally speaking is a good thing all but spitting in the face of fans but this was far from the first pre and post release error that total rock and 2k made to sync this game from day one - can't manage to join the litany of publishers that lack real ability to markets their game [Music] evolve needed a clear and concise marketing plan why because the game was not your traditional easily understandable multiplayer shooter this was not skal of duty the game was not what some call a bro shooter unfortunately the game was marketed like one yes the market he had already bailed thanks to the teams focused on pushing its exorbitantly priced DLC but it went beyond that evolved at its core is a 1v4 strategy game it's not a hop in hop out 5 minute match mic off gameplay experience in fact evolved shares much more in common with something like a MOBA or an overwatch then it does a gritty esports shooter like cod the marketing failed to make any of that clear the marketing was abrasive in your face bro shooters speak it tried so hard to be the cool kid in class it even offered a PC monster race pre-order version of the game the team did everything they could to show that they were the best that they were doing things differently and in turn and trying to sell this game they made so many comparisons that led the consumer down the wrong path development videos will come out that would speak at length about how great the game would be but a Call of Duty player and here is an exact quote maybe you're the FPS guy and you have the best KD and you play Call of Duty you'd be a great monster in our game and then proceeding to continue to compare the game and the player base it was reaching out to to the traditional FPS player using Titan falls another example and even counter-strike and it's planting in defusing inspirations these are all incredibly poor comparisons made in an effort to sell a game to an audience that they hope wouldn't understand what evolve is and in truth it worked evolve had a one player counts for his first month that will consistently sit in the top 10 of Steve's most played and then one month later the game at peak times would sit at 500 concurrent players so what happened the marketing was disingenuous it was the weaving of a reality that didn't exist and once a Call of Duty player the titanfall player realized what evolved was they left and never looked back that's because of all does the bare minimum to define itself as an FPS in actuality the game is much more of a full-stop strategy experience it requires communication planning teamwork and quite a bit of skill to succeed within the game its roots lie much more in line with a MOBA the cod player that flies solo with their great Kady will not succeed without adapting the game should have been pushed to the strategy crowd the MOBA crowd the crowd that rainbow succeeds exists with it yet instead 2k went for the day $1 with her marketing with devspeak and push the game to a crowd that would not support a community for any real length of time but the problems found their way into the actual gameplay as well krusty-krab unfair short sweet and to the point Bob a bit Squidward spongebob it's unfair not funfair the concept of evolve on paper should be incredible if well executed for tooled up players track down a fit who controls the bad guy that's a terrifying monster that can level up and flip the table so the hunters become the hunted when the two come face to face is usually in abrupt showdown of traps mines fire power slam attacks and explosions if one of the hunters gets separated from his or her teammates its lights out at the monster gets trapped in the environment it quickly goes from terrifying to the poster and a firing range and yet the reality isn't nearly as exciting as all of that sounds playing as a monster lacks the feeling of true power and domination that a hulking brute should have there's not enough feedback haptic or otherwise striking physical blows against a hunter doesn't feel like you're connecting breathing fire is like blowing dust snot unleashes scorching death and as others like Matt Martin originally pointed out there's a lack of finesse to the monster controls that are important in the path to perfect your craft they barrel forward snarling and thumping and rage as they should be if you're playing a giant creature but there's little precision to your attacks part of the problem is playing from a third-person perspective where hunters are obscured by the monsters own body this leaves a player chasing a health bar instead of a small character on screen there's not a lot of excitement in thumping a block of a flashing color as a hunter you spend the majority of your time following big on-screen prompts the devs tried things like birds fleeing from trees in an attempt to give the hunters a good idea of the monsters recent position but in reality it's an effect that's too subtle Turtle Rock has to resort to showing a giant icon on-screen as well as the fluttering of wings undermining the feeling of really tracking your prey it may as well be a giant yellow arrow screaming here here is the monster and critics knew it in the game's critical response showed it these problems certainly don't break the experience but they do take some of the fun out of it but it wasn't all bad player movement does feel great and playing as a hunter and there is fun to be had when playing as a monster as well but this promise of hunter vs. hunting this pitch of tracking your prey feeling vulnerable all these things disappear as the immersion disappears this means that what you're left with once the spectacle of it all has worn off is a mix of MOBA and shooter with reasonable it certainly isn't bad but it isn't remarkable either and because of the nature of its asymmetric gameplay it had its fair share of very real balancing issues that made plain the games at times extremely unfair a fall would have had to be spectacular from launch to avoid falling victim to these next problems and it just wasn't this next issue exacerbated these realities that helped kill this game and it was a much more manageable and in turn mishandled piece of decision-making oh come on now look out for a brother man come on hey titties I want you let me get a sip of the pieces as previously mentioned the ball was filled with free to play mechanics that have made their home on the AppStore over the past couple of years this would have been a little less damming if it wasn't clear that 2k knew this from day one eighteen months after the launch of this game evolved went free-to-play on PCs only this coincided with gameplay changes that attempted to balance things out a little bit better and for those that pay for the game you would receive the founders status for then evolved as well as currency bonuses and cosmetic bonuses this was the right decision but it was a half-baked one that was far more of a step than a leap evolve died and died so publicly because of a publisher that refused to swallow its pride instead of making the one decision that could have saved the dying community of evolve the one move that could have changed the future in the fate of this game 2k outright refused to put their name or money on the line refused to allow a ball to be a strike on their reputation and in turn inadvertently ensured that evolved would act as that strike they did so by refusing to make the game free to play on all platforms we've seen a very similar reality from lawbreakers a game that had it gone free-to-play when it was clearer than the first month or so that the game was not going to sell could have turned itself around especially on consoles where free games thrive due to their larger and more aged diverse install base instead cliffy be a man of too many words in too much privado has continued to let the game to I out refusing to admit its failures and make the appropriate changes had evolved gone free-to-play everywhere it certainly would have maintained a different outlook in terms of its success the IP could have survived evolve as a game that you really need to play to understand play to get a feel for its idiosyncrasies and play to wrap your head around how poor the marketing comparisons really were evolve is a game that if you remove that initial barrier to entry its DLC at Scotty prices its pre-order bonuses lead the narrative far less and allow far more players to hop in and give the game a chance that's all it could have taken to turn evolved around and yet it's a reality that never manifested itself and instead the publishers willfully watched the game's community wane into non-existence maybe just maybe we should have seen this coming take him I couldn't have doors to my husband so to Rebecca Donaldson for $1,700 there were signs very early on that evolved might have a problem or soon the game hit very real development snafus the most obvious of which was its rapid shift from publisher to publisher evolve was being developed by the original creators of the immensely successful and great left4dead when they began to go around pitching the experienced publishers in an effort to obtain the funding necessary to create evolved they did so under the guise that evolve would essentially be an extension of the tank mode of left4dead this one sentence elevator pitch got publishers excited and THQ picked the game up and subsidized its development however around this time THQ was already treading water trying to stay afloat despite hemorrhaging money the publishers financial situation quickly took a steeper turn for the worse and they declared bankruptcy in 2000 12 years before evolved would finally his store shelves and it was at this time that the evolved IP went up for sale this is where things shifted from what could have been to what became the development team pulled together all the money they had in the bank and bid on their own project this would have given them back full control over the evolved IP unfortunately they were outbid the bitter to case parent company take-two interactive who would end up paying millions for the rights to the entirety of the evolved IP present and future 2k is a company that has spent the past half decade discovering new and even unique ways to monetize every inch of their releases regardless of genre regardless of game they've been quite successful in almost all of these endeavors GTA 5 online micro transactions have become one of gaming's most lucrative set of penny-pinching offerings NBA 2k 18 is so filled with micro transactions that you might actually forget this game cost you money out of pocket to begin with and this trend is only continued evolve became a victim of the greed of 2k there is a lot of talk about Valles behavior as a publisher about Valles behavior as a game maker one thing that left4dead lacked was shady and intrusive dlc practices money grabbing decisions and at any sort of affect on how you played the game whether it was day one or day 100 and because of this it's hard to argue that a lot of the blame for Oh balls failures shouldn't rest squarely on the shoulders of the publisher because we know how great the developers the talent behind evolve is we don't know is what evolved could have been in different.

Circumstances there was a lot of hope for evolve again it was coming from an incredibly talented group of creators who had brought one of multiplayers best games to gamers around the world but of all Sprague's were too much to overcome titanfall 2 was recently featured in this series it's the first time a game in this series could lay almost all of its faults outside of what the game actually offered once you got into a match this is not something that can be said for evolve evolve was mishandled from a marketing perspective a pricing perspective a publishing perspective and a gameplay perspective know one thing could have fixed what became of this experience no one change could have turn evolved into a raucous success but there is much that could have been done to ensure the IP the dev team had a future even after each struggles at launch so today my message goes to two sets of two very different people to the developers to Turtle Rock to the talent that cared about what evolve was you did not make a bad game you made a game that despite not being perfect deserved far better than the way it was treated by 2k you created a game that had it been nurtured by its publisher could be far more than the bargain bin title it is today if you take one thing from who evolve it should be that your talent warrants better than what a publisher like 2k offers and the 2k you continue to close Studios to squander opportunities thus our fans of long-standing franchises and you do so with a devil-may-care attitude with your CEO saying things like controversy is a good thing spitting in the face of thousands of rightfully upset consumers you are just as much a plague at this point as EA you are turning this medium into a cynical and scary place so be better and be better now well guys that was it for today's docket is always a sort of a dialogue what do you think will evolve what do you think its biggest problems were and what do you think it did well and what do you think of 2k what do you think of left 4 dead what do you think of all the things that surround it evolve and if of all were to have a future if it all were to have a sequel what would you want that to look like what would you want to see changed let me know the answers any of those questions down in the comments below let's have a real conversation and as always if you enjoyed this video hit that like button and if you are not yet a member this team press subscribe I put out gaming analysis examinations and essays just like this one two sometimes three times a week so it subscribes you to not miss any and as always I will link the patreon or my patreon to the top pin comment below its there we support the Shin Allah even further get some exclusive content every little bit helps I've also linked in that same pink comment my twitter handle follow me there to take daily polls to take polls as to what essays might be coming next what you want to see talked about and to get an idea of what I'm playing and how I feel about things that aren't necessarily in these essays so follow me on that Twitter handle I will start doing giveaways there just a heads up but yeah as always thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for the support thank you for talking about games with me thank you for watching these videos thank you for supporting this channel I still blows my mind that I get to do what I love every day and it blows my mind how great this community we've created is so seriously for the bottom of my heart thank you and as always even if you hate these videos thank you for watching thank you for giving me a chance and maybe in the future I'll put out something you do enjoy hopefully until next time guys I'm out you